CAPE & The Black List Returns With 10 Feature Screenplay Finalists

EXCLUSIVE: Back after three years, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and the Black List have selected 10 screenwriters over a variety of genres for the fourth CAPE List.

Drawing from all avenues of the AANHPI community, the deep talent bench of the 2024 list features scripts about gunslingers, the aftermath of 9/11, Korean folk horror, the private origins of pop hits and awakening on a 1980s Irish strawberry farm. Adding to scope of skills on display, a number of the 2024 finalists like Sinuous author Sam Boyer and 56 A.P.O. scribe Vineet Dewan have appeared on previous versions of the CAPE List and The Black List itself, as well as the Indigenous List.

“CAPE is thrilled to return with the Black List for our fourth iteration to continue the legacy of the previous three CAPE Lists,” said Michelle K. Sugihara, CAPE Executive Director of the 2019 launched initiative’s first list since 2021. “These 10 new scripts highlight a refreshing array of stories from our various communities, including western, horror, historical, comedy, and others, and we want to see them all get made,” adds Sugihara.

“As always, it’s a real joy to work with CAPE on anything, especially something that helps identify and amplify the visibility of these incredible scripts,” Black List founder Franklin Leonard stated of the fourth CAPE List and today’s finalists. “Read these. Make these. We will all be better off when people do.”

Having recently expanded into publishing, the Black List will be dropping further diversity lists over the next several months. In addition, the 20th annual Black List itself is expected to be announced in December.

Check out the full list of the 2024 CAPE List finalists here:

56 A.P.O. – Vineet Dewan         

When a colonial soldier goes missing in WWII, his best friend embarks on a perilous and surreal odyssey as an army mailman in order to find him. Inspired by actual events.

DON’T FREAK – Bryson Chun and Tara Aquino   

What do you do when your ex writes a song about you and becomes the biggest popstar in the world? If ditch school with your best friend, steal a horse, and crash Good Morning America to confront her were on your breakup bingo card, then you win!

GOOD CHIPS – Brigid Mai Khanh Leahy and Nell Hensey

1980s Ireland. While her family struggles financially to keep their takeaway van afloat, a young Vietnamese girl takes up a summer job on a strawberry farm. Here she befriends a playful Irish boy who opens up her world.

GUNSLINGER BRIDE – Charmaine Colina

A defiant Chinese-American gunslinger, with a bounty on her head, poses as a mail-order bride to hide from the law and avenge her family’s murder.

RISING SON – Junot Lee

An inquisitive girl untangles fact from fiction in her grandpa’s fantastical stories that mask the brutal realities he faced while serving in the 442nd RCT, the segregated unit of Japanese American soldiers in WWII.

SINUOUS – Sam Boyer

A newlywed adapting to life in the Pacific Northwest struggles to protect his wife when strange neighbors arrive in pursuit of a demon hiding on their street. A modern retelling of the Chinese folk tale, “Legend of the White Snake.”

SUN-YO – Jean E. Lee

A Korean folk horror tale of a desperate 12 year-old girl who summons the occult to save her dying mother, only to unleash a bird-like creature with an appetite for human flesh.

THE BLACK BANNERS – Sharat Raju

In the days immediately following 9/11, an ambitious Arab American FBI agent must gain the trust of Bin Laden’s imprisoned bodyguard in order to thwart another attack on the United States. Based on a true story.

THIRSTYGIRL – Alexandra Qin              

When Charlie is forced to drive her estranged younger sister cross-country to rehab, her own secret addiction comes to the surface in the most devastating and hilarious ways.

TWENTY-TWO – Stefanie Mah Woodburn          

After her fiancé rejects her at the altar and wants a year to sow his wild oats, a timid woman embarks on a quest to sleep her way through 22 men like Catherine the Great to gain experience and power – but will she find love in the process? Legally Blonde meets American Pie.