THE PURPLE LIST 2025
Inspired by the Hollywood Black List, NYU Grad Film presents The Purple List: the top production ready feature screenplays written by students or recent alums of the Grad Film Program.
As determined by our faculty and voted on by an outside panel of industry professionals.
Purple List coordinator 2025: Cassidy Batiz
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HOW I LEARNED TO DIE by Manya Glassman
COMING-OF-AGE COMEDY/DRAMA
16-year-old Iris finds out she has a 60% chance of dying; she’s gotta live it up. Chasing a wild bucket-list, she makes unexpected discoveries along the way.
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MANDINGO by Terrance Daye
FAMILY DRAMA
Nearly a decade after a public scandal tears his family apart, former State Championship athlete, Jafari Parks, returns to the sleepy Long Island suburbs of his childhood, dreaming of wrestling again. Together he and his family must suture old wounds from a life they’ve all outgrown, a future that remains uncertain and a past that haunts them all.
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PUNTER by Jason Adam Maselle
THRILLER/COMING-OF-AGE/DRAMA
On his 14th birthday, Brett and his grifter father Harris must survive a day of chaos and deadly odds traversing Johannesburg’s gambling underworld in order to hit one final horse racing bet that will save their family’s life.
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SWEETWATER by Cassidy Batiz
DRAMA
A rural Texas teen’s last summer in her hometown is upended when she suspects she’s been assaulted at a friend’s ranch party. As the daughter of a retired rodeo star, she must decide whether to pursue justice at the cost of being ostracized by her beloved community.
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