September 2025 in Arezzo
Kelly Karam
Kelly Karam—an Arab woman born and raised in Detroit, whose “resume” consists of colicky babies growing into loving adults, selling cosmetics, waiting tables, substitute teaching, and recently directing her first short film now takes those decades of life and pours them into award-winning screenplays. Her journey has helped bring magic to diverse characters but her true understanding of Story occurred when she asked her 85+ father about the childhood he never had. “Kid Soldier” — a Nicholls Fellowship Quarterfinalist and Page International Finalist — spawned from that blessed conversation.
V.R. Marianne Zahn
Originally from Richardson, Texas, V.R. Marianne Zahn left home at 18 for the wonders of New York City where she lived in three different boroughs and about seven neighborhoods, worked as an overnight security guard, book seller and fake online chat personality, among other things, to put herself through New York University, and eventually earned a B.F.A. in Drama. During her time there, she was awarded a scholarship to spend a year in Paris where her love of wine was kindled,nd she now holds a Level I certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers. She has been a writer all her life since her 3rd place ribbon for a 6th Grade essay and some years later being named a winner of the Dallas Young Playwright’s Festival. Her scripts have placed well in several competitions, including winning 100 Screenplays, finalist in The Screenplay Festival and Script2Comic, Semifinalist in We Screenplay, StoryPros, Emerging Screenwriters and Moondance and Quarterfinalist in Nashville, Cynosure, Filmmatic, Screencraft, the 2nd Round of the Austin Film Festival and in the top10% of Nicholl’s. Her essays on religion, ethics and politics can be found on Medium.com and HuffingtonPost. When wealth and fame inexplicably failed to materialize from her writing career, she began the long and mostly unpleasant process of becoming a priest in the Episcopal church. She has a Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary and has served at parishes all over Los Angeles including St. John’s Cathedral, and currently serves as Priest-in-Charge at St. Barnabas, Pasadena where she lives with her husband, Dan, and their rescue cats Clio and Sansa.
Mary Ann Rotondi
Mary Ann Rotondi was the kid who read late into the night under the covers with a flashlight. She turned her love of story into a successful career as a journalist, and spent nearly 20 years as a producer at Dateline NBC and CBS News’ 48 Hours, where she produced, directed and wrote more than 30 hours of primetime network television, winning Emmys, Gracie and Clarion Awards, and the 2022 New York Press Club Award for Excellence in Crime Reporting. Mary Ann recently turned to screenwriting full-time, and her screenplays have been recognized in major festivals and competitions. HELEN OF TROY was a Finalist in the Nashville and Flickers’ Rhode Island film festivals, and is an official selection of the 2025 NOSTOS Screenwriting Retreat in Tuscany. Her script RUN RENEGADE won First Place in the 2025 CWA Screenwriting Competition Action/Thriller Category. Her short QUEEN OF THE DESERT won numerous awards, including Best Female Directed Short at the 2023 Poppy Jasper Film Festival. She holds a BA cum laude in English from Yale and a MFA in filmmaking from Stanford. She is currently in post-production on a multi-part true- crime documentary series she directed and wrote about an odd and riveting murder case in her home-state of Montana, and is writing the feature screenplay about the case.
Gina Hackett
Gina is a writer and director whose work centers on female characters that challenge the systems built to contain them. Her writing has been acknowledged by SFFILM, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Cine Qua Non, Screencraft, The Athena List, and Columbia University’s annual Blue List competition. Shot on 16mm film, her short film, BEAUTY MARKS, premiered virtually on Short of the Week following a festival run that included Palm Springs ShortFest and Champs-Elysées Film Festival (Special Mention, Best US Short), and Dallas Film Festival (Best Short). Her original series, GREAT MEN, is currently in development at Sunday Night Productions. After attending Harvard, Gina completed her MFA in Screenwriting and Directing at Columbia, where she has also taught Screenwriting. Based in Los Angeles, Gina is represented by Gramercy Park Entertainment.
Marine Claire Puel
I didn't always want to work in the film industry, even though it has always been a dream of mine. I had been working as a bookseller for seven years when one day I felt the urge to write the film I wanted to watch at the cinema. At the time, it wasn't for professional purposes but rather for my enjoyment. I began writing my first script, The Academy of Kings, but then I became caught up in work and completely set it aside, forgetting about it. A little later, I quit my job and resumed writing my script. The Academy of Kings has won several festivals in the Best First Screenplay category. I developed a script for a game for the Australian app Anzir. Today I keep working on my scripts and have no plans to stop anytime soon.
Rodrigo De Nigris
Rodrigo De Nigris is a writer/director originally from Mexico. After graduating film school in the U.S in 2020, he has directed a few short films including "Alone (2023)" and "En Silencio (2025)" and he has produced a couple others. In the meanwhile, he has written screenplays for 3 feature films and a few short films soon to be released. He has worked in countries such as Mexico, U.S.A and Italy and has directed and produced commercials with brands such as Samsung, Dyson and Victorinox. He is currently in development on his first feature film.
Juanpedro David Salazar
Juanpedro David Salazar directed “Colibri” (2024), which screened at the Houston Latino Film Festival, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, and Bogota Film Festival. The film won Best International Film at the Long Island Film Expo and Best Colombian Film at the Bogota Film Festival.His first feature, "Nowhere" (2020), went to over 20 Film Festivals, including Outfest Fusion and Cinequest, and was nominated for two Colombian Academy Awards. The film was acquired by TLA Releasing and Optimale. In 2019, he was selected for the first annual Latinx List from The Black List.Juanpedro David holds an M.S. from Fordham University.
Jaroslaw Gogolin
I have been working as a Writer/Director since 2014. During my short but very active career I wrote and filmed 10 short films and two feature. In 2017 I produced and directed my first feature film “Once upon a time on All Hallows' Eve” - 42 min thriller finished in 2018. In 2016 I wrote my first feature screenplay “Copland - in self defence”. Then I wrote two feature scripts in 2019 “Superior Being (Part1) - Awakening" and “Superior Being (Part2) - Axis Mundi". “Superior Being: Smokeless Fire”, “Superior Being: Stardust”, “Superior Being: She-Who-Knows”. In 2020 I finished my another short film: "Requiem for the Living" In 2021 one of my scripts (“Light Years” Sci-fi)let me go to Nostos Screenwriting Retreats. Over there I wrote another screenplay “Black forest mystery” - this time a fantasy genre. Later on I wrote “Black forest mystery 2”- a sequel to part 1. In 2021 I started filming "Lost dolls". Last version of the film - "Lost dolls 2.0" - was finished in Sep 2024. My last script „Morning star” was written in 2024. I have been currently working on a 3D animation using Unreal Engine 5. The film is in post-production. I have been working also on two more feature scripts.