Los Angeles, CA., September 23, 2025 — Blumhouse and K Period Media, the production company founded by Kimberly Steward, announced today their second cohort of nine Fellows selected to participate in BLUMHOUSE AND K PERIOD MEDIA’S SCREAMWRITING FELLOWSHIP. The invitation-only program, created in partnership with Sundance Institute, was established in 2023 to provide support and mentorship to emerging film and television writers aspiring to work in the horror genre. The nonprofit program is being run through the K Period Media Foundation, a fund of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, and is being led by independent producer Loretta Ramos, who serves as the Fellowship’s Senior Director. 

This year’s nine participants were selected to further develop their scripts with the guidance and mentorship of accomplished filmmakers and executives. In addition to a week-long intensive to focus on developing their projects and honing their skills, participants will receive targeted mentorship and continued support throughout the year. 

The Fellows came together for the first time in-person this week at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX, the largest gathering of genre film enthusiasts. Invited by the festival’s organizers, the Fellows immersed themselves in a vibrant celebration of bold, boundary-pushing storytelling that reflects the spirit of the genre they’re working to shape. The group’s week-long intensive lab kicks off in December in Los Angeles with the generous support of filmmaking advisors Ryan Murphy, Roy Lee, Christopher Landon, Alexis Jacknow, Mike Flanagan, Jacob Chase, Akela Cooper, Raelle Tucker, Michael Mohan, and industry advisers including Neon’s Christian Parkes, 2AM’s Christina D’Souza Gelb, Shudder’s Nick Lazo, Ted Hope and Universal Pictures’ Dwight Caines.

“Horror has always been a launchpad for bold new voices, and this year’s Fellows are no exception. Each of them brings distinct vision and ambition to the genre, and I’m excited to see their ideas sharpen and come alive through the Fellowship,” said Loretta Ramos, Senior Director of the Fellowship. “We’re incredibly grateful to the team at Fantastic Fest for welcoming our Fellows so generously and giving them the chance to engage with such a passionate and inspiring creative community.”

“Our goal is not just to nurture great projects, but to nurture great careers. By investing in these emerging voices, we’re helping build the next generation of artists who will shape the future of entertainment,” said K Period Media founder Kimberly Steward.

“There are as many types of horror as there are human fears. So there’s a need for every voice in horror – and these emerging filmmakers will be part of the next generation of artists that keep the genre vital and thriving,” said Blumhouse CEO and founder Jason Blum. “I’m grateful to our partners at K Period Media and Sundance Institute for devoting their time and resources to building this essential program.”

The nine projects selected for the 2025 SCREAMWRITERS FELLOWSHIP and the nine artists participating are:

Sean Addo with Rooted: After a mysterious mask accompanies his DNA results, an Afro-Latino man must unlock its dark secret to uncover his missing girlfriend and confront a haunting legacy that once sealed his African ancestors.

Sean Addo is a Ghanaian-American, EMMY-nominated filmmaker who fuses identity, diversity, and African heritage into bold, genre-bending stories. A former college football player turned filmmaker, he earned his MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where his award-winning thesis Deeper Than Black explored his experience as a third-cultured Ghanaian-American.

Sean sharpened his craft shadowing the late John Singleton on FX’s Snowfall, an experience that reignited his directing ambitions. He co-founded IV Sight Pictures, creating short-form projects for television and developing original features such as Amerikafo, The Homesick, and Kings. His short film Rooted premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and is now in feature development. A fellow of Facebook Seen’s New Black Filmmakers, Panavision’s New Filmmakers Program, and a recent alum of The Handy Foundation, Sean’s work has also been championed through Sundance and Blackhouse producers’ programs. 

Mashael Alqahtani with Sila: Based on an Arab legend. When a sheltered Muslim teen girl inherits a mysterious, demonic hunger for human flesh, she teams up with a shady loner to hide her transformation from her strict, religious mother— before she consumes those she loves the most.

Mashael Alqahtani is a Saudi Arabian, Muslim writer based between Los Angeles and Saudi Arabia. Her work depicts characters confronting their stunted adolescence, innermost desires, and the horrifying perils of being a grown-up. Mashael earned a BA in Film Production from Emerson College, an MFA in Writing for Screen & Television from USC, and *another* MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute – feel free to ask her why she literally can’t stop going to school. Mashael’s action-comedy feature, Tafheet, was a 2024 Script Pipeline First Look Winner. Mashael spends her free time baking, doom-scrolling, and spinning basketballs on her fingertips.

Afshin Hatami with Charlie Eats: An alienated food influencer grows increasingly radical in his mission to share his love of food.

Afshin Hatami is an Iranian-American filmmaker born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. After four years in the Midwest for university, he moved back to New York, where he worked in advertising and wrote a dating column for Cosmopolitan, otherwise known as his Don Draper meets Carrie Bradshaw phase. As a copywriter he worked on acclaimed ad campaigns starring the likes of Tina Fey and Carrie Brownstein for global brands. Since leaving advertising to pursue filmmaking, he’s directed and produced several music videos and short films. Afshin is drawn to stories that mix dark satire with psychological terror and social commentary. His work often examines the way class and power shape identity and social expectation. When he’s not writing or directing, he’s daydreaming of a Knicks championship.

Neil Ferron with Fishmonger: In this supernatural dark comedy, a pathetic Irish fishmonger must survive a sex pact with an ancient fish creature in order to save his mother’s soul from burning in hell.

Neil Ferron is a Seattle-born writer/director currently based in Los Angeles.  His work is forever an attempt to merge the terrifying and the ridiculous.

Neil’s first feature screenplay, Fishmonger, a supernatural dark comedy about Irish tentacle sex and vulnerability, won the Grand Prize of the Slamdance Screenplay Competition.  His AFI thesis, a short film version of Fishmonger, was nominated for a Student Emmy and received a Cannes Lions Young Directors Award, before its world premiere at Fantastic Fest and its European premiere at Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.

Neil’s work has won accolades in film, theater, and fiction and been described as “wonderfully surreal” (Sub Pop), and “shocking, horrific, and funny” (Rolling Stone). Neil is a recent graduate of the Directing Fellowship at the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory.  He holds a Masters in Theater from Trinity College Dublin, thanks to a George J. Mitchell Scholarship.

Joanna Fernandez with Baba Yaga: When a small squad of British soldiers is tasked with hunting down a high-level deserter in a remote forest, they become hunted by the dreaded Baba Yaga, an evil crone whose breath can melt a man’s face off. As paranoia mounts and blood spills, they must race against the clock to complete their mission and wage a very different kind of war for survival.

Joanna Fernandez is a genre writer and director whose short film, The Things We Keep, premiered at Sundance 2025. With a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Joanna’s time as a disgruntled Catholic schoolgirl left her with a lifelong curiosity about religious extremism and unsettling stories in scripture. While pursuing her MFA, Joanna earned the Jeffrey Jones Award for Excellence in Writing and the Fox Fellowship Endowment. Her short film Seraphim won the Jury Award at the Austin Film Festival, and her work has been featured in Filmquest, Screamfest, and NYLFF. She has served as a showrunner’s assistant on the sci-fi series Beacon 23 and interned at Martin Scorsese’s production company, Sikelia. Joanna’s work often explores the origins of myth, the complexities of morality, and the study of monsters and scapegoats. 

Alvaro Furloni and Mario Furloni with American Demon: In search of a better life for himself and his teenage son, an undocumented immigrant takes a job allowing himself to be possessed by a demon.

Alvaro Furloni is a Brazilian filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. He began his career in Rio de Janeiro, where he co-founded the production company Segunda-Feira Filmes and directed a range of educational and commercial content, as well as six short films and one feature.

His short works include Esconde-Esconde, winner of three awards at the 40th Festival de Brasília, and animated short The Man in the Box, which received the Audience Award at Anima Mundi in 2018. Together with his brother, Mario Furloni, Alvaro also wrote and directed Frio, Brazil’s nominee for the 26th Student Academy Awards, and Someone is Happy Somewhere, an official selection of the San Francisco International Film Festival and Aspen Shortsfest.

His feature debut, psychological drama Homem Livre, was released in Brazilian theaters shortly before Alvaro relocated to Canada, where he currently works as a picture editor and sound designer.

Mario Furloni is a filmmaker whose work spans directing, writing, and cinematography. His feature directorial debut Freeland premiered at SXSW to critical acclaim and won several awards on the international festival circuit. A graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism with a focus on documentary filmmaking, he has established himself as a cinematographer known for his naturalistic approach. His camerawork can be seen in critically-acclaimed films including the documentary The Return and Crip Camp, Oscar® -nominated for Best Documentary Feature. He is a founding member of the Brazilian Filmmakers Collective, and half of the Furloni Brothers duo. Together, the Furloni Brothers have created shorts including Frio and Someone is Happy Somewhere.

Jorge Rivera with It Wants Us Dead: An expectant mother faces off with an ancient evil that has tormented generations of her family since the Taíno genocide of Puerto Rico. After five hundred years, the entity finally means to claim the prize it could never secure — the soul of the Arawak tribe’s matriarch, reincarnated within the mother’s unborn child.

Jorge Rivera is a former true crime TV producer who now writes fictionalized murders instead of producing stories about real ones. He has produced 50+ true crime episodes on various series for the Investigation Discovery Network, including its highest-rated show premiere and a People’s Choice Award nominee. Jorge is of Puerto Rican and Indigenous descent, a registered member of the Higuayagua Taíno Tribe of the Caribbean, and a staunch advocate of Latine and Indigenous representation in Hollywood. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, and his spirit animal, and has a healthy respect (and disdain) for the cops, criminals, and Catholicism that populated his childhood. 

Warren Wagner with The Only Safe Place Left is The Dark: An HIV-Positive gay man must leave the relative safety of his cabin in the woods to brave the zombie apocalypse and find the medication he needs to stay alive.

Warren Wagner is a queer American screenwriter and author currently living in Canada. His work has been recognized by several industry competitions, most notably as a finalist in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Wagner is currently co-writing the feature adaptation of the bestselling YA horror novel Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White, alongside screenwriter Alvaro Rodriguez (MACHETE, AMERICAN RUST). The project is being produced by Lilly Wachowski’s Anarchists United, Trustbridge Entertainment, and Powerhouse Animation Studios. In 2023, he published his debut novella The Only Safe Place Left is The Dark with Ghoulish Books. His work often draws from personal history and lived experience, and he is particularly interested in stories that center queer identity in bold and unexpected ways. 

About Blumhouse:

Founded by CEO Jason Blum, Blumhouse is a film, television and gaming company regarded as the driving force in horror. Following its merger with James Wan’s Atomic Monster in January 2024, the combined companies are responsible for nearly $9 Billion in worldwide box office, and have represented nearly 50% of the horror market in the last ten years. 

Together the two companies have produced nearly 250 movies and television series, including the most successful horror franchise in history with the Conjuring Universe, making Blum and Wan the most prolific and successful independent producers of the last decade. The combined companies are home to the highest number of ongoing franchises of any studio, including Halloween, The Conjuring, The Purge, The Black Phone, Annabelle, Paranormal Activity, The Exorcist, Insidious, The Nun, M3GAN, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, along with iconic films from cinematic visionaries including Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash and Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. 

In addition to film, Blumhouse produces provocative scripted and unscripted television series and documentaries, including the upcoming original series The Bondsman, starring Kevin Bacon and from creator Grainger David and showrunner Erik Oleson, for Prime Video; Worst Roommate Ever, and Worst Ex Ever for Netflix, which established Blumhouse Television’s first franchise, and The Jinx for HBO. The company also recently launched a games division and its first game, Fear The Spotlight was critically acclaimed. 

Blumhouse was honored by Fast Company as one of its Most Innovative Companies in 2024 and one of its Brands That Matter in 2023. In addition, Jason Blum was named to the Annenberg Initiative’s first-ever Inclusion List as one of the Top Inclusive Producers from 2019-2022, with three films appearing on the list of Top 100 Most Inclusive Films. The company is investing in its brand development and connection with audiences through its consistent presence at Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights, its first Halfway to Halloween Film Festival with AMC and its upcoming transformation of an exhibit space at the iconic Stanley Hotel from The Shining. 

About K Period Media:

Founded by Kimberly Steward in 2013, K Period Media is a production company committed to developing, financing, and producing quality films and content for a variety of platforms. K Period Media exists to incubate the boldest ideas from emerging, diverse creatives. To date it’s films include the award-winning documentary Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers And The Emergence Of A People, Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, and the acclaimed feature Manchester By The Sea, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Most recently K Period produced The Accidental Getaway Driver, which won the US Dramatic Directing Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival for director Sing J Lee.

The K Period Media Foundation (KPMF) was established in 2022 as the philanthropic arm of K Period Media. KPMF is a fiscally sponsored fund housed at the Entertainment Industry Foundation, focused on harnessing the power of art and storytelling to build a more inclusive world. The Foundation’s mission is to amplify narratives that reflect the truths of our world, to foster equitable representation, access and opportunity in the creative industry, and to mobilize communities around the biggest issues of our time.

About Sundance Institute:

As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Institute Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance Institute advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me by Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Dìdi (弟弟), Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, Fruitvale Station, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, RBG, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of such artists as Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Nia DaCosta, Ryan Coogler, The Daniels, Robert Eggers, Rick Famuyiwa, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Marielle Heller, Miranda July, Nikyatu Jusu, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Boots Riley, A.V. Rockwell, Ira Sachs, Walter Salles, Quentin Tarantino, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, Sean Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Bluesky.

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