Master Class Tickets on Sale: Alexander Dinelaris

Last week HIFF announced the first-ever public event associated with the Annual Screenwriters Lab: a Master Class with Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris on Saturday, April 9, at 5:30 pm at the Ross School in East Hampton. Tickets are now on sale!

dinelaris birdman

The annual Screenwriters Lab which pairs emerging screenwriters with established screenwriters, directors and producers for a collaborative weekend of one-on-one mentoring sessions, will be held April 8-10, 2016, in East Hampton. For the first time, the public will be invited to experience this feature of the Lab.

Dinelaris, who took home the Oscar for his screenplay for last year’s Best Picture BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) (HIFF 2014), joined the 2015 Lab as a mentor.

“Alex was one of the most exciting parts of last year’s Lab. His passion, insight, and tales of working on the most celebrated film of last year had us all enthralled. We at HIFF wanted our audiences to have the chance to hear from him as well, and our first Master Class will allow that to happen,” explained HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent.

In the Master Class, Dinelaris will take participants through all the stages of a critically acclaimed project, from the original writing phase to how a film’s script changes and morphs through to the final edited picture. Dinelaris will use film clips to detail all that goes into writing an Oscar-winning script such as BIRDMAN.

Don’t miss this special opportunity to hear from one of the most talented writers working in film! The Master Class will take place at 5:30 pm on Saturday, April 9, at the Ross School in East Hampton.

Seats are limited, and tickets are on sale now.

buy tickets

HIFF Members, email membership@hamptonsfilmfest.org to reserve your complimentary seat!

Learn more about the Screenwriters Lab.


Alex Dinelaris is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winner for the screenplay of BIRDMAN (OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE). This year, he was a co-producer of THE REVENANT. He is the show runner, co-creator and executive producer of the upcoming series The One Percent for the Starz network, starring Ed Helms, Hilary Swank and Ed Harris. His feature film THE YEAR OF THE MONARCHS is currently in development with Mandalay Entertainment. Dinelaris is also the author of the hit Broadway musical On Your Feet!, the story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan. Other recent work includes The Bodyguard musical for the West End and his plays Red Dog Howls (New York Theater Workshop), Still Life (Manhattan Class Company), The Chaos Theories (Shotgun Theater) and In This, Our Time. Dinelaris is a proud member of the Writers Guild and the Dramatists Guild.