-- Los Angeles, CA (May 17, 2022) Today, IllumiNative, The Black List, and the Sundance Institute announced the eight finalists of The Indigenous List. These Indigenous screenwriters represent the best and most promising Native creatives in the film and television industry.
The Indigenous List was launched in 2020 to provide a platform for Indigenous writers to showcase their scripts, create additional pathways and opportunities within the industry, and support the development of the next generation of screenwriters. With the recent release of critically acclaimed Native-authored and centered shows, including Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs, as well as complex and powerful films like Wild Indian and Night Raiders, there has been a rise in demand for Native created and led stories.
This year's Indigenous List writers will have the opportunity to meet with four Indigenous creatives who have first look and/or overall development deals at major studios, including; Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache), producer and former director of the Sundance Indigenous Program, first-look deal for Film and TV at Amazon Studios; Michael Greyeyes (N hiyaw-Plains Cree), critically-acclaimed actor (Wildhood and Firestarter) and director (Acting Good), First-look Film deal at Blumhouse, Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo), showrunner/co-creator Rutherford Falls, Overall TV deal at Universal TV; and Sterlin Harjo (Seminole Creek/Muskogee Creek), showrunner/co-creator of Reservation Dogs, Overall TV deal at FX.
The Indigenous List provides an intimate look at the depth of talent and power of Native creatives in the entertainment industry, said Crystal Echo Hawk, founder and executive director of IllumiNative. These Indigenous writers are leading the way and showing the power of Native authored stories. I'm so grateful to The Black List, the Sundance Institute, and the Indigenous creatives who are supporting the next generation of Native writers.
As always it's a joy to introduce the industry to a new group of incredibly exciting writers and I personally look forward to watching the films and television shows that will be born of these introductions, said Black List founder Franklin Leonard. Everyone should be so lucky as to collaborate with folks like IllumiNative, Sundance Institute, Bird, Michael, Sierra, and Sterlin to do this sort of work. Read these scripts, everyone!
My team and I are thrilled again to be a part of showcasing the best work by Indigenous artists working across a variety of genres, formats, and stylistic approaches. The work in this year's list is a testament to the innovation and creative possibilities of what happens when Indigenous talent makes their own work on their own terms. said Adam Piron, Director of Indigenous Program.
The 2022 Indigenous List screenwriters and their scripts include:
Taietsar n:sere Tai' Leclaire (Kanien'keh :ka) with HOW TO DEAL WITH SYSTEMIC RACISM IN THE AFTERLIFE
Lyle Westman is dead and over it. When he discovers he has to spend 1400 years haunting in redface, he decides to strike back at the systemic problems plaguing the afterlife.
Alex Nystrom (Ojibwe) with BETWEEN
On a mysterious sinking island off the coast of Louisiana, home to a tight-knit Native community, a compulsive man finds himself up against untold tribal secrets, disappearing children, and the unearthing of a repressed traumatic past.
Bryson Chun (Kanaka Maoli) and Tara Aquino (Kanaka Maoli) with DON'T FREAK
What do you do when your ex writes a song about you and becomes the biggest popstar in the world? If you kidnap your best friend, steal a horse, and crash Good Morning America to confront her were on your breakup bingo card, then you win!
Maya Rose Dittloff (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara (MHA Nation)c/ Amskapi Pijkuni) with SWEETNESS OF THE BLOOD
Rose Home Gun returns to her childhood home on the Blackfeet Reservation when ghosts of the past rise to threaten her reality and her sanity.
W.A.W. Parker (Northern Cheyenne) with THE BARON
Love is a battlefield when a brash, flamboyant, gay Prussian military commander runs into his ex at Valley Forge after he's hired by George Washington to whip the fledgling American Army into shape during the darkest days of the Revolutionary War. Comps: THE GREAT meets DICKINSON.
Brian Bahe (Tohono O'odham) with DECOLONIZE
When the United States is given back to Indigenous people, two self-involved millennials are forced into a leadership role they didn't sign up for.
Neil Tinkham (Chamorro) with THE TAOTAOMONA
A child of divorce goes on a hunt to capture a mythical creature that lives in the jungle, serendipitously bringing his family closer in the process.
Kathryn Machi (Cherokee) with JUNE ROSE
In San Francisco in the late 1960s, a housewife and mother of three teenagers belatedly discovers her Cherokee heritage and defies her conservative husband and her Cherokee father to join the Red Power and feminist movements.
Additionally, we are pleased to share the following updates for alumni of the very first Indigenous List:
Joey Clift's BUNKER BOSS and its placement on the inaugural Indigenous List led directly to meetings and writing opportunities on Nickelodeon and PBS projects.
Alika Maikau's Indigenous List script MOLOKA'I BOUND was selected to receive a $500,000 production grant from Google and ARRAY to help further foster its path towards the big screen.
Kathryn Machi was selected as a finalist for the IllumiNative 2022 Pop Culture Producers Program, was a quarterfinalist in the 2020 Big Break TV pilot competition, and has received additional support from Film Collaborative San Francisco. She was signed by her manager, Brian Judy, Bohemia Group, after his read of JUNE ROSE in the summer of 2020. Kathryn's script, FIREBIRD, was optioned by
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
Telestream , the industry's leading provider of content lifecycle management and media workflow orchestration, and Quantum Corporation (NASDAQ: QMCO) today ...
21/01/2026
Lightware s TPN ecosystem brings a new level of predictability and structure to 10G AV-over-IP deployments, offering professional AV integrators a deterministic...
21/01/2026
Wisycom, a global leader in advanced wireless RF solutions, launches its new wideband antenna matrix, MATF, which supports RF and fiber for demanding multi-zone...
21/01/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate how it is powering scalable, future-ready live production at FOMEX 2026, taking place February 2 4 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Exhibi...
21/01/2026
BCNEXXT, the developers of the advanced playout platform Vipe, today announced that OKAST, the monetization-first OTT platform provider, is using BCNEXXT's ...
21/01/2026
Revamped design enables advanced capabilities, leading with powerful IP to HDMI conversion
Magewell, developer of innovative, high-performance video I/O and I...
21/01/2026
Jan 20th 2026, Changsha Kiloview today announced the launch of two major additions to its AV-over-IP ecosystem: the AVX24-4 Media HUB and KiloLink Station, ma...
21/01/2026
Latest version of enterprise-class Buttons brings simple, coherent control to more than 700 professional devices and applications
Bitfocus, the specialist in ...
21/01/2026
Clear-Com is pleased to announce the appointment of Kari Eythorsson as the new Regional Sales Manager (RSM) for Southeast Asia & Australia, based in Singapore,...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
21/01/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Fox as its new Washington Correspondent. Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RT News and has repor...
21/01/2026
From skilled trades to startups, AI's rapid expansion is the beginning of th...
20/01/2026
SVG Sit-Down: BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on the Future of Cloud, Remote, Softwar...
20/01/2026
From architecture to reality: What CBC's Milano Cortina 2026 workflows tell ...
20/01/2026
Milano Cortina 2026: Making the Winter Olympics and Paralympics workflow work fo...
20/01/2026
Countdown to Milano Cortina 2026: SVG Launches SportsTechLive Blog in Lead-up to...
20/01/2026
Grand finale: Rally Saudi Arabia pushes WRC to make the most of cameras and dron...
20/01/2026
State of Change: What's Happening in the Remote-Production Business?NEP Group, Game Creek Video, Dome Productions, Mobile TV Group, Program Productions exec...
20/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: A Look Back at SVG's Complete CoverageGo behind the scenes with ESPN, Game Creek Video, Van Wagner, and the champion Indiana...
20/01/2026
The Gotham, Film Independent, and Creators Coalition on AI Join Alliance
by Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director, Sundance Institute's Artist Programs...
20/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
20/01/2026
December, the first month of winter and the holiday season, has traditionally encouraged families to spend time together in front of the television. During this...
20/01/2026
During December, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.3%, an increase of 0.1 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI TV,...
20/01/2026
Christmas Day is Most-Streamed Day Ever with 55 Billion Viewing Minutes, led by...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Disguise and ASB GlassFloor today announced a strategic partnership that turns the arena floor into a fully customizable interactive digital surface. This will ...
20/01/2026
Last summer, ITV celebrated the tenth anniversary of its popular reality dating show, Love Island. To ramp up the excitement of series 12 (launched in the UK on...
20/01/2026
Berklee's Mark Ethier Named One of SPIN's Most Influential People in Mus...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Emergent, a provider of AI-powered media production solutions, today announced its presence at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, taking place February 3 6, where it will u...
20/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Amend Agreement to All-Cash Transaction
Business
20 January 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
All-C...
20/01/2026
Back to All News
Now You Can Play a Role in Our Live Events With Real-Time Voting
Elmar Nubbemeyer
VP, Member Product
Product
20 January 2026
Global
Link...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Indiana Football's Digital Crew Generate Hyp...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Van Wagner Relies on Experience for Indiana-Miam...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Game Creek Video Fields Premiere IP Compound for...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: For a Slew of Studio Shows, ESPN Turns Hard Rock...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: ESPN's Sweeping Live Game Production Leverag...
19/01/2026
The new L3Harris NOVA binocular system is the every-soldier goggle' - and the beginning of a new era for night-vison capability....
-- Los Angeles, CA (May 17, 2022) Today, IllumiNative, The Black List, and the Sundance Institute announced the eight finalists of The Indigenous List. These Indigenous screenwriters represent the best and most promising Native creatives in the film and television industry. 
