From Lake Bell to Jesse Eisenberg, a Sundance screenwriting prize has gone to people who wrote their own films, at a time when a manager says knowing your leverage is the key

Many of the screenwriters whose work is celebrated also direct. For them, the script is not a document handed to someone else but the first stage of a film they will make. The Sundance Film Festival’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award has honoured a series of such writer-directors, and a November 2025 Sundance Institute article, Meet the Artist videos with six winners, collects them. At a time when screenwriting jobs have contracted, the writer-director route is worth understanding as one way to hold on to creative control.

The Six Winners

The Sundance page lists six writer-directors whose films won the award, each with the year the film premiered at the festival. Lake Bell won for In a World, which premiered in 2013. Craig Johnson won for The Skeleton Twins, in 2014, co-written with Mark Heyman. Chad Hartigan won for Morris From America, in 2016. Christina Choe won for Nancy, in 2018. Pippa Bianco won for Share, in 2019. Jesse Eisenberg won for A Real Pain, in 2024. The article opens with the line that great filmmaking starts with great writing, and the videos show the filmmakers discussing their inspirations, writing processes and the stories that led them to write their films.

The page itself does not quote the filmmakers’ specific advice, so their tips are in the videos and not in the text. It also does not explain the award’s criteria or how winners are selected, and it gives the premiere years of the films, not the year of each award. A careful reader should therefore treat the list as a record of films and not as a statement of rules.

What the List Shows

The winners are a varied group, spanning comedy, family drama, coming-of-age stories and thrillers. What unites them is that the writer and director are the same person, or in one case part of a writing partnership, and that the films have distinctive voices. That is not a coincidence. An independent film needs a script that is specific and a creator who will carry the project through years of development.

Why Combine the Roles

A writer who directs controls how the script is interpreted. A director who writes is not dependent on a studio assigning material. For those who have the skills and stamina for both, the combination reduces the number of people who can say no. It also gives a buyer a package: a script and a person who can make it.

The costs are real. Directing takes years, financing is hard and many writers have no wish to direct. A writer-director who is also the producer carries financial and emotional risks. Some writers prefer to collaborate with a director they trust and concentrate on writing. The point is not that every writer should direct, but that the choice exists, and that those who make it do so for reasons that go beyond ego.

A Manager’s View of Leverage

In a May 2026 assessment of the market, Raquelle David, a Los Angeles manager, advised writers to know their leverage. She pointed to Ryan Coogler’s deal for Sinners, which she says included final cut, first-dollar gross participation and rights reverting to him after 25 years, as a demonstration of what creators can negotiate. That is her account, from a post that also promotes her own services, and the details of the deal are not independently confirmed in the source. The principle, however, applies at every level: a writer or writer-director who owns something the market wants is in a stronger position than one who is simply hired.

For most writers, leverage is smaller but still real. It may be an original idea, an attached actor or director, a financing partner, a following or the ability to deliver a script on a short timetable and a small budget. Identifying what you bring, and protecting it in negotiation, is part of the job.

Practical Lessons

First, write what you can make. A script that requires a vast budget depends on someone else’s money, but one that can be made on a modest budget can be made by you. Second, build relationships with collaborators, such as cinematographers, producers and actors, who may become partners. Third, use short films, festival submissions and labs to learn and to demonstrate ability. Fourth, understand your rights: who owns the script, what happens if a project stalls, and whether rights revert. Fifth, treat the film as a business, with a budget and a plan.

The Festival Route

Festivals like Sundance offer a path from small films to wider distribution. The awards and labs they run give emerging filmmakers visibility and support. As the other pieces in this series show, there are also competitions, lists and workshops that can help. None of them guarantees success, but together they form an ecosystem in which a distinctive script can find an audience.

British film has its own traditions of writers and directors who made their own work, and our London pages have visited the places where that happened, including the leafy suburb that once made the movies, the East End birthplace of a film legend and a shrine to the picture palace. For wider context, see our guide to British pop culture and television, and for American coverage Bohiney Magazine.

For some lighter reading, Newsthump has the news of the day.

SOURCE: bohiney.com