RNCI presents 'Native Women Write' Conversation Series
Native Women Write
In partnership with AMC Networks, RNCI’s program ‘Native Women Write’ offers emerging Native Indigenous screenwriters an opportunity to get their script in front of experienced industry professionals.
AMC Networks is honored to provide hands-on access, education and new mentoring opportunities to members of the Red Nation Celebration Institute (RNCI), an organization that is at the forefront of bringing Native American and Indigenous creators into television and film.
“The top 3 writers selected from this year’s Native Women Write will meet with AMCN & RNCI executives, with the first prize winner receiving an exclusive opportunity with AMC Networks”
Congrats to the TOP 3 Writers Selected for 2023!
A 2025 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Report
Women directed only 8.1% of top films in 2025. And those films matter more than the number suggests.
Because when women direct, they hire other women… to act, to write, to shoot, to produce. One decision behind the camera changes an entire ecosystem.
In 2025, the women directing top films included:
- Nisha Ganatra (Freakier Friday)
- Emma Tammi (Five Nights at Freddy’s 2)
- Domee Shi & Madeline Sharafian (Elio)
- Celine Song (Materialists)
- Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (I Know What You Did Last Summer)
- Maggie Kang (KPop Demon Hunters)
- Hikari (Rental Family)
- Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) – RNIFF Alumni
This is how progress actually compounds. Not through abstract parity, but through real people holding real power and bringing others with them.
These films exist, these women are working, and showing up for them changes the math.
Rent them. Watch them. Recommend them. That’s how systems move.
Program Overview
Native Women Write™ began in 2010, is an intensive scriptwriting lab that is designed to develop native women writers to further their careers in film and television industry.
Industry professionals work with a hand full of native women writers, during the each scheduled program. In addition the lab will develop drama and comedy writers for jobs at a television networks, film studio and Red Nation Television Network.
NWIFTV Fellow 2026
Elizabeth Sage Cecilia Galesi a Yale graduate, born Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache, Italian, SpanishSephardic. Before graduating at Yale Ms. Galesi developed a feature script, based on a book titled Second Sunrise. Currently, being pitched.
Scholarship Program
University scholarship awards for Native and Indigenous high school seniors from underserved communities, provided through RNCI’s acclaimed NWIFTV Native Women Write Mentorship Program, expanding access to higher education and creative career pathways.
The program pairs some of the brightest young women from underserved high schools across Los Angeles and Tribal Reservations with some of the most powerful female executives in film and TV.
NWIFTV Fellow 2023
Mentorship Program
Native Women Write is a mentorship program scaling its impact to empower the next generation of Native and Indigenous women storytellers-writers, producers, directors, and crew to build sustainable careers across film and television.
Loretta Todd
Fellow 2023
Julianna Maggrah
Fellow 2023
Heather Dawn
Fellow 2023
Megan June
Fellow 2023
Fellow 2023
Fellow 2023
Fellow 2023
Fellow 2023
Fellow 2024
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A 2025 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Report
Women directed only 8.1% of top films in 2025. And those films matter more than the number suggests.
Because when women direct, they hire other women… to act, to write, to shoot, to produce. One decision behind the camera changes an entire ecosystem.
In 2025, the women directing top films included:
- Nisha Ganatra (Freakier Friday)
- Emma Tammi (Five Nights at Freddy’s 2)
- Domee Shi & Madeline Sharafian (Elio)
- Celine Song (Materialists)
- Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (I Know What You Did Last Summer)
- Maggie Kang (KPop Demon Hunters)
- Hikari (Rental Family)
- Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) – RNIFF Alumni
This is how progress actually compounds. Not through abstract parity, but through real people holding real power and bringing others with them.
These films exist, these women are working, and showing up for them changes the math.
Rent them. Watch them. Recommend them. That’s how systems move.
Native Women Write is made possible through gifts, grants and sponsorships.
National Endowment for the Arts
NoVo Foundation
Joanelle Romero
SYCUAN Band of the Kumeyaay Nation
Give your support to Native Women Write.
Become a NWIFTV Mentorship Program and Scholarship Fund Partner
NWIFTV 'ON THE ROAD'
Red Nation Celebration Institute (RNCI) a nonprofit organization, is the longest-running, successful Native women-led, Indigenous media arts and cultural enterprise in the history of the entertainment industry – representing 575+ Native Nations! Red Nation Celebration Institute, in being the first to create the largest Native Indigenous Film Festival in the country ‘Red Nation International Film Festival,’ to the first streaming network (predating Netflix and all others) ‘Red Nation Television Network,’ to Native Women in Film & Television in All Media and Native Indigenous Student Academy for Cinematic Arts. The Creative Enterprise by Natives delivering to all people the stories that shape our world.
RNCI is a year-round nonprofit arts media & culture organization based in Los Angeles CA and New Mexico, founded by Joanelle Romero in 1995 during the famous Indian Market in Santa Fe NM.
- NEW YORK CITY- April 20th -May 1st, 2026
- PARIS FRANCE- MAY 12 -23, 2026
- SANTA FE NM- AUGUST 13 – 15, 2026
RNCI Year-Round Program Calendar
The Red Nation Celebration Institute Programs focus on the specific development of storytellers from Native and Indigenous backgrounds, encompassing feature film and episodic work. Fellows will receive hands-on support from the Institute and advisors, including one-on-one feedback sessions and roundtable discussions.
A look inside our Creative Program Labs and Intensives
Coming Soon......
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Native Women in Film & Television in All Media – Film Festival. The first and largest representation of Native and Indigenous Women Filmmakers. NWIFTV is a program of Red Nation Celebration Institute.
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