Screenwriting: Writing Your Second Act

David Schwab, is a screenwriter based in New York City. Since 2014, Mr. Schwab has been an adjunct professor of screen writing at the Graduate Film school at Columbia University. He has also taught at the French film program, La Femis.

Mr. Schwab received his MFA in Film from the Columbia University School of the Arts. His thesis script, Mr. Verner’s Pygmy, was purchased by Scott Rudin. Since then Mr. Schwab has written for, among others, Warner Brothers, Animal Logic, Hollywood Pictures, Propaganda, HD Net Films, and Paramount Pictures.

Mr. Schwab was the 2014 Sundance/Sloan Commissioning Grantee for his script, Francis Turnbull – which was also selected for the 2013 Hampton Film Festival writer’s lab. Francis Turnbull is being produced by Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Love and Mercy, Time Out of Mind) and Wren Arthur (Prairie Home Companion). Jennifer Fox (The Tale, Beirut: The Last Home Movie) will direct. Mr. Schwab recently completed Kaczynski a TV pilot about the Unabomber for SightUnseen pictures. Oren Moveman will direct.

Sushma Khadepaun is an Indian-born writer and director based in New York City. Her stories often explore themes of immigration, home, and identity. Sushma is an NYFA/NYSCA Screenwriting Fellow, was a Screenwriting Resident at Yaddo in 2024, a Fellow at the Film at Lincoln Center’s Artist Academy in 2023, and was listed as one of Filmmaker Magazine‘s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2021. Her films have screened at major film festivals including Venice, Stockholm, Atlanta, Dublin, POFF Tallinn Shorts, Palm Springs, and others. Her work has been featured on NPR, BOMB Magazine, Focus Features Digital, and Canal Plus, among others. Sushma is an alumna of the Film MFA program at Columbia University.

Along with her filmmaking practice, Sushma is an Assistant Professor in Film at Temple university. She has previously taught at Columbia. Barnard, VCU and the Sundance Collab.

Éva Gárdos is an award-winning film director and editor born in Hungary. Francis Ford Coppola gave Gardos her first job in film, working as a production assistant on APOCALYPSE NOW in the Philippines. She went on to establish a career as a film editor (VALLEY GIRL, MASK, BARFLY, BASTARD OF OUT CAROLINA), working with distinguished directors such as Barbet Schroeder, Peter Bogdanovich, and Anjelica Huston. 

Éva’s screenwriting and feature film directorial debut, AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY, starred a young Scarlett Johansson. The film won many prizes on the Festival Circuit and was released by Paramount Classics. The producer Andrew Vajna (RAMBO, TERMINATOR, PLATOON) was an Executive Producer on AMERICAN RHAPSODY. When he was appointed Minister of the Hungarian Film Fund she worked with him as his Creative Consultant rewriting scripts, working with directors and editors on their films.

After discovering the bestselling Hungarian novel, Budapest Noir, she developed and directed the film version, Set in 1936, when Hungary was on the verge of embracing facism, the film resonates the politics of today. It premiered at the Chicago Film Festival, and has played at many other festivals such as Palm Springs, Denver, Shanghai. It will be on VOD April of 2020.

Amongst her current projects, is CINDY IN IRAQ, inspired by the true life events of Cindy Morgan, a truck driver from Arkansas who, having fallen on hard times, left her home and children to work as a contractor for Halliburton during the height of the Iraqi war.

Éva has taught Thesis Film Editing and Directing at NYFA for 6 years and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Sundance Institute.