If you’ve ever seen Airplane, The Straight Story, Barbershop, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, or Twelve Years a Slave you’ve watched a film penned by a Wisconsinite. The Wisconsin Screenwriters’ Symposium was born out of a desire to help nurture the craft of writing for the screen and promote more storytelling talent from the Badger State.
Founded by Michael Graf and Aaron Greer in 2023, the Wisconsin Screenwriters’ Symposium (WSS) was created with the idea that film and TV ideas, big and small, can (and should) come from anywhere, and specifically from Wisconsin. Both Graf and Greer are seasoned veterans of the film and television industry, based in Madison Wisconsin, and their vision for WSS was inspired by the programming of film festivals and arts-driven communities that host screenwriting workshops, competitions and events.
The inaugural symposium was launched in April of 2024 on the heels of the ’24 Wisconsin Film Festival, and was received with incredible enthusiasm, spurring Graf and Greer to expand their team, and lay the foundation for an annual event. Now in its second full year, the WSS works in partnership with the UW-Madison Department of Communication Arts and Wisconsin Film Festival to bring producers, screenwriters and industry experts to Madison, to edify and multiply authors and storytellers from Wisconsin.