Unproduced Screenplays About Female Leads – The Hollywood Reporter
Lars Nikki/Getty Images at the Athens Film Awards
The Athens Film Festival has announced the finalists for its 2024 Athena List, a selection inspired by the festival’s blacklist of unproduced screenplays focusing on female leadership.
Notable projects featured in previous editions of Athena’s slate, part of the Barnard-based festival, include the biopic Ruth Bader Ginsburg On the basis of genderChinoni Chukwu CompassionateSundance 2024 is headed Out of my mind by On the basis of gender Writer Daniel Stapleman and Patricia Clarkson star Layla About Lily Ledbetter and her fight for fair pay.
This year’s finalists are 7 out of 10 By Samantha Lavin, A bridge between us Written by Gina Hackett, I don’t dream in Spanish anymore By Missy Hernandez, Keisha goes to camp Written by Rebecca Jordan Smith, Liars By Alicia Luzon-Heisler, Pendulum woman Written by Katherine Hayes I got drunk! By Gabriela Garcia Medina.
7 out of 10 It focuses on a former WNBA player who was sentenced to seven years in prison for vehicular manslaughter while drunk and confronts her past on and off the court.
A bridge between usBased on a true story, the film follows the wife of the Brooklyn Bridge’s chief engineer who reluctantly takes over his role, becoming the world’s first female engineer, when he is paralyzed while building the bridge.
I’m not dreaming In Spanish anymore The film revolves around a scientist who needs to return to her roots to escape an ancestral curse that threatens her and her unborn child.
Keisha goes to camp It follows a nerdy black teenager who is sent to an outdoor summer camp where the bookish, introverted girl faces the challenges of nature, rivals, and the opposite sex.
Liars It’s a thriller about an outsider in Silicon Valley, where a brilliant neuroscientist whose work is under-recognised is drawn into mystery after she’s hired to use artificial intelligence lie-detection technology to examine sexual misconduct accusations against a top tech executive.
Pendulum woman The film follows Edith Wharton, a recently divorced and well-connected writer who decides to stay in Paris at the beginning of World War I to fight for France.
I got drunk! The film is about a teenage girl with muscular dystrophy who is accepted into Harvard University but can’t afford to go, so she gathers a group of frenemies from high school to pull off a car theft during Art Basel in Miami.
“As the Athens slate enters its ninth year, we are proud to announce the 2024 finalists and look forward to recognizing them at our festival next month,” Melissa Silverstein, artistic director of the Athens Film Festival, said in a statement. “These texts include an impressive diversity of topics and genres, and we are excited to follow the paths of these projects given this initiative’s successful track record.”
Since its launch in 2014, Athena’s List has received more than 1,500 entries and more than 70 winners and finalists have been named. Additionally, more than $70,000 in grants were awarded to Athena List winners and finalists through the Alfred P. Sloan Athena List Development Grant and the Disney Athena List Development Grant.
The Athena Slate winners will be announced during the 2024 Athens Film Festival, which is scheduled to run from February 19 to March 3 at Barnard College in New York.
