Clockwise from top left: Sontenish Myers, Melanie Schiele, Farida Zahran, Tamika Guishard and Dagny Atencio Looper.
Wscripted has unveiled its inaugural Cannes Screenplay List of scripts in the English language to option at Cannes, selecting projects from alumni Tamika R. Guishard, Dagny Atencio Looper, Sontenish Myers, Melanie Schiele, and Farida Zahran.
Rhythm in Blues by writer-director Tamika R. Guishard: Aging out of a broken system, three foster siblings’ paths from East New York—school, service, streets—are detoured when mothers reappear, forcing them to lean on African rhythms and heal their own wounds without benefits.
Sleeping with the Dead by writer-director Dagny Atencio Looper: A historical drama that centers on a young girl in the Ozarks in 1910 who has to choose between her rationalist father and a charismatic preacher predicting the apocalypse.
Stampede by writer-director Sontenish Myers: On a southern plantation in the 1800s, Lena is an eleven-year-old slave with telekinetic abilities she cannot control. Lena must keep her powers under wraps when she is separated from her mother to be a house girl, in close quarters with the volatile Master’s wife: Elizabeth.
Butterfly Children by writer-director Melanie Schiele: A furniture craftsman struggles to save his failing marriage and six-year-old daughter afflicted with a rare and debilitating disease, leaving her skin as fragile as a butterfly's wings.
The Leftover Ladies by writer-director Farida Zahran: A 63-year-old woman tries to leave her polygamist husband after he expresses a renewed commitment to their stale relationship.
Wscripted is the first online marketplace for sourcing and curating excellent work written by women and women-identifying writers in film TV, and publishing. The Inaugural List is designed to offer a resource for producers and executives to discover new female talent by highlighting excellent projects by international women writers during the Cannes Film Market. Its mission is to help speed up opportunities for female writers on the list and drive the development of female content.
Find the full list at Variety.