NYU’s Purple List Announces Four 2024 Winners

New York University announced its 2024 Purple List-the best production-ready screenplays from Tisch School of the Arts graduate film students and recent alumni-at a celebration on April 17 featuring a keynote from filmmaker Nicholas Colia, who recently completed his 2022 Purple List winner, Griffin in Summer, which will premiere at the Tribeca Festival in June.

The Purple List is modeled after the Black List, the annual survey of the best unproduced scripts that was launched in 2004 by filmmaker Franklin Leonard. NYU's list showcases the diverse voices and stories that were chosen by industry leaders in a blind read process.

Created in 2012 by alumni Ashim Bhalla and Shandor Garrison and faculty member John Tintori, the Purple List has an impressive track record. In addition to Colia's film, which is expected to make its film festival premiere this year, Raha Amirfazli premiered her film, In the Land of Brothers, a 2021 Purple List screenplay, at Sundance in January, winning the prestigious Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic. Other previous Purple List filmmakers include Laurel Parmet (The Starling Girl), Imran Khan, (Mustache), Cathy Yan (Birds of Prey), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), and Shaka King (Judas and the Black Messiah).

This year's winners include a drama about a Cambodian woman after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, a dramatic comedy about a gay comic who returns to his native Boston stand-up scene, a comedic drama about the opening of a drive-thru condom shop in a Catholic town, and a comedy about a college dropout who gets involved in cryptocurrency.

"The 2024 Purple List screenplays take us on vivid journeys, from the idealist birth of Bitcoin to the decades-long romance of Cambodian immigrants, from a controversial Rhode Island drive-thru condom shop to the perils of life and love as a stand-up comic," says Garrison. "These are some of the most heartfelt, funny, and unique stories in the Purple List's 14-year history, written by breakout creators who the film industry will be talking about for years to come."'

The four winners were selected by a panel of 66 judges that included producers, agents, managers, screenwriters, and directors.

"Every year our panel of industry leaders selects an eclectic mix of incredible screenplays, and every year previous Purple List winners wrap production, premiere at top festivals and distribute compelling films," Bhalla says. "There's a lot of industry talk about supporting emerging talent and independent filmmaking, and I'd love to see the industry step up with funding in addition to words of support."

The 2024 Winners
Blue Comedy by Vincent Lee Accettola
Atticus Balzak, a middle aged and internationally recognized comedian, has just come out as gay when he meets Andrew Johnson, a law school dropout with aspirations in stand-up. The pair travel to Boston, Atticus's hometown, where the veteran mentors his friend, and introduces him to his daughter Kaitlin. As they work on their sets, the comedians become entangled in an unorthodox love triangle. A cross-country tour follows, and Atticus and Andrew struggle with the complicated connection between a comic's successful career and personal unhappiness.

Little Phnom Penh by Chheangkea
A young Cambodian woman must give up a budding relationship for an arranged marriage. Decades later, with her marriage over, she moves to the United States and reconnects with her teenage crush. Spanning three decades and moving from Cambodia to America, Little Phnom Penh is a mediation on mother daughter relationships, love, and the meaning of home.

Rubber Hut by Hanna Gray Organschi
In 1992 Rhode Island, Emanuella DelVecchio, a former flight attendant with an entrepreneurial streak, opened a drive-thru condom shop in her Italian Catholic town. The business exposes a culture clash that pits the town's radical youth, who celebrate Emanuella as a rebel, against those who view her as a threat to the tight-knit community.

Satoshi By Sara Crow and David Rafailedes
A teenage hacker with a love of anime, Kimi drops out of college and returns home to Arizona, where she becomes involved in the birth of cryptocurrency. Kimi's potentially true story explores the radically idealistic origins of Bitcoin and the early cryptocurrency community, whose youthful ideas about creating their own future took a surprising turn.

About the NYU Tisch School of the Arts
For over 50 years, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts has drawn on the vast artistic and cultural resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for the individual artist and scholar of the arts. Today, students learn their craft in a spirited, risk-taking environment that combines the professional training of a conservatory with the liberal arts education of a premier global university with campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and 11 academic centers around the world. Learn more at www.tisch.nyu.edu.

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