Film alum Emily Everhard '24 was selected as one of eight 2025 WGA East X FilmNation Screenwriting Fellows. The New York Screenwriting Fellowship aims to support early career screenwriters from underrepresented backgrounds in the New York City area, and connects the fellows with acclaimed mentors on both the creative and business sides of the industry.
During the year-long program, Everhard will join her cohort in seminars, receptions and other networking opportunities, as well as develop her screenplay, Special Delivery. The fellowship will culminate with a table reading of the feature.
Special Delivery follows a foley artist for pornography and an aspiring porn star as they investigate an adult film actress's disappearance using only auditory clues in the underbelly of Atlantic City. Everhard began writing Special Delivery as her D4 Project while studying screenwriting and directing at Columbia.
"The fellowship will help me develop the screenplay by providing one-on-one mentorship, round table workshops with industry professionals programmed by the WGA East and FilmNation, and a writer's group with other fellows," Everhard said. "It's been an amazing experience so far and really exciting to expand my work that I began in Columbia classrooms!"
The fellowship runs from June through October. The star-studded list of mentors include several Academy Award-winning and -nominated screenwriters and directors, the first woman to ever direct a blockbuster earning over $1 billion and an acclaimed Netflix showrunner.
“We congratulate the gifted writers accepted into this year’s New York Screenwriting Fellowship,” WGAE President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen told Deadline. “The Writers Guild of America East is so grateful to have a partner in FilmNation, which—along with all the writing and executive mentors—shares our commitment to lifting up underrepresented voices in film.”
Emily Everhard is a queer filmmaker who tells stories about femme underdogs and outsiders. She was a 2024 Sundance Fellow and Enderby Entertainment Filmmaking Fellow. Her films have played and won awards at festivals including Aspen ShortsFest, Palm Springs Shortfest and Austin Film Festival. Her work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sundance Institute and Catwalk Institute.
