The 2016 Nashville Writers Conference Is Underway!

The Nashville Writers Conference, which is presented by the Nashville Film Festival and ScreenCraft, has officially opened.

The opening reception began at 5pm and went well into the night with a mix of Nashville Film Festival and Nashville Writers Conference attendees — filmmakers, screenwriters, producers, etc.

The VIP tent was full of great conversation and chance meetings with some of the film industry's greats. Hollywood screenwriter Mark Bomback (The upcoming War for the Planet of the Apes, The Wolverine, Total Recall, Unstoppable, and Live Free or Die Hard) to the left and Napoleon Dynamite producer Sean Covel to the right — and many more.

WriterDuet, the new and amazing screenwriting software designed by Guy Goldstein, was center stage in the VIP tent with a full interactive display that everyone could tinker with. Guy was on hand to answer any and all questions. The software was designed to be intuitive and powerful, so it would be loved by professionals and first-timers alike. Guy made sure it could do almost everything (important) that the main competitor could do, including matching their default line lengths and page breaking. He then added dozens of features that they don’t do. These features range from ground-breaking (real-time collaboration) to time-saving (automatic infinite revision tracking) to super-convenient (importing/exporting Final Draft, Celtx, Fountain, and PDF files). The software was designed by a writer, for writers, with input directly from writers.

Thursday and Friday of the Nashville Writers Conference will showcase a full day's worth of industry panels and sessions, followed by VIP tent happy hours, and late night gatherings. Friday will see the afternoon Big Pitch Event where screenwriters will have a chance to pitch to the industry professionals, including producers, agents, managers, etc.

These types of events are key ways for as-yet-discovered screenwriters to be able to mingle with the power players in the industry in a casual setting atmosphere, giving them the chance to break the ice, pitch if the conversation comes to it, or at the very least... network.

From Left to Right: Darla Phillips (2016 ScreenCraft Fellowship Quarter-finalist), Rebecca Williams Spindler (2014 ScreenCraft Fellowship Semi-Finalist and 2014 ScreenCraft Family-Friendly Script Contest Quarter-finalist), and Sarah Hopkins (2015 ScreenCraft Action & Thriller Script Contest Runner-up).

It's fun. It's informative. And it can open doors if you're willing to step through them.

Stay tuned for updates from the Thursday and Friday panels and sessions!

We'd like to thank all of our sponsors for helping us put on such an outstanding event: