The Owl Screenwriting Workshop

Reflections on reconnecting with the 2023–2024 cohort and working with the 2024–2025 group last week in Athens, Greece.

Last year, I served as a mentor at the 2nd annual Owl Screenwriting Workshop in Athens, Greece. That went so well, I was invited back for this year’s session. It was an exciting experience for everyone involved.

Here is my schedule from October 1st through October 4th:

• Led three masterclass sessions based on my book The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling.
• Moderated two industry panels: The Art of Giving and Receiving Notes and The Showrunner and the Writer’s Room, a conversation with several notable producers and development executives (you can learn about these mentors here).
• Met individually with the 11 writers in this year’s cohort: 6 TV, 5 Film.
• Oversaw two 3-hour workshops, the first with the TV writers, the second with the movie writers.

It was an immersive experience for these writers to learn about the craft, network with industry insiders, and dig deep into their current script projects with a goal of elevating the material to the next level.

You can learn more about the 2024–2025 cohort here. It is an amazing and diverse group of creative folks from all over the world including Australia, England, France, Germany, Ireland, the United States, and Greece.

We will meet again via zoom in March 2025 to workshop their revised screenplays. Then in the autumn of next year, these writers will return to Athens to pitch their projects to a group of producers, creative and network executives.

And that is what the 2023–2024 group did during the event this October. I had worked with that cohort last fall, then our Zoom meeting, and on the last day of this year’s event, they pitched their projects.

They did a great job and it was wonderful to reconnect with them. You can learn about this group of talented writers here.

Since the setting was Greece, there was fantastic food at our nightly dinners and a lovely get together one night for both cohorts.

In March, I look forward to reading and workshoppting the revised scripts of the 2024–2025 group. then back to Athens next fall for their pitch session.

Thanks to Eftichia Rantou and Christina Mitropoulou (pictured here), and Stathis Kalogeropoulos for organizing this wonderful event and being such excellent hosts.

For more information on the Owl Screenwriting Workshop, go here.