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Articles
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Top Reads Spring 2025

The ISA Top Reads list for Spring 2025 has been announced! The writers' projects have been evaluated by multiple ISA readers, advancing through multiple stages of the Writing Gig consideration process, contests, and fellowship applications.After being heavily considered for our gig mandates and other submissions, these writers a...
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Creative Screenwriting
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What Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof Endured for “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig"

The international film landscape is essential in shaping a global approach to cinema. Oftentimes, it isn’t simply the types of stories or the way they are told by specific voices that excite audiences, but also the way in which they were made.Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is astonishing in its raw truthfulness, ...
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Magazine
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The Facets of Tribalism: A Conversation with ‘Opus’ Writer-Director Ma...

  • Sadie Dean
  • .March 14, 2025
Mark Anthony Green discusses his approach to filmmaking, focusing on thematic anchors, like tribalism and character development, particularly Ariel’s character. As well as his overall mission to engage with audiences, his dream collaboration with music artists Nile Rodgers and The-Dream and praises his crew for giving it their a...
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Moviemaker
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12 Shameless TV Shows That Don’t Care If You’re Offended

  • Deirdre McCarrick
  • .April 28, 2025
These shameless TV shows just don't care if you're offended. It's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. FX - Credit: FXThis pretty-much always funny FX series about the idiot proprietors of a very unhygienic Irish pub has covered a gamut of topics that make people uncomfortable, from race to abuse to rel...
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Film Inquiry
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ISA TOP 25 SCREENWRITERS TO WATCH Interview With Adam Karlson

Each year, The International Screenwriters’ Association compiles a list of the 25 screenwriters to watch. This year, Film Inquiry is here to guide you through the incredible list of gifted individuals! Our next writer is Adam Karlson. Film Inquiry spoke with Adam about his writing process, the details of his script Choke, tips f...
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The Wrap
TheWrap
TheWrap

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Drops Apocalypse Pros Maggie and Negan ‘Bac...

  • Kayla Cobb
  • .May 05, 2025
Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Walking Dead: Dead City” Season 2, Episode 1After a combined 18 seasons in “The Walking Dead” universe, Scott M. Gimple considers Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to be zombie-bashing pros. That’s why it’s been so thrilling to force these two characters to return ...
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ISA ARTICLES

The Relentless Road to “Back to the Future”

There’s one trait every successful screenwriter must have, and it’s not just talent. It’s not even just hard work. It’s persistence. Grit. The ability to keep pushing forward when every door slams shut in your face. I was thinking last night about how to talk to emerging screenwriters about the necessity of more than just hard w...
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ISA ARTICLES

‘Yes, And’-ing Your Story Into Existence: The Sixth Sense Edition

Let’s do some more “Yes, and’ing” of movie stories, shall we? This time, I’ve looked at a screenplay that I originally covered on the job as a professional Reader, then watched it sell in a huge $3+ million deal for M. Night Shyamalan to write and direct the film that not only went on to become a huge hit, but at the time it bec...
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ISA ARTICLES

‘Yes, And’-ing Your Story Into Existence: The Hunger Games Edition

When watching a movie or TV show, I’m always thinking about how and why a story works, and how and why the writer made those particular story choices. I’m also intrigued by how the concept began. How small was the kernel of the idea when they began to formulate the story and how did they go about expanding on the original premis...
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ISA ARTICLES

The Art of Selling Without Selling Your Soul

Today is all about pitching. I worked with one of my coaching clients last week and he needed help with his pitch. It prompted me to really dive in and get into the nitty-gritty of how a pitch should be written and developed. You’ll notice that the process of developing a pitch is quite similar to the process of developing a sto...
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CS MAGAZINE

What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 2)

ArchetypesParents (good and bad), teachers (good and bad), friends, teammates, and classmates (good and bad), and siblings all form the basis of an archetypal character set.In The Edge of Seventeen:Nadine’s mother: a bit unraveled and trying to cope with her own life as well as her two children. Nadine’s father is dead and that’...
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CS MAGAZINE

What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 1)

High school movies span decades. There are thousands covering most of film and TV history. This is mainly for one reason: the themes in them are universal.The stories of high school are the stories of life. Of joy, sadness, yearning, accomplishment, and all things in-between.On The Edge of Seventeen is a prime example of the com...
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CS MAGAZINE

6 Helpful Things To Consider To Make An Impactful Short Film

Short films have been an effective way for many screenwriters to showcase their storytelling skills. They can be shown at film festivals, industry screenings and events, and online to help promote your screenwriting career.Here are some pointers that screenwriters might consider when writing a short film script:1) Make It ShortA...
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CS MAGAZINE

Halina Reijn Wrestles With Control In Erotic Thriller “Babygirl”

Erotic thrillers are back.In an electric explosion of passion, sexuality, and gender dynamics, Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn (Red Light, Bodies Bodies Bodies) tracks two super-charged and vulnerable characters Romy (Nicole Kidman) and Samuel (Harris Dickinson) who break most corporate and relationship norms when CEO Romy and her ...
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SCRIPT MAGAZINE

Interview with Director Catherine Gund about Her New Film 'Meanwhile'

  • Susan Kouguell
  • . March 13, 2025
In this wide-ranging interview, Susan Kouguell discusses with filmmaker Catherine Gund their respective work and shared artistic sensibilities in terms of employing nontraditional filmmaking structures, the inclusion of poetry in film, tackling challenging subject matter, and how to make it the most honest. It was a pleasure to ...
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SCRIPT MAGAZINE

What Happens in the Field, Stays in the Field: David Koepp Discusses His New Thriller 'Black Bag'

  • Andrew Bloomenthal
  • . March 12, 2025
David Koepp talks about penning this crackling thriller, writing on spec, and utilizing a MacGuffin that’s simple and powerful. Espionage films are notoriously delicious. Black Bag--the new spy thriller written by David Koepp, is no exception. In this taut tale of British intrigue, National Cyber Security Centre agent George Woo...
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SCRIPT MAGAZINE

Make Your Script's Opening Pages Stand Out

  • Script Magazine
  • . March 11, 2025
This live webinar will explore why these pages matter so much, and how you can entice a reader to stay with your script.The opening pages of a script matter far more than you think. They are the chance a busy Literary Manager/Agent/Producer/Actor gives you to impress them with your command of craft, story and above all, characte...
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SCRIPT MAGAZINE

Writing the Sci-Fi Screenplay

  • The Writers Store
  • . March 11, 2025
When writing the Sci-Fi script, audiences are looking for entertaining stories with interesting, developed characters that take them out of this world and into another. The Writer’s Store staff created this bundle of ten products to help Sci-Fi writers take their script to the next level and get it sold. With examples from block...
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MOVIEMAKER

Why Yoda Talks Backwards George Lucas Explains

  • Tim Molloy
  • . April 28, 2025
Revealed, it finally is: George Lucas has explained why Yoda talks backwards.Yoda, the withered Jedi master who teaches Luke Skywalker the ways of the Force in 1980's Star Wars: Episode IV — The Empire Strikes Back, provides a bounty of endlessly quoted wisdom, including when he tells Luke (Mark Hamill): "When 900 years old, you...
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MOVIEMAKER

Anchorage International Film Festival to Celebrate 25th Anniversary With Glacier Hike and More

  • Tim Molloy
  • . April 28, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCO06rTKDcUThe Anchorage International Film Festival announced that it will celebrate its 25th anniversary edition this year with a glacier hike for filmmakers, a Northern Lights bonfire, and several new awards categories — including one for shorts shot on an iPhone.“This isn’t just a festival — i...
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MOVIEMAKER

11 Most Nightmare-Inducing Horror Movie Villains

  • Margeaux Sippell
  • . April 28, 2025
If you need a really good scare, here are the 11 most nightmare-inducing horror movie villains we can think of. Warning: Spoilers follow.Jigsaw in Saw (2004)Lionsgate - Credit: C/OThe Jigsaw Killer, also known as John Kramer, is one of the most nightmare-inducing villains because of how sadistic his crimes are. Kramer became a s...
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MOVIEMAKER

The 13 Least Scary Horror Movie Villains

  • Margeaux Sippell
  • . April 29, 2025
These horror movie villains don't pack much of a punch. Honestly, we're surprised they can even hurt a fly, let alone people. Here are the 13 weakest, most pathetic horror movie villains we can think of. Spoilers follow.The Snowman in Jack Frost (1997)A still from Jack Frost, A-Pix Entertainment - Credit: C/OIn this 1997 straigh...
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FILM INQUIRY

Glasgow Film Festival 2024: THE G

There seems no end to the vulturous nature of late-stage capitalism. Just when it seems every crevice of society has been mined for content, a fresh new subject crops up waiting to be explored. In this wintery cold noir from Karl R. Hearne, the subject is elder care facilities and the way they’re used to exploit the elderly and ...
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FILM INQUIRY

SKIN DEEP: A Body Swap Romance Exploring The Modern “Self”

Skin Deep opens as a disoriented man totters through a bedroom. There’s a catatonic figure lying in the bed nearby as light streams through the window. His befuddlement is ours as well. It sets a perturbing mood against the Gregorian undertones of the music. There’s something strikingly beautiful in another subsequent image: a y...
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FILM INQUIRY

Scream Dreams Podcast Interview

In the world of horror podcasts, some can be a nightmare. Or, in the case of Scream Dreams, AMP’s podcast, the horrors are actual nightmares, as the podcast dives into them in a compelling and unique fashion. With a myriad of guests from within the horror genre, co-hosts Catherine Corcoran and James A Janisse interview and get i...
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FILM INQUIRY

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR: A Lightning In A Bottle Cultural Phenomenon

In her ongoing quest for world domination, Taylor Swift made a quick detour at the gates of cinema last year with her uniquely marketed concert film. Being released in tandem with her ongoing Eras Tour, which the film documents, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was a box office juggernaut that defied expectations. And while the film ...
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THE WRAP

Where to Watch ‘Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain’: Is the New Series Streaming?

  • Andi Ortiz
  • . May 05, 2025
If you’re looking to escape to a new country, but can’t actually get there, we’ve got some good news for you. You can go to Spain.Not literally, of course. Just by means of “Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain,” a new series on CNN following the success of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.” In this version, fans are able to fol...
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THE WRAP

Donald Trump Vows 100% Tariff on All Movies Made Outside the US: ‘A National Security Threat’

  • Stephanie Kaloi, Adam Chitwood
  • . May 04, 2025
Donald Trump on Sunday said he will impose a 100% tariff on “any and all” films made outside the United States.“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” the president wrote on Truth Social Sunday...

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