Rachel S. Thomas-Medwid is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and independent filmmaker who as a storyteller likes to explore the darker instincts of human nature to shed light on important subjects. Some of her recent awards include the 2020 Grand Prize in the ISA’s Shoot Your Short, the Female Filmmaker Award at the Lonely Seal International Film Festival, New England Film Star Awards Finalist, Best First Time Director at the New York Movie Awards, and Best Narrative Short Film Director at the Mystic Film Festival. Her film, The Squirrels in the Attic, based on her award-winning screenplay, received the Audience Award for Outstanding Short at the Film Invasion Los Angeles Festival (https://vimeo.com/434491893?) and was a semi-finalist in the Academy Award Qualifying Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival. In 2019, she was one of five screenwriters selected to participate in StudioFest for her feature screenplay Fits. Another feature, The Joppa Flat, won first place in the Women in Cinema International Screenplay Competition, was a second round finalist in the PAGE Awards, finalist in Table Read My Screenplay, and a semi-finalist in BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Her television pilot, The Lost Opera, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sherman Oaks Film Festival, first place at the London International Filmmaker Festival, first place in the 22nd Annual Fade In Awards, and second place in the London Film Awards among others. Rachel recently directed another of her award-winning short screenplays, In the Company of Crows, which is in postproduction and scheduled for release in 2021 and for which she was named a New England Film Star Finalist (https://newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2...?). Her short, The Influencer, is currently in preproduction and was shortlisted for the IMDb Script to Screen Awards, top five finalist in Script Pipeline, finalist in the Screenwriter's Network Competition, and semi-finalist in the Cordillera International Film Festival. Her most recent script Penny won Best Short Screenplay in the Paris Play Film Festival and The Best Script Awards and is a finalist in the Chicago Indie Film Awards. Rachel feels that stories are an extraordinary tool that can help both empower and humanize individuals that may not have that voice in the real world and looks forward to telling more.