Get those applications in for South Shorts folks - the deadline is fast approaching! This annual mentorship programme that supports new and emerging screenwriters from the South Auckland community to develop their short film scripts. Participants are led through focused script development over a six-month period under the guidance of experienced screenwriting mentor Briar Grace-Smith (Rūrangi, Cousins, Waru). This initiative is intended for people who either live in South Auckland or are connected to the South Auckland community - maybe you grew up there, have whānau there, have worked there for years or feel connected to the community in some way.
Participants attend a series of one-day hubs and receive mentorship throughout. The hub days involve script read-throughs, writing exercises and hearing from guest speakers about their experiences making films. Each participant will also have individual online script sessions and leave the programme with a completed short film script and practical tools to develop their own work.
No experience in scriptwriting is necessary! Applicants should have a passion for storytelling, and have at least one short film concept that they want to develop.
To apply you will need to submit:
- Short Biography (300-word limit)
- Why would this programme be valuable to you (300-word limit)
- Synopsis of your short film idea (600-word limit)*
- Script or written document for your short film idea (optional)*
*Applicants need to submit at least one short film concept and it can be at any stage - it may simply be a new idea (synopsis) that the writer is pursuing for the first time, or the writer may have already written multiple drafts. Applicants can submit more than one short film idea in their application.