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Stage 32 Presents: The Great AI Debate - How AI is Impacting Our Industry

Happy Thursday, Creative Army! We’re back with our final powerhouse conversation from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Stage 32 proudly celebrated our 10th anniversary as an official partner of the Marché du Film. It was a whirlwind of connection, education, and inspiration, and we’re honored to continue bringing those unfiltered, essential conversations directly to you. Today’s panel explores one of the most pressing, polarizing, and inevitable fo…

Stage 32 Launches Global Screenwriting Contest Hub: Oscar and BAFTA Qualifying Contests Participating!

Happy Wednesday, Creative Army! There are moments in this business when everything changes. Today is one of those moments. With the recent announcement that Coverfly is shutting down on August 1st, and after their prior closure of Industry Arts platforms, we knew thousands of screenwriters around the world were going to be left without a clear path to discover contests, get professional feedback, and get discovered. So we stepped up. As announced on Deadline, I’m incredibly pr…

From Idea to Laurel: How I Wrote, Directed & Produced My First Short Film in 5 Weeks

If you had told me a while ago that I'd be where I am today, I would've said you were wrong. But "wrong" and "right" are subjective, aren't they? They depend on your goals, ideas, and beliefs. Today, I want to share my filmmaking journey with you, along with some tips that might help you if you're dreaming of directing your own short film.  My Unexpected Path to Directing I pioneered female entrepreneurship in Portugal and won the most significant awards a businesswoman could wi…

July Filmmakers Club Week 3: Finding The Right Producer To Fit Your Genre & Style

Happy Monday, Stage 32 Community! The past few months have seen market trends shift dramatically, with budgets increasing and major players leaving the low-budget space, making more room for indie producers to carve out their own niche. This is why it's more critical than ever that filmmakers understand what producers are looking for in order to team up with the right partner. Finding The Right Producer To Fit Your Genre & Style As a screenwriter, you've poured your heart into…

The Undeniable Importance of Location Scouting!

Ever been to - or coordinated - a wedding? A special birthday party? Perhaps a charity event, musical concert, or film festival? More than likely, you have benefited from a wonderful person employing Location Scouting for a truly enjoyable experience. Or possibly been rudely introduced to the perils of poor Location Scouting when you couldn’t park, packed all the wrong things, and couldn’t find a clean bathroom. Preparing for a film shoot is not too dissimilar from any other…

July Filmmakers Club Week 2: Strategies for Creating Cross-Cultural Films

Hello Stage 32 Community! I’m thrilled to introduce myself as the new Stage 32 Brand Ambassador for Poland! I’m a film producer, editor, and President of Women in Film & Television Poland, and I had the pleasure of connecting with the Stage 32 team this year at the Cannes Film Festival. My film journey began in Los Angeles, and over the years, I’ve produced internationally recognized projects that have screened at festivals from Cannes to Berlinale to Mumbai. I&rs…

Understanding the Development Process: What It Really Takes to Get a Film or Series Made

Happy Friday, Stage 32 Community! There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the word “development.” It’s one of those industry terms that gets tossed around constantly, but when you ask five different people what it means, you’ll probably get five different answers. That’s why this week, inspired by a recent conversation in the Writer’s Room Lounge, I want to pull back the curtain a bit. In honor of July Filmmakers Club, we’re getting real abo…

AI for Deep Research and High-Concept Worldbuilding

Bending the rules of physics is acceptable in fiction, as long as writers apply the logic consistently. As audiences, we suspend our disbelief all the time, immersing ourselves in imagined worlds. But we can only go so far before the narrative becomes implausible. While creative license is often employed, staying close to realistic science can be a way to keep your audience grounded and engaged. Nothing kills a story for me faster than something so wildly unrealistic it yanks me right ou…

Successful Networking Tips For A Film Career

Before we do anything else, let’s get the trite, buzz-wordy - and largely inaccurate - piece of non-advice out of the way first: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It’s pithy and sounds so wise. And you’ve heard it so often that it basically just folds into any conversation you ever have about how to build your network. It’s also one of those nothing phrases that people say without really digging into it deeper. The first majo…

Coffee & Content: What Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS Teaches Us About Creative Control

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? Whether you’ve been writing, filming, editing, or simply dreaming up your next big idea, I’ve got some inspiring content to fuel your passion and keep you moving forward. So grab your coffee, and let’s dive in. This week’s featured video comes from FilmSpeak: Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS Just Changed Filmmaking Forever. Coogler’s Sinners is already being called a landmark achievement i…

Do What You Have Promised To Do

If you have visited my profile, you have presumably noticed where I live. So I want to give you a very Swedish piece of advice. Here in Sweden, we are sometimes reminded of Swedes who are popular in Hollywood. You may know about Greta Garbo, Alexander Skarsgård, Ingrid Bergman, Dolph Lundgren, and Alicia Vikander. Or heard about other Swedes in Hollywood. So, how do you become popular? You may at first find it odd that we Swedes can be popular abroad. I have myself encountered th…

The Writer As An Entrepreneur: The Making of a Good Film/Bad Film

A word to the wise. What I’m proposing in this article is based on my aspirations and intentions. Some may want to point out that I may fail. Sad to say, there are always people like that in this industry, and the best thing to do with them is to keep them at a distance. We don’t need their negative energy, so we shouldn’t allow them to undermine our confidence. As we know, there are no guarantees for what we are doing, but we have to face any opportunity with confiden…

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