More about AJ - https://www.networkisa.org/profile/ajbermudez

A. J. BERMUDEZ is an award-winning writer and director who divides her time between Los Angeles and New York. Her past works include The Face of the Earth (winner of the Diverse Voices Award, 2018), Nightingale (winner of the Cinequest Film Festival, 2017), and Hunt (HBMG Foundation Selection, 2017). Her work has been featured at the Yale Center for British Art, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the LBGT Toronto Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and in a number of literary publications, including McSweeney’s, The Masters Review, Boulevard, Story, The Chicago Review, Hobart, Black Static, Gertrude Press, Conc?s, Sick Lit, White Hot, Exposition Review, Cheap Pop, Iron Horse Literary Review, Lunch Ticket, The Offing, The Baltimore Review, Fictional International, Columbia Journal, and more.

In addition to writing and filmmaking, Bermudez is also a former boxer and EMT, and her work gravitates toward contemporary explorations of power, the architecture of language, and the dynamics of privilege. She is a Writer’s Digest National Award Winner, recipient of the Jameson Prize, a National Merit Scholar, nominee for the Spotlight Culture & Heritage Award, winner of the 2018 WeScreenplay Grand Prize, a 2021 PAGE Award finalist, and winner of the 2021 Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. She was recently named Artistic Director of The American Playbook, an emerging podcast and virtual library of plays and interviews with writers, and is co-host of the podcast Two-Person Book Club. Her first solo-written feature film premiered in 2018, and she was named one of the ISA’s Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2019.

Time Stamps
0:00 - Intro
0:40 - Current watches for AJ
2:54 - AJ’s heroes in the Industry
5:01 - Becoming a writer
10:41 - AJ's main themes and genres
12:04 - AJ's current projects
14:26 - Winning the “Shoot your Sizzle” contest
16:33 - Winning the PAGE award
21:02 - AJ’s writing process
23:15 - AJ’s big writing goals
26:59 - Advice for emerging screenwriters
29:05 - Concluding questions and thoughts