David Schwab
David Schwab, a screenwriter based in New York City, received an MFA in Film from 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 at the 2013 Hampton Film Festival writer’s lab. Francis Turnbull is being directed by Jennifer Fox (The Tale) and produced by Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Love and Mercy, Time Out of Mind) and Wren Arthur (Prairie Home Companion). Mr. Schwab recently completed Kaczynski, A TV pilot about the Unabomber for Sight Unseen Pictures. Oren Moverman will direct. Mr. Schwab has been an adjunct professor of screen writing at the Graduate Film School at Columbia University since 2014. He has also taught at La Femis, the French State Film School, and at Sundance Collab.
Two feature projects from Columbia University filmmakers were chosen to participate in the Fiction Track for Film Independent’s 2021 Fast Track Program. They are: Alien Kulture, written by Iesh Thapar '17 and produced by Sarah Seulki Oh '15, and The Mesopotamian, written and directed by Esra Saydam '11 and produced by Gerry Kim '11 and Alvaro Valente '14.