Stowe Story Labs Announces Fellows and Honorable Mentions for 2025 Narrative Labs
STOWE STORY LABS IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE 2025 FELLOWS AND HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR THE BLACK LIST ARTIST DEVELOPMENT, FILM FATALES, LAW FIRM OF STACEY A. DAVIS, NYX HORROR COLLECTIVE, PAGE INTERNATIONAL SCREENWRITING AWARDS, SAGINDIE, STOWE LAUNCH GENRE, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT, AND WGA EAST FELLOWSHIPS TO THE 2025 NARRATIVE LABS.
The selection process was highly competitive and challenging, and we are thrilled to honor these artists and projects. Thank all who applied for the fellowships. Thank you as well to our fellowship partners who help make this possible.
Congratulations to all.
BLACK LIST ARTIST DEVELOPMENT FELLOW:
Amir Zargara — Ottawa, ON, Canada — A Good Day Will Come // Drama, Political, Sport Feature
Logline: When a champion Iranian wrestler's sense of honor is tested by his country’s oppressive regime, he must choose between protecting his family and standing up for justice.
Bio: Amir Zargara is an award-winning (BIPOC) Iranian-Canadian writer and director, whose unique perspective is shaped by the cultural mosaic of Iran and Canada. His journey, characterized by the resilience of an immigrant and the challenges of living with a stutter, deeply influences his approach to filmmaking. An alumnus of prestigious programs at Berlinale, TIFF, Zurich, and Reykjavik, he explores the moral complexities individuals face in his films.
His short film A GOOD DAY WILL COME qualified for the Oscars and received over 70 awards and mentions across more than 100 film festivals worldwide. Amir's screenplays have garnered praise from top industry competitions, including the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship, The Black List, Austin Film Festival, and Slamdance.
BLACK LIST ARTIST DEVELOPMENT HONORABLE MENTION:
Khalid Abdulqaadir — Kansas City, MO, USA — Affection of a Tiger // Drama TV – 1 hour
LAW FIRM OF STACEY A. DAVIS FELLOW:
Kristina Castillo — Cobano, Puntarenas, Costa Rica — Jane // Political, Erotic Thriller Feature
Logline: A savvy entrepreneur fights to save her covert business—which employs Janes to secure the evidence wives need to prove adultery—against political attempts to strip women of their right to initiate divorce in near-future South Carolina.
Bio: Born and raised in South Carolina, Kristina Castillo now writes from the jungle in Costa Rica. She spent over a decade working as a lawyer in a big firm in New York and for several federal district judges. Although she occasionally writes about the law, she spends most of her time writing screenplays and novels about women taking chances later in life.
LAW FIRM OF STACEY A. DAVIS HONORABLE MENTION:
Monica McCarthy — Sligo, Ireland — Mastermind // Comedy TV – Mini Series
FILM FATALES FELLOW:
Kryzz Gautier — Los Angeles, CA, USA — Wheels Come Off // SciFi, LGBTQIA+, Magical Realist Feature
Logline: In the year 2065, a fiery teenager with a wild imagination, her paraplegic mom, and their clueless robot struggle to navigate the post-apocalypse; but when the mother’s wheelchair breaks, the trio must venture out into the dangerous outside for a chance to survive.
Bio: Kryzz Gautier is a Queer, Afro-Latina, formerly undocumented writer/director from the Dominican Republic. As the only child of a disabled mother, Kryzz spent most of her formative years having to entertain herself, which sparked her knack for creating complex worlds filled with three-dimensional characters. She channels this colorful background into her novel sci-fi narratives and character-driven dramas. Since transitioning from undocumented to citizen, Kryzz has written for an HBO series, served as a writer and creative consultant on 2K Games’ BIOSHOCK 4, and worked on a variety of other projects across film and television. She has developed with or sold projects to studios like Sony, Universal, Stage 13, and Film4, among others. A number of her projects have been distributed by HBO Max, Hulu, and DUST. Her feature script WHEELS COME OFF is the first in The Black List's 20-year history to appear on three separate lists: The Annual Black List 2021, The Black List: The GLAAD List 2024, and The Black List: The Disability List 2024. She’s participated in programs like Netflix’s “Directors On The Rise,” NBC’s “Female Forward,” Starz’s #TakeTheLead, Ryan Murphy’s “Half Initiative,” Joey Soloway’s “Disruptors,” The Sundance Institute, The DGA, and was a semi-finalist in The Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship In Screenwriting. Her award-winning films have screened at multiple Academy Award, BAFTA, and Canadian Screen Award qualifying festivals around the world. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Directing Narrative Fiction from Emerson.
NYX HORROR COLLECTIVE FELLOW:
Bella Thornton — Los Angeles, CA, USA — The Rabbit Hunters // Horror, Comedy, Myth TV – 1 hour
Logline: Seven sisters return to their remote hometown to bury their oldest and most reasonable sister after she commits suicide, but are forced to stick around after the funeral when their youngest sister slaughters a guy she claims had a rabbit head.
Bio: Bella Thornton grew up a geeky little girl in Utah, writing scripts and shooting short films between church and her night gig as a child actor at her dad's haunted circus. She’s based in LA because she has visceral, funny, and brutal stories to tell about girls and monsters.
Bella graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Comedy Writing and Performance in 2023. She was a writer/performer for the Comedy Studies Semester at The Second City and performed as Lady Macbeth in RADA’s Shakespeare Conservatory in London.
Bella’s pilot script, FOOL, placed third in the LA International Screenplay Competition. Bella works as a 1st AD for vertical series. In September, she brought her children’s book (illustrated by Camila Madero) THE BAD BAD THING to the Printer’s Row Literary Festival.
And yes, she still sneaks around making stories about girls and monsters. It’s kind of her whole deal.
NYX HORROR COLLECTIVE HONORABLE MENTION:
Laura Fielder — Brooklyn, NY, USA — Hunter’s Daughter // Horror Feature
PAGE INTERNATIONAL SCREENWRITING AWARDS FELLOW:
Stephanie Stanley — Los Angeles, CA, USA — Killers // True Crime Drama TV – 1 hour
Logline: Feeling financially frustrated in their retirement years, two lil' ole ladies plot to collect $1 million in life insurance on a homeless man they adopt off the streets of Hollywood. Problem is, they can’t wait for him to die naturally. Inspired by a true story.
Bio: Based in Los Angeles, Stephanie Stanley is an award-winning journalist, true crime author, and licensed private investigator. Born into a scandal-plagued Southern Gothic family where no one ever told her the straight truth, she made uncovering secrets her business and started her career as a daily reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). Her writing has won various Press Association Awards, including distinction for her work covering a notoriously brutal serial killer case and a child kidnapping in Louisiana.
Stephanie brings this hands-on experience with people in extreme crisis to her screenwriting, giving her scripts an authentic, emotional edge. She is passionate about telling the story behind the story of unexpected and unimaginable events. In TV and Film, she has sold a feature to Michael Eisner’s Vuguru studios, developed an Edgar Allan Poe anthology series for Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers, and developed a TV pilot with Zero Gravity.
Her scripts have received advanced placement in the Nicholl Fellowship, Sundance, Austin Film Festival, the Disney Fellowship, and Warner Bros' Television Workshop. Three of her pilots are in the top 1% of all scripts on Coverfly. Her Stowe Narrative Lab selected pilot KILLERS – inspired by a cold-blooded and bizarre true crime – was previously chosen out of 3,000 scripts for the 2024 ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship. Stephanie is also the author of the book AN INVISIBLE MAN, a dramatic recounting of the failed police effort to capture a vicious serial killer terrorizing the communities of southern Louisiana for 10 years.
PAGE INTERNATIONAL SCREENWRITING AWARDS HONORABLE MENTION:
Matija Sraj — Thornbury, Victoria, Australia — Queenmaker // Dramedy TV – ½ hour
SAGINDIE FELLOW:
Jo Jude — Brooklyn, NY, USA — The Bawd // Historical Fiction Drama Feature
Logline: Following the death of her former enslaver - turned - husband, an ambitious Jamaican woman joins the ranks of Covent Garden's prostitutes, determined to ascend the social ladder of 18th century London.
Bio: Jo Jude is a Brooklyn-based screenwriter inspired by history and storytelling. As a writer, she seeks to challenge historical narratives by centering overlooked voices. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Jo brings a modern sensibility to historical storytelling, making the past feel fresh and relevant. Her work explores nuanced characters and marginalized communities, often focusing on women and other underrepresented groups. Influenced by filmmakers like Ava DuVernay, Shonda Rhimes, and Steve McQueen, Jo crafts layered, thought-provoking narratives that balance historical authenticity with thought-provoking, emotional resonance. She aspires to reimagine the period drama, crafting films that not only entertain but also spark reflection, reminding audiences that history is never as distant as it seems.
STOWE GENRE LAUNCH FELLOW:
Christian Hearn — Invergordon, Highland, Great Britain — The Hiding // Horror, Thriller Feature
Logline: A travelling salesman unwittingly puts his young daughter's life in danger when he rescues a boy who he mistakes for the victim of a kidnapping, but is in fact a blossoming serial killer.
Bio: After Christian's early dreams of becoming a stuntman went up in flames after almost setting fire to his parents' back porch, and suffering a blood clot, he decided to try his hand at a less dangerous, but no less painful endeavor: screenwriting. Christian's credits include; FRACTURED (2016), winner of Best Feature at the British Horror Film Festival and the London Independent Film Awards, and the BIFA long-listed THE KINDRED (2021). His spec screenplays have placed as a semifinalist in the Nicholl Fellowships, Austin Film Festival, and Final Draft Big Break Contest, as well as a Screen Craft Top 10 Finalist, and Finalist in the UK Film Festival Screenplay Awards. His script THE SEVERING was nominated for Best Feature Screenplay at the Horrrorgins Film Festival. As of 2025, Christian's spec horror/thriller feature CRIMSON HIGHWAY is attached to producer Rodrigo Moscoso at Zero Gravity Management, and HOSTILES, an action/thriller which he co-wrote, is under a shopping agreement with producers Julien Arnoux and Pascal Degove. Christian lives in the Scottish Highlands with his wife and their two cats.
STOWE GENRE LAUNCH HONORABLE MENTION:
Laura Campbell and Laura Coover — Los Angeles, CA, USA — Luke // Thriller, Dark Comedy Feature
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT FELLOW:
Kate Lewton — Burlington, VT, USA — Some Tougher Love // Drama, Comedy Feature
Logline: After a sudden split from his college sweetheart, forty-something Kevin Hayes navigates middle-aged loneliness and confronts his past at a college reunion, where his son is currently a student, with old friends, an accused old flame, and the estranged wife—but it really isn’t what everyone thinks.
Bio: Kate Lewton is a rising senior at the University of Vermont majoring in Film and Television Studies with double minors in Reporting and Documentary Storytelling and Public Communications. Throughout her time studying film at UVM, she has been most drawn to screenwriting. She is planning to defend her honors thesis in the spring of 2026, which will involve writing a coming-of-age feature and is excited to take what she learns at Stowe Story Labs into this process. She also loves to participate in journalism and storytelling of all forms.
WGA EAST FELLOW:
Sarah Peele — Brooklyn, NY, USA — Pure Intentions // Comedy Feature
Logline: In preparation for their church’s purity ball, two evangelical teens rub up against the urges of adolescence and the promise to remain pure. Can they service themselves and still serve the Lord?
Bio: Sarah Peele grew up in Arkansas, studied theater in Missouri, and has lived in New York City her entire adult life. She went to elementary school in a church basement, so she still has trouble with things like math and science, but she can sing all of the books of the New Testament. As an actor, Sarah has been featured in several national commercials, and she has performed at comedy festivals in New York, Chicago and Boston. Most of her writing has been for sketch comedy shows in and around NYC. Pure Intentions is her first screenplay.
WGA EAST HONORABLE MENTION:
Jeffrey Palmer — Ithaca, NY, USA — Ghosts // Drama Feature
CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!
