From left to right: Lakshmi Simhan, Laurel Parmet and David Moragas
Grad Film faculty and an outside panel of industry professionals have selected their picks for The Purple List 2019, a Black List-inspired collection of production ready screenplays written by current Grad Film students and recent alumni.
Check out the three screenplays honored this year:
Dry Summer by Lakshmi Simhan
Dry Summer follows an Indian teenager that moves to the Columbia River Gorge and falls in with a group of Ukrainian teenagers. As her parents’ marriage disintegrates, she’s caught up in a world of guns, religion and mounting acts of petty violence. Simhan's time living in Portland, Oregon helped develop elements of the screenplay, as she claims that "it was this pressing feeling of xenophobia in a place that claimed to be inclusive and enlightened that inspired me." Dry Summer was also a 2018 Sundance Labs semifinalist, and Simhan is currently developing a TV series with Avi Korine (Mister Lonely, The Double).
The Starling Girl by Laurel Parmet
The Starling Girl is a drama that depicts a 16-year-old girl who has an affair with her pastor in a patriarchal Christian community in rural Oklahoma. The script explores sexual abuse and power dynamics, and Parmet adds that, "with everything in our world today—#MeToo, church abuse scandals, religious extremism wielding huge power—I feel that now is the right time to make this film." Parmet is a 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive fellow, and has written and directed several award-winning short films, with the latest, "KIRA BURNING," having premiered at SXSW in 2018.
Two Sisters by David Moragas
Two Sisters follows three siblings that struggle to navigate their everyday problems over the course of one summer in New York, six years after their mother dies. The story, which navigates challenges with sexual awakening, claustrophobia and the complications of familial bonds, "is an ode to forgiving ourselves and trying our very best despite the many challenges that life surprises us with," Moragas said. Moragas' work has been screened in multiple international film festivals, including the D’A Film Festival and the Inside Out Toronto Film Festival.
This year's Purple List judges include producers, screenwriters and casting directors from A24, Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics and the Sundance Institute. Past Purple List winners include alum Chloe Zhao's Songs My Brothers Taught Me and Desiree Akhavan's Appropriate Behavior, both of which have been made into feature films with theatrical releases.
Read more about The Purple List 2019 in The Hollywood Reporter.