Screenwriting Level 1: Core Elements (Sept. 2019)

Christina Lazaridi is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and expert in dynamic story design. Projects she has authored, or actively developed have won awards at Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, Oberhousen, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sundance, SXSW, and the Ariels (Mexican Oscars), among many others. Her most recent feature film, ​Nobody’s Watching​, (co-written with director J. Solomonof) premiered in the International Competition section of the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the top acting award. Nobody’s Watching was released internationally to wide critical claim as well as in New York, where it was a New York Times critic’s pick and was nominated in six categories for the esteemed 2018 Latin American Silver Condor Awards, where Lazaridi and Solomonoff won the Condor Award for best original screenplay. 

Lazaridi was born in Greece where she grew up in the theater, surrounded by a household of politicians, refugees, and powerful performers. Her written work focuses on high emotional impact narratives of dislocation and survival and her performance-centered screenplays have consistently attracted major collaborators both domestically and abroad: Her first feature film ​Coming Up Roses ​(co-written with dir. L. Albright) starred Broadway icon Bernadette Peters and introduced Rachel Broshnahan. Her historical feature documentary ​Varian and Putzi: A 20th Century Tale​, directed by Academy Award winner Richard Kaplan, was released theatrically at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2017 Christina’s first produced screenplay in Greece, ​Rosa of Smyrna​, was a box office sensation surpassing all international sales. Her most recent feature script, ​Murina ​(co-authored with director A. Kusijanovic) will be co-produced by Martin Scorsese’s Sikelia Prods and RT Features in 2019. 

In 2008 Lazaridi joined the faculty at Princeton University, where she created and now runs the thriving screenwriting curriculum and screenwriting track for Princeton’s Creative Writing Program. Christina has also been part of the faculty at Columbia University’s Graduate film division for over a decade and she has extensively mentored international filmmakers through affiliations with major film festivals, writing programs, and production companies. Christina is a co-founding member and the core mentor of Cine Qua Non Labs in Mexico and currently holds the positions of director of studies at the Mediterranean Film Institute. Her three books on screenwriting methodology were commissioned and published by the Mediterranean Film Institute and European Union’s Creative Europe Program. 

After years of analysis of storytelling practices and their relation to audience response, Christina has recently partnered with Princeton's Neuroscience Institute and Uri Hasson’s Lab to investigate the representation of storytelling principles in the human brain. Their collaborative research has received the esteemed Magic Grant from the Humanities Council and their initial findings on the dynamic representation of storytelling in the human brain will be released in 2019. 

Peter Biegen is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, film maker and wanna-be alchemist. He co-wrote the screenplay THE LAST LULLABY (with Max Allan Collins) and wrote and directed the short film CEREMONIES OF THE HORSEMEN (starring Richard Schiff and Josh Zuckerman). The short was selected to be part of the permanent archive at the Visual Center of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He adapted the Spanish film TODAS LAS MUJERES with acclaimed writer/director Rodrigo Garcia (NINE LIVES/ALBERT NOBBS) to direct. Peter is a Fellow from the inaugural Episodic Lab at the Sundance Institute. His television credits include the series adaptation of THE MIST (Dimension Films), FOUR EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN (Lifetime), and is the creator of a new series for ABC-Signature based on his Sundance developed pilot SMALL CHANGE. He’s currently developing another original television series based in Morocco with Producer Bob Cooper and Academy Award winning director James Marsh.

Writer/Director Peter Livolsi is an alum of Loyola Marymount University, the American Film Institute, and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. His film The House of Tomorrow starring Academy Award-Winner Ellen Burstyn, Nick Offerman, Asa Butterfield, Alex Wolff, Maude Apatow, and Michaela Watkins was released theatrically in 2018. It received praise from Entertainment Weekly, the Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, RogerEbert.com, Variety, and the Village Voice, among others.

His shorts have been featured in Esquire, The Onion, IndieWire, and Vimeo Staff Picks and played festivals like Tribeca, Austin, and BFI London. His AFI thesis Duncan Removed was shortlisted for the Student Academy Awards and won a Student Emmy.

Peter also co-directs commercials with his friend Martin Dix as "Peter Martin", creating award-winning spots for AT&T, VISA, McDonald’s, FedEx, ESPN, and more. 

Jonathan Wysocki grew up in the theatre, his experiences spanning from Europe to Africa. He worked as a feature programmer for the LA Film Festival, for major studios such as MGM and ABC, and as an independent producer on features like ​The Hammer​ and ​Thrasher Road​. As a writer/director, Wysocki has completed five award-winning short films. His latest short, ​A Doll’s Eyes​, screened on six continents and was translated into many languages. Wysocki’s feature screenplay All Fall Down was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs, where it won the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship as well as two Annenberg Grants. Wysocki is a Project: Involve Fellow at Film Independent, an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Campus, and a lecturer at Chapman University and Cal State Long Beach.