Last week was packed with ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship meetings! Two of our three ScreenCraft Fellowship winners came to Los Angeles for a week of mentorship and meetings. By far, the highlight of the week was sitting down for a long dinner conversation with Fellowship winners Ryan W. Smith, Anna Klassen and mentors Geoffrey Fletcher (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Precious), Diana Ossana (Academy Award-winning screenwriter and producer of Brokeback Mountain) and Kristina Reed (Academy Award-winning producer of Disney's short film Feast) - along with ScreenCraft co-founders John Rhodes and Cameron Cubbison.

Reflecting on the dinner, ScreenCraft Fellow Anna Klassen described the experience as invaluable. "These are people who have succeeded in this industry, and being able to ask them how they got their start way back when gave me a tremendous amount of inspiration and hope for my own screenwriting career."

According to ScreenCraft Fellow Ryan W. Smith, "each industry pro had a pearl of wisdom to impart, be that about how best to pitch myself and my material, how better to understanding the studio system, or about the ups and downs that come with a career as a writer.  I also gained some serious insight from meeting with well-established writers in the field."

Here's a brief recap of our week of mentorship and pitch meetings around Hollywood:

Monday, July 24th, 2017
3:15PM: General Meeting with Cate Adams, development executive at Warner Bros Studios

Tuesday, July 25th, 2017
2:30PM: Meeting with Aengus McLoone, Vertigo Entertainment (1-on-1 meetings)
6:00PM: Drinks w/ past ScreenCraft Fellowship recipients Mark Stasenko, Nancy Duff, Rob Haffey, T.A. Snyder

Wednesday, July 26th, 2017
10:00AM: Meeting with Michael Colleary (writer of FACE/OFF), Steven E. de Souza (writer of DIE HARD)
1:00PM: Meeting with Jeanette Francis, STX Entertainment (THE GIFT, BAD MOMS, FREE STATE OF JONES)
4:30PM: Meeting with Juliet Berman, VP of Development at Treehouse Pictures (99 HOMES, ARBITRAGE)

Thursday, July 27th, 2017
1:00PM: Lunch with Zoe Wilschinsky (Madison Wells /OddLot - DRIVE, ENDER'S GAME)
2:30PM: Meeting with Heinz Healey, Overbrook Entertainment (WILL SMITH'S COMPANY) at Sony Pictures
3:00PM: Meeting with Don Handfield, The Combine (JEREMY RENNER'S PRODUCTION COMPANY)
4:15PM: Meeting with Charnay Mather, Covert Media (film financier, foreign sales, development)
7:00PM: Fellowship Mentor Dinner with Academy Award-winners: Geoffrey Fletcher, Diana Ossana, Kristina Reed - in Beverly Hills

Friday, July 28th, 2017
1:30PM: Meeting with Jonathan Wu, Development Executive at 20th Century Fox 

STX Development Executive Jeannette Francis meets for lunch with ScreenCraft Fellowship winners Anna Klassen and Ryan Smith. STX's recent films include BAD MOMS and THE GIFT.

ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship winners Anna Klassen and Ryan Smith snap a photo in front of the iconic WB water tower after a general meeting with Cate Adams, development executive at Warner Bros Studios.