The Blue List Winners 2019

Celebrating its sixth year of connecting talented alumni with the film industry, the Columbia Blue List represents the finest unproduced screenplays and television pilots written by recent graduates of theColumbia University School of the Arts graduate Film Program.

2019 Blue List winners

The 2019 Blue List

ScapegoatElizabeth Agate ’14
Personal DemonsBrendon Bouzard ’15
From the Dust of this EarthMichael Craft ’17
Tulpa, OklahomaMatthew Fennell ’18
AsylumEllie Foumbi ’17
Inherited (formerly Wela Amalia), Missy Hernandez ’17
Mr. PinkAlexandre Ilic ’18
La Ofensa/The Offense (formerly Intemperie), Ferran De Mendoza Soler ’14 & Javier Gonzalez ’15

The 2019 Industry Panel

Ben O'Dell / Producer (How to Be a Latin Lover)
Darin Friedman / Producer (Paper Man)
Brad Petrigala / Producer (Sorry for Your Loss)
Jorge Alfaro / Producer (Sereno)
Jenette Kahn / Producer (Gran Torino)
Lawrence Mattis / Producer (Mr. Right)
Alexandra Milchan / Producer (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Scott Lambert / Producer (Paranoia)
Lindsey Tolbert / Development Executive (eOne

"I have been consistently surprised at the high level of writing that I have judged the past two years. I have been on the Nicholl Fellowships committee of the Motion Picture Academy to judge scripts and I can say that the Blue List entries I have read are in a class with the best Academy scripts."

Jonathan Sanger, Film Producer and returning Blue List industry judge
Headshot of Elizabeth Agate

Scapegoat (Teleplay)
by Elizabeth Agate ’14

Currently Agate works for a food and beverage branding agency, as well as a freelance writer for websites. Her latest script Scapegoat is undergoing yet another transformation as a half-hour animated series, geared towards adults.

Headshot of Brendon Bouzard

Personal Demons (Teleplay)
by Brendon Bouzard ’15

Brendon Bouzard lived in the scary house at the end of the street. He received an MFA from Columbia University where his 1960s teen mystery feature-length script Violet received Faculty Honors at the Columbia University Film Festival. His neo-noir feature Pixie is currently in development at Corporate Witchcraft.

Headshot of Michael Craft

From the Dust of this Earth (Screenplay)
by Michael Craft ’17

Michael Craft is an Australian filmmaker whose passion for cinema relocated him to New York City where he teaches film and works freelance as a writer, director and editor. His work has played at festivals around the world and his feature film Storage was distributed by IFC in the US and by HBO in Eastern Europe and Anchor Bay in Australia.

Headshot of Matthew Fennell

Tulpa, Oklahoma (Teleplay)
by Matthew Fennell ’18

Matt Fennell is a New York based screenwriter who most recently worked on the Showtime program Billions. After directing and writing numerous award winning shorts and a feature, Matt moved to New York City, where he completed an MFA in screenwriting at Columbia. While pursuing his graduate degree, Matt also served as Writers' Assistant for Billions, and eventually, as a Staff Writer for Season 4. Matt is also one of four writers, recommended and selected, for the 2019 Screenwriters Colony Episodic Drama Residency.

Headshot of Ellie Foumbi

Asylum (Teleplay)
by Ellie Foumbi ’17

Ellie Foumbi is an actor/writer/director born in Cameroon. She holds an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in Directing. Her award-winning short film, Zenith, was a 44th Student Academy Awards Semi-finalist and an African Movie Academy Awards Nominee. Her films have been selected to screen at several film festivals around the world. Ellie is also a Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and Directing Lab Fellow.

Headshot of Missy Hernandez

Inherited (Formerly Wela Amalia) (Screenplay)
by Missy Hernandez ’17

Missy Hernandez is a Brooklyn-based writer, actor, and filmmaker. Hernandez graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Cinema Studies and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting. Her most recent credits include Writer and Co-Producer of social-thriller feature narrative/documentary hybrid, American Thief (Jerome Foundation 2016, IFP Narrative Lab 2017), and Associate Producer for Terence Nance’s critically acclaimed television series Random Acts of Flyness (A24/HBO).

Headshot of Alexandre Ilic

Mr. Pink (Teleplay)
by Alexandre Ilic ’18

Alexandre Paul Ilic is a writer born in Cannes, France. For his undergraduate degree, he moved to New York City to play soccer for Hunter College, where he graduated with a BA in Film. In 2014, he sold a treatment for a novel to Tor Books. He recently received an MFA in Screenwriting with a concentration in TV Writing from Columbia University and his work focuses on dialogue-driven dark comedies.

Headshot of Ferran De Mendoza Soler

La Ofensa/The Offense (Formerly Intemperie)(Screenplay)
by Ferran De Mendoza Soler ’14 & Javier Gonzalez ’15

Ferran Mendoza is a fiction and documentary filmmaker born in Barcelona and based in Brooklyn. His short fiction has been selected at numerous festivals. On the documentary side, his series Like Art is currently on Vice.com, He has directed two series pilots: Bridging US, a 30 min pilot for a series about the political divide, and Orthodoxy in Alaska, another 30 min pilot for a PBS series titled American Religions.

Headshot of Javier Gonzalez

La Ofensa/The Offense (Formerly Intemperie)(Screenplay)
by Ferran De Mendoza Soler ’14 & Javier Gonzalez ’15

Javier Loarte is a writer, director and editor born in Madrid and based in Brooklyn. After participating in the Berlinale Talent Campus, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia University, where he graduated with an MFA in Film in May 2015. His films have screened in Telluride, Montreal, Zinebi, Cinema Jove, Uppsala and at museums of contemporary art, including the Pompidou Centre and Tate Modern, as well as on television.

"The Blue List completely changed my career trajectory. As a result of being named to the Blue List, I got a manager and sold my feature script. I currently have three feature scripts in development and hope to make another sale in the near future."

Casey Schroen '12, Screenwriter and Blue List 2014 winner