June 2025 in Arezzo
Aaron Schuelke
Aaron Schuelke is a filmmaker and film professor. His passion for storytelling is deeply rooted in his childhood in a small Texas town. As a kid, Aaron loved exploring the world and dreamed of escaping that small town that felt like the most boring place on earth. A shy, sensitive boy growing up in a super-macho world, Aaron writes characters trying to figure out their places in situations where they don’t fit in or don’t make sense. He went to film school at Columbia University and has written and directed multiple short films, including INHERITANCE – a dark coming-of-age story set during the Great Depression. Aaron’s stories fuse morally conflicted characters with their locations amid their world’s sociopolitical churn, either family/character dramas or political thrillers.
Eva Justine Torkkola
Eva Justine Torkkola is a queer writer, director and producer with Ukrainian and Finnish heritage based in Melbourne, Australia. She is a graduate of both the Masters of Film and Television (Directing - Narrative) and the Masters of Screenwriting at the University of Melbourne. Key initiatives: selected as one of 25 Directors around the world for the ‘Under the Volcano’ Film Accelerator in Spain with mentor Werner Herzog and featuring Peter Zeitlinger (2024), an alumni of the Melbourne International Film Festival Accelerator Lab (2022), chosen as one of 20 Emerging Filmmakers from around the world for the International Filmmaking Academy in Italy with masterclass teacher Jane Campion and featuring Francis Ford Coppola (2019), and invited to take part in the Looking China documentary filmmaking program in Xi’An (2019). Eva has received nominations for both an Australian Directors' Guild and Australian Writers' Guild award for her drama short SOMETHING HAS DIED IN THE FOREST (ЩОСЬ Ð’ ЛIСI ЗДОХЛО) and was also shortlisted for the Australian Writers’ Guild Monte Miller awards with her dark comedy short script Viktor. Find out more at evajusttorks.com.
Heidi Dudgeon
I am formerly a gallery-represented artist and expressive arts teacher. Earlier in my career, I sold advertising and worked as a public relations agent and marketing coordinator for Sesame Street Live and Soap-Opera Mania. I did a stint in entertainment journalism and have been published in two entertainment publications. In 2011, I went back to school, obtained my Master’s degree and eventually settled into a career as a mental health counselor. I started my own private practice in 2013 and have grown it into a thriving practice in the Detroit metro area. I employ an integrative and humanistic approach using tools such as the arts and spiritual practice as mediums to promote optimal wellness. All the while, I’ve been quietly writing until last year when I dug out an old screenplay, challenged my insecurities, and dared to chase my dreams of becoming a screenwriter. In December of 2024, I sold my first comedic feature and I am committed to continuing to learn the craft so that I may carve out a place for myself and work professionally in this industry for the second half of my life. If all goes according to plan, the film will go into production in the Spring of 2025. I am married to my high school boyfriend, Scott, have two grown children, Wyatt and Merritt, and a sweet cat named Lolly. I love everything creative including cooking, design, decorating, writing song lyrics, and crafting. I grew up as a child in the music/live sports and entertainment industry, where I spent my youth attending and working at concerts, so it’s no surprise that music plays a pivotal role in my life, art, and writing. My husband and I recently bought a home in Key West, Florida. We made this our primary residence so that we can more readily pursue our dreams. “The bird doesn’t sing because it has the answer, it sings because it has a song.” – Maya Angelou
Holly Brix
Holly Brix is a screenwriter who has written features for Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, Lionsgate, MGM and Universal among others. Her spec script, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, a dark comedic thriller, is set up at Netflix. Most recently she wrote a supernatural rom com for Sony. She started writing for TV in 2013 and currently has a show in development at CBS Studios and one at FOX. She’s also developed shows with Lifetime, ABC and Netflix. She’s written for THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, SIREN, EMERGENCE, WHY WOMEN KILL and JENNY IS A WEAPON. Her work has placed on the Black List and the Blood List.
Jillian Corsie
Jillian Corsie is an award-winning editor and filmmaker with 15 years of experience across commercials, documentaries, and narrative work. Her films focus on emotionally resonant, character-driven stories with a strong social impact. Her recent feature documentary Desert Angel won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Austin Film Festival. Her directorial work includes Trichster and Second Assault, both of which are now used as educational tools on college campuses and in police training programs across the United States. Her horror short TOOTH premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and has screened at more than 40 festivals worldwide. Jillian also serves as a programmer for Salute Your Shorts and Slamdance Film Festivals. She is currently developing her first narrative feature, The Lambing, a Scottish folk horror exploring themes of grief, legacy, and transformation.
Margaret Hogan
Margaret Hogan is a screenwriter living in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and three daughters. After receiving her BA in Theatre Performance from Butler University, she wrote and directed two original plays, premiering one in the Indy Fringe Festival. She then turned her attention to screenwriting and attended Act One Screenwriting in LA and participated in the Art Within Screenwriters Lab. She is currently developing a feature film with producers in Rome.
Natalija Vekic
Natalija Vekic is a writer and director. She won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival for her short film Lost & Found and was the recipient of a Princess Grace Award in film. Natalija was invited to participate in the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab, selected as an honoree in the Writers Guild America West Feature Access Project and was a finalist in the Page International Screenwriting Awards. She is a graduate of the UCLA MFA screenwriting program. Natalija received a "Special Project Grant" from the Princess Grace Foundation to direct the short film Jane, which stars Mishel Prada (Riverdale, Vida, The Continental). Natalija is currently developing several original TV series –– The Golden State, about a newly single mother and her nerdy daughter. When Jovanka’s marriage falls apart, she’s forced to accept a job offer as a live-in maid in California and the duo must move in with a strange new family. Beautiful Dreamers is a bittersweet coming-of-age drama. Leila, an aspiring filmmaker, and her talented, underdog group of friends hustle to survive as they reach for their artistic dreams, fight for justice, and search for love and acceptance in the City by the Bay. For Natalija, writing stories has always been a way to make sense of the world, inhabit other people’s lives and explore the complex world we live in. Natalija writes and directs suspenseful dramas from the perspective of outsiders and women who boldly shape history but are forgotten. Her experience growing up with a single mom profoundly influences the stories she tells. Her scripts give voice to people who are silenced. Family turmoil, forgiveness and how the past creeps into the present are at the heart of her scripts. She loves to tackle complex and gritty women characters. When she’s not writing she’s wandering the aisles of a local bookstores, listening to audiobooks and plotting her next travel adventure.
Tonya Coats
Dr. Tonya Coats, a native Chicagoan, a semi-retired Family Physician, is a multi-hyphenate on principle. She completed two novels that, while looking for their publishing homes, is adapting to screenplays. Her first Pilot, Genes has garnered quarter and semifinalist recognition in multiple contests. A second pilot, Schoolwork, Best Script at the Women’s Comedy Film Festival in Atlanta. Having completed a third pilot, The Golden Warriors, she is now working on polishing her first feature, Sandwich. Her poetry placed 1st in the Social Science category of the 2021 Poets & Patrons of Chicagoland contest. A member of the Off Campus Writers Workshop in Winnetka, Illinois, she has two short pieces published with them. “The Healer,” June 2019, is part of an OCWW anthology A Reason to Be Here. “When I Was Five,” June 2021, part of Turning Points Anthology. Tonya has essays in the New York Times, Riverteeth Journal, and more.