Directing: Workshopping Your Feature (Oct. 2020)

BREAKABLE YOU, starring Holly Hunter, Tony Shalhoub, Alfred Molina, Cristin Milioti and Omar Metwally, is writer/director Andrew Wagner’s third feature film. It had its World Premiere at the 2017 Palm Springs International Film Festival and screened in the Film Independent Series at the LACMA, curated by Elvis Mitchell. BREAKABLE YOU was released by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in March 2018 and is currently streaming on Hulu.

Andrew’s second feature, STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING, starring Frank Langella, Lili Taylor, and Lauren Ambrose, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions. Frank Langella was voted Best Actor of 2007 by the Boston Critics Association and was Runner-Up for Best Actor in voting by critics associations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas/Ft. Worth. STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of 2007 by the National Board of Review and made over 30 critics’ Best Films of 2007 lists, including A.O. Scott’s and Stephen Holden’s of the NEW YORK TIME, and Roger Ebert’s of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. It was nominated for two Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead and Best Screenplay.

Andrew’s first feature, THE TALENT GIVEN US, was an Official Selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. THE TALENT GIVEN US also won the Jury Prize at the CineVegas Film Festival and Best First Feature at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. It went on to play theatrically in over 30 cities and made the NEW YORK TIMES' and other critics’ Best Films of 2005 lists. Andrew was a Breakthrough Director nominee at the 2005 Gotham Awards.

Andrew majored in Creative Writing at Brown University. He attended NYU’s Graduate Film School where his short, THE HARDEST HIT, won the Francois de Menil Scholarship. He moved to Los Angeles to write WACCABUC, a screenplay for United Artists and director Mark Rydell, and then became a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute where he received a Masters in Fine Arts and his thesis film, THE LAST DAYS OF HOPE AND TIME, won the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellowship for Excellence in Directing. Andrew went on to develop his adaptation of THE MAN WHO GAVE UP HIS NAME -- from the collection of novellas, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, by Jim Harrison -- at the Sundance Writer’s Lab. Andrew was the cinematographer on Julie Delpy’s feature, LOOKING FOR JIMMY.

Andrew is a Senior Lecturer & Thesis Development/Directing Mentor at the American Film Institute.

Harrison James studied directing at Boston University where she received the Dean’s Grant for Filmmaking. She then attended the American Film Institute Conservatory as both a Screenwriting and Directing Fellow. Her screenplay STILL LIFE was a finalist for the Sundance Lab. She is currently writing and directing VENICE BEACH CC, a series, and SHOOTING STAR, a feature about a Marine who comes home from Afghanistan and re-enters his life, changed. She recently directed stage productions of COWBOY MOUTH, SAVAGE LOVE, and FOOL FOR LOVE, all written by Sam Shepard. Harrison is a working writer for producers such as Heather Graham, and directors such as Julian Goldberger, Autumn DeWilde, and Melodie McDaniel. Her spots for Spies Travel were directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and won the Bronze Lion at Cannes. Harrison co-founded Girl Trip, a production company, panel series and festival to advance emerging femme identifying filmmakers. She is on the Directing faculty at the American Film Institute Conservatory, and is thrilled to be a new Advisor at Sundance Co//ab. Devoted to being an actor’s director, she currently studies with Nancy Banks. Harrison lives and works in Los Angeles, and is represented by Anonymous Content.

Asher Jelinsky is a Los Angeles based director and writer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their perspective as a nonbinary filmmaker fuels a passion for character-driven stories about outsiders and the resilient quest for connection. Asher's short film MILLER & SON was shortlisted for the 92nd Academy Awards and won the gold medal Student Academy Award, the BAFTA Student Film Award, and the Cannes Lions Young Director Award. Overall, Asher’s shorts have garnered awards and nominations at over 70 film festivals around the world including Clermont-Ferrand, BFI London, Ashland, and Seattle. 

Currently, Asher is developing their debut feature, JULIAN, which received support from the SFFILM Rainin Grant, the California Arts Council Fellowship, and the Cine Qua Non Lab. They earned an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute, and received the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award for Directing, presented by AFI Fest. They also hold a BA with honors in Media Studies and Public Health from Pitzer College. In addition to their professional practice, Asher often mentors filmmakers at Sundance Collab and Temple University.