Bennington College, Alma Mater of Brett Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt, Launches Screenwriting MFA

Bennington College has long been known for graduating literary talent, with notable alumni like Brett Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt and Kiran Desai. Now, the Vermont school is looking to break new screenwriting stars.

Bennington is launching an MFA in screenwriting, planning for a two-year low-residency program that will see a small cohort of students participate in four ten-day residencies, two at Bennington in Vermont and two in Los Angeles, as well as eight ten-week online courses.

“This is a unique screenwriting MFA, perfectly suited to our times,” said Theodore Braun, the director of the new Bennington program. “It blends the rigor of residential education with the flexibility of low residency, giving writers anywhere access to Bennington’s humanistic tradition of the liberal arts, elite screenwriter mentors, and the immersive professional energy of Los Angeles.”

Braun notes that the inaugural class will be “just six gifted, driven writers-students who are serious about building a body of work and launching a professional screenwriting career.”

As for faculty, Bennington has lined up working writers that include The Holdovers writer David Hemingson and Bridgerton writer-producer Janet Lin, as well as Alexa Alemanni (The Librarians), Malia Scotch Marmo (Hook) and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas (S.W.A.T. and Friday Night Lights).

Over the course of the program, students will produce feature scripts, spec television episodes, an original pilot and series bible, among other projects. The program will culminate in a capstone industry showcase in Los Angeles.

Bennington has already graduated several well-known screenwriters, including Melissa Rosenberg, responsible for the Twilight adaptations, and Sofia Alvarez, who is behind the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before films. “I think what Bennington excels at — its whole reason for being — is finding, nurturing, and empowering original voices,” offers Rosenberg. “That and the spirit of collaboration make it a wonderful place to launch this new MFA.”