Naomi Foner has spent her career as a screenwriter exploring the exquisite complications of family. She was nominated for an Academy Award and received the PEN West and Golden Globe Awards for her original screenplay RUNNING ON EMPTY, starring River Phoenix and directed by Sidney Lumet.
She also wrote and produced A DANGEROUS WOMAN, LOSING ISAIAH, and BEE SEASON. VERY GOOD GIRLS, which she both wrote and directed, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, starred Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen, and was distributed by Tribeca Films. She is currently working on an adaptation of Kathy Hepinstall’s novel THE BOOK OF POLLY for Amazon and developing a sequel to RUNNING ON EMPTY with the original producers Amy Robinson and Griffin Dunne as well as Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa.
She has taught screenwriting at Columbia Film School, NYU, USC and UCLA, as well as at Sundance Screenwriting Labs, both in the US and abroad.
Naomi began her career as a producer for the Children’s Television Workshop, and was involved with the development of both SESAME STREET and THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, as well as the PBS drama series THE BEST OF FAMILIES.
She has served on the Executive Committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as co-chair of the USC Scripter Awards, as a member of the Nichols Fellowship selection committee, and she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America.
She has an ongoing commitment to progressive politics, has been on the board of 826LA, and is an active supporter of the ACLU.
She is most proud of her children, her grandgirls and the Blue Ribbon she earned for her carrots at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair.
Sundance Advisor //