MPI is excited to announce our featured panel discussion at the upcoming Writers Guild Festival—WGFestival 2020: The One That Was Virtual—on Friday, November 20 at 1:00 p.m. (PST). This premier event combines workshops and panels focused on the craft and business of writing for the screen, and it is run by The Writers Guild Foundation in partnership with the Education and Nicholl Fellowship Programs of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

The MPI-led panel “Landing the First Feature: How Shorts Can Lead to Opportunities with the Moving Picture Institute” will feature MPI filmmakers Austin and Meredith Bragg, the award-winning writing and directing duo behind the MPI Original Films A Piece of Cake and Pinball; writer and director Minhal Baig (Hala); and award-winning writer and director Channing Godfrey Peoples (Miss Juneteenth). MPI’s senior vice president Lana Link will moderate the panel.

This is MPI’s third year participating in the WGFestival. In 2019, MPI’s panel took a practical approach to the screenwriting business with “Indie-IY: Finding Financing for Your Film,” featuring Sev Ohanian and Aneesh Chaganty—the filmmaking duo behind the hit film Searching—and Alex Saks, the principal at Page Fifty-Four Pictures who is known for her work on prestigious indies such as The Florida Project. And in 2018, MPI hosted a masterclass panel with Craig Borten, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Dallas Buyers Club, on “Writing Films for Social Impact.” 

Our 2020 panel focuses on how short films can serve as a proof of concepts, or “calling card,” for larger projects and gain exposure for filmmakers to land their first feature. The panel of distinguished filmmakers will discuss the process of developing, producing, and releasing a short film and how it can pave the way to future opportunities.

Click here to learn more and purchase your festival pass. The festival is open to the public.