Moonshot Initiative Launches Feature Accelerator, Announces 2025 Fellows
- Moonshot Initiative Team
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Moonshot Feature Accelerator fellows will pitch women-centric content to Netflix, HBO, Neon and more
Moonshot Initiative has announced the seven fellows chosen for its inaugural Moonshot Feature Accelerator. These seven emerging writers were selected out of over applicants — putting them in the top 2% of all submissions.
This May, the fellows have the opportunity to pitch to studios, production companies, and representation including Netflix, HBO, Neon, Yes, Norman Productions, Level Forward, Activist Artist Management, The Film Sales Company, and more.
The 2025 fellows and their feature scripts are Lauren Brown (“Deadbeat”), Briana M. Cox (“The Sum of Our Parts”), Elizabeth Dwyer (“When Ani Met Jo Met Cris”), A.K. Espada (“This Is Our Home”), Julia Morizawa (“Something About the Tide”), Katerina Munis (“A Singular Girl”), and Sylvia-Anne Parker (“600 Steps”).
“We’re proud to launch our Moonshot Feature Accelerator with a cohort of seven talented emerging screenwriters, with features ranging from a dystopian horror to a queer rom-com to a family drama,” Moonshot Initiative co-founder and co-executive director Katrina Medoff said. “We’re proud to be able to provide the training and connections that they need to break into this industry.”
Before pitching, fellows receive three weeks of intensive training, during which they learned directly from industry insiders, including agent Kristen Konvitz of United Talent Agency; development executive Mitzi Miller; manager Quincie Li of Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment; speech coach Lee Bonvissuto; and entertainment lawyer Janine Beach of Phoenix Entertainment Advisors. The program culminated with a week of pitching to studios, production companies, representatives and financiers that are looking for new material and/or new writers.
The seven selected fellows were vetted by Moonshot’s panel of industry judges.
“Everyone involved benefits from this program: Studios and production companies are looking for untapped talent, and our fellows get an incredible opportunity to hone their pitches and meet people who can catapult their careers to the next level,” Moonshot Initiative co-founder and co-executive director Tracy Sayre said. “Ultimately, it’s viewers who benefit the most from more diverse storytelling on screen.”
Moonshot Initiative was founded by Medoff and Sayre in 2017 to promote gender equity behind the camera and on screen. The nonprofit organization, which previously operated as Women’s Weekend Film Challenge, is best known for its signature film challenge that has produced 36 short films with 900 professional female and non-binary filmmakers. Moonshot Initiative also hosts networking events; a popular virtual workshop series featuring Hollywood powerhouses; and in-depth virtual courses including “Write a Pilot in 30 Days” and “How to Pitch Your Project.”
The Moonshot Feature Accelerator was created because of the success of the Moonshot Pilot Accelerator, launched in 2021. The accelerators are designed both to help emerging writers advance their careers and to increase the representation of women and non-binary people in television. The program, geared toward writers with strong, completed screenplays and pilot scripts, provides fellows with direct access to decision-makers in the industry.
“This program prepares you not only for an impressive week of pitches, but for the rest of your writing career,” said 2023 fellow Brooke Solomon. “The Moonshot Pilot Accelerator is an excellent way to show your writing to the studios, streamers and producers that matter, and also gain an incredible writing community in the process.”
Past participants have seen great success; fellows have been staffed, gotten representation, become mentees to executive producers, and been hired in support staff positions. One 2023 fellow is now developing a feature with a producer she met during Pitch Week.
Chen Gu, a 2023 fellow, found that the feedback from industry insiders in the Moonshot Pilot Accelerator was particularly helpful in moving her career forward.
“This program offers real insight into not only crafting a pitch so you can articulate your story vision, but also the logistics of representation, staffing, and what development executives look for in a project,” Gu said. “It's the kindest bootcamp to become a well-rounded creative.”
Russ, VP of production and development at Fabel Entertainment and a Moonshot Initiative board member, has participated as one of the guest experts who prepares fellows for Pitch Week.
“It was a real pleasure not only to meet these talented women, but also to hear their exceptionally polished pitches,” she said. “The level of detail, passion and intention these fellows were able to deliver in a 10-minute pitch is usually reserved for meetings double or triple the length. It’s a testament to the mentorship and feedback they've received through Moonshot Initiative and a delight to experience the spoils of."
Sponsors for the 2025 Moonshot Feature Accelerator include SanDisk and ShotDeck.
ABOUT THE MOONSHOT PILOT ACCELERATOR FELLOWS:
Lauren Brown (“Deadbeat”):
Lauren Brown is an Atlanta-based writer and director of horror stories about family. Her short film, A Wake, earned her a spot in the 2020 Women in Film Directors Mentorship Circle. LB has shared her talents with The Black List, FilmStruck, and Turner Classic Movies. Her work for TCM includes Janet Jackson’s tribute to Dorothy Dandridge and the video essay, “A Brief History of Black Independent Film,” which was nominated for a NAACP Image Award.
Briana M. Cox (“The Sum of Our Parts”):
Briana N Cox is a Black author and screenwriter. She is the oldest of seven children and a first-generation academic. She began writing scripts as a playwrighting Fellow with the TN Playwrights Studio in 2019. Briana is an Academy Nicholl’s quarterfinalist, 2024 Stage 32 Feature Screenwriting Fellow, and a 2025 Moonshot Initiative Feature Accelerator Fellow. She has been featured on the 2024 Next List highlighting up-and-coming screenwriters. Briana writes elevated genre stories from the margins.
Elizabeth Dwyer (“When Ani Met Jo Met Cris”):
Elizabeth once hugged the inimitable Winnie Holzman, magically absorbing the singular grit of storytelling mothers. Armed with a Stephens College MFA, Elizabeth went on to become a Stowe Story Labs Launch Fellow, ISA FastTrack Finalist, and WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Finalist. The Blacklist says her “dialogue sparkles” and her “hilariously awkward” writing has “a little something for everybody.” As a queer fortysomething, Elizabeth loves to tell all the love stories and she still uses hashtags. #XennialWriter
A.K. Espada (“This Is Our Home”):
Writer/Director and Scenic Artist A.K. Espada’s THIS IS OUR HOME (feature script) was an inaugural recipient of the Sundance Horror Fellowship. The short film was featured in MoMa's “Messaging the Monstrous” series, appeared in the Etheria Showcase on SHUDDER, and now lives on Short of the Week. Other shorts include I COULD JUST DIE, AND THAT WOULD BE ALL RIGHT (Minerva Award, FilmQuest 2023) and LAUNDRY NIGHT (Jury Award, Brooklyn Horror Fest 2019).
Julia Morizawa (“Something About the Tide”):
Julia Morizawa is a writer/producer with 20+ years of experience in film, television, new media, theater, and fiction podcasting. Produced projects include JESUSCAT (OR HOW I ACCIDENTALLY JOINED A CULT) (feature film), SIN & LYLE (short film), and TWENTY-TWO (play). Her most recent project, DRAGONFLY (animated short film), premiered at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2023. Julia’s feature, SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIDE, was a Top 5 Finalist at Tribeca/AT&T’s Untold Stories in 2024.
Katerina Munis (“A Singular Girl”):
Growing up in a nomadic childhood with a wild imagination, a mountain of old books, and no television, Katerina Munis’ first heroine was Scheherazade of 1001 Nights, planting inevitable storyteller seeds. Today as a Classicist and writer/director, Katerina explores urgent social issues through dramas with a mythic or magical-realism twist. Her work has been recognized by the Academy Awards Nicholls, Stowe Story Labs, ScreenCraft Fellowship, Sundance Labs, FOX, and AMPAV at the Cannes Film Festival.
Sylvia-Anne Parker (“600 Steps”):
Sylvia-Anne Parker is a script supervisor-turned-screenwriter from London. As a script supervisor she forged working relationships with directors Danny Boyle, Cary Fukunaga and Kenneth Branagh. As a screenwriter she enjoys creating character-driven stories helmed by women of colour who have a strong sense of purpose and identity. A Fellow of the Sundance Episodic Lab she was selected for the Writers Lab UK & Europe, Sony sponsored Creative Corridor Program and Wscripted Cannes Screenplay List.
ABOUT MOONSHOT INITIATIVE
Moonshot Initiative (formerly known as Women’s Weekend Film Challenge) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes gender equity by creating opportunities for women and non-binary people to bring their leadership, talents, and stories to the forefront of the film and television industry. Moonshot empowers and supports underrepresented voices while promoting a more inclusive media landscape.
Moonshot helps professional women and non-binary filmmakers in every role of production build their networks, grow their skills, and tell their stories on screen. While film school graduates are about 50% women, the industry becomes more and more male-dominated at the higher levels, so women, non-binary, and underrepresented filmmakers need direct, targeted help in order to rise up the ranks.
Through Moonshot’s signature film challenge, participants write, shoot, and edit a short film in one weekend, and Moonshot assembles vetted crews and provides cinema-quality equipment, insurance, permits, and a sold-out premiere screening. The Moonshot Pilot and Feature Accelerators train talented emerging screenwriters writers and jumpstarts their careers by setting them up with pitch meetings with the biggest companies in the industry. Year-round, Moonshot Initiative provides career and network development through virtual education and mixers.
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