Screenwriters, take note! Barry Jenkins, the director behind Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk (and the Game-Changer Award recipient for S&A’s 2019 RISING Awards), is now on the search for the next big screenwriter from the African diaspora.

Jenkins and Indie Memphis have created the Memphis Black Filmmaker Residency for Screenwriting, a new program geared toward Black screenwriters. The residency is open to those who live outside of Memphis.

According to No Film School, Indie Memphis describes the residency as a way to “provide [an] opportunity for under-represented artists in filmmaking to develop bold storytelling to ultimately be filmed in the Memphis-area.” The residency will support “one narrative feature film project and priority will be given to the story deemed most original, daring, intelligent, emotionally resonant and realistic to produce.”

The winner of the residency will receive a bevy of financial and advisory support from Indie Memphis and other filmmakers in the area. The perks include: housing in Midtown Memphis near the Indie Memphis office, $7,500 of unrestricted cash to go toward the film or to supplement food costs and time away from work, travel accommodations, meetings with advisors and filmmakers with experience shooting in Memphis, visits to Memphis’ cultural sites and support from the Memphis & Shelby County Film/TV Commission.

For more information and to learn how to apply, visit Indie Memphis.

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