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EXCLUSIVE: The Black List has named the participants and projects selected for its 2025 Projects Lab. Selected from over 2,200 script submissions, the participants are Maren Hill (Postponed), Max Olson (Land of Hunger), Nathan Xia (Adam’s Song), Sahand Nikoukar (Abracadabra TV Repair), Teddy Cecil (Sandy Gray), and Urvashi Pathania (Skin). Now in its 11th year, The Black List’s Projects Lab provides creative mentorship and professional support to promising screenwriters during a weeklong workshop in Ojai, CA. Participants will develop their screenplays through peer workshops and one-on-one sessions with working professional screenwriting mentors, including Pippa Bianco (Share), Liz Hannah (The Girl from Plainville), Maryam Keshavarz (The Persian Version), Ry Russo-Young (The Sun Is Also a Star), Leigh Janiak (Honeymoon), and Scott Myers of Go Into the Story. For more information on the selected projects and the creatives behind them, read on. POSTPONED by Maren Hill A suicidal young woman spends her whole life postponing her own death until a broken pact with her sister involuntarily lands her in a psych unit, where an unexpected connection with a fellow patient leads to a chaotic journey of discovering what can make life worth holding on to. Maren Hill is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles who is interested in the perpetual state of existing in-between who we were, who we are, and who we want to be. Maren often draws from personal experience to craft chaotic, character-driven stories that are as buoyant and darkly funny as they are poignant and uncomfortable. Their goal is to encourage grace and healing through visibility and connection, highlighting the overlooked complexities and fundamental courage of everyday people making the best they can out of what they have. LAND OF HUNGER by Max Olson Land of Hunger follows JUDE (22), an alienated young man who loses his lifelong dream of becoming a soldier and returns to the surreal American underbelly of his Kentucky hometown. As he descends into the violence of an extremist militia group plotting to kidnap a senator, people in the town begin claiming that they are experiencing visitations from Angelic beings. Max Olson is writer-director and video artist based in New York & Los Angeles whose work aims to hold up a mirror to the restrictive structures of our world with an eye toward transcendence. After graduating from Brown with a degree in Anthropology, Max went on to receive an MFA in directing from the American Film Institute and was a Telluride Festival FilmLAB fellow. Max’s short films have premiered at ENERGA Camerimage, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and were shortlisted for the Cannes Lions Young Director Award. ADAM’S SONG by Nathan Xia With his relationship with his father fracturing, Adam’s music career and personal life are at a crisis point. The sudden death of Adam’s uncle tests the family as they try to pull together a traditional Chinese funeral in rural Texas, despite the car fires, fist fights, honky tonk whiskey shots, and dysfunctional self-inflicted bullshit along the way. Nathan Xia, a Chinese American writer, director, actor, and alternative artist from San Diego, California, finds inspiration in the misunderstood, often tackling themes of mental health, coming-of-age, and the Asian American experience through his uniquely vibrant, comedic, and emotional personal lens. His short films ADAM’S SONG, AYO, CHECK UP!, and FLAVOR OF THE MONTH have screened at film festivals worldwide and have been acquired for online distribution, broadcast television, and streamers. He is currently developing the ADAM’S SONG feature film with Benjamin Wiessner (Thunder Road) of Vanishing Angle. ABRACADABRA TV REPAIR by Sahand Nikoukar In 1995 San Francisco, an Iranian repairman and his son must find a stolen television before the Super Bowl to keep their American dream alive. Sahand Nikoukar is an Iranian-American filmmaker and audio designer, born in Germany and based in San Francisco, whose work bridges culture, technology, and identity. He is a 2025 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident developing “Abracadabra TV Repair,” a feature adaptation of his USC thesis film “The Magic Shoes,” and his satirical project “Centaur” — about the first AI presidential candidate — was awarded a Sloan Stories of Science Development Grant. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the USC School of Cinematic Arts, he also taught sound design at USC as an Adjunct Lecturer. SANDY GRAY by Teddy Cecil In 1930s Scotland, a grieving teen defies his family and town by setting out to prove the existence of a mysterious creature, hoping to preserve the magic of his community and protect it from industrial ruin. This is the unknown, true story of how the Loch Ness Monster became a legend. Teddy Cecil is a Los Angeles based writer-director-producer known for genre-blending storytelling with socially driven themes rooted in identity and personal transformation. Originally from New York and a graduate of NYU Tisch, his work includes award-winning short films, acclaimed animation and hit music videos for major artists. Teddy is currently in development on his first feature film. SKIN by Urvashi Pathania A dark-skinned Indian American woman is lured by a dangerous and addictive skin bleaching tank. Urvashi Pathania (she/her) was born in India, raised in New Jersey, and now lives in Los Angeles, creating work that circles around identity, beauty, and grief. She was selected for the 2024 Sundance Screenwriters Lab with her feature SKIN and previously participated in the 2023 Sundance Screenwriting Intensive as a recipient of both the Disney and Asian American Fellowships. Her short films include BEAST, which premiered at Tribeca and screened nationally before Jordan Peele’s NOPE, and UNMOTHERED, which was acquired by HBO Max.
