Screenwriters Lab

    The Hamptons International Film Festival’s Screenwriters Lab, now in its 13th year, will take place this weekend at the c/o The Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton.

    Sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the workshop pairs established screenwriters, directors, and producers with those still emerging in the field for individualized mentoring sessions.

     Jamal Joseph, Lawrence Konner, Robert Siegel, and Susan Stover are this year’s mentors. Mr. Joseph is a professor and former chairman of Columbia University’s graduate film program. Mr. Konner is a screenwriter whose credits include “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire.” Mr. Siegel was the screenwriter for the film “The Wrestler” and is a director as well as former editor in chief of The Onion, the news satire publication.

    The screenplays they will work on include “Nancy,” a drama involving a serial imposter, by Christina Choe; “Phantom Limbs,” Michael Sladek’s adaptation of a novel by Timothy Schaffert; “Palimpsest,” about two damaged sisters seeking answers for the central mystery of their lives, by Ben Nabors and Michael Tyburski, and “Televisionaries,” a drama about the controversial birth of the medium by Evan Schwartz.

    Recent projects that emerged from the lab include “Short Term 12” by Destin Cretton, which won the audience and grand jury prize at last year’s South by Southwest Film Festival; “The Discoverers” by Justin Schwartz, which premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival and has shown at other festivals since; “Little Accidents” by Sara Colangelo, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and “Fort Bliss” by Claudia Myers, now in post-production.

    Readings of scenes from completed screenplays by established actors occur as regular events at the festival in October.