Screenwriting: Anatomy of a Scene With Diana Peralta

Saturday September 7th, join Third Horizon and Cinemóvil for a workshop and film screening with filmmaker Diana Peralta. This event is part of a 2-day series of workshops, .

Workshop

Diana Peralta will start off with a presentation on the anatomy of a scene - its highs and lows, and turning points. The presentation will include best practices, revisiting the rules of traditional 3 act scene structure, and then learning how to break them. After the lecture, we'll do a hands-on workshop, where we'll table-read and analyze scenes from great directors and then select 2-3 scenes from the participants to read as a group, analyze, and workshop together.

Prior to the workshop, if you’d like your scene to be considered for a group table-read, please submit a 2-5 page scene. Please note: we can’t guarantee that your scene will be selected. Email scenes to

Along with your scene, please provide:

• Screenplay title
• Logline
• Brief character descriptions for any characters that appear in the scenes they submit.

Please also be prepared to briefly talk about their story to the group if your scene gets selected.

Criteria for scenes submitted:

• Should be a dramatic narrative scene with dialogue, no longer than 5 pages
• The scene should incorporate at least 2-3 characters
• The scene should involve a protagonist with a want, a clear and simple conscious goal. This protagonist should also face some kind of "conflict" or obstacle in this scene (we'll discuss this in more detail in the workshop)

Sibling bonds are both rekindled and tested in the achingly alive feature debut from Diana Peralta. Rita (Sasha Merci) and Carolina (Darlene Demorizi), two high-spirited sisters raised in New York, travel to the Dominican Republic to reunite with their estranged brother Dante (Héctor Aníbal) and to clean out their grandparents’ old home before it is sold and knocked down. As they rifle through the remnants of their family’s legacy, shared joys, pains, and traumas that they must confront once and for all resurface. Sensitively attuned to the intricacies of sibling relationships—from the playful teasing to the way a favorite childhood song can trigger an impromptu dance party—DE LO MIO weaves a richly human story about cherishing the past while learning to let go.

Diana Peralta is a Dominican-American writer, director, and creative producer from New York City. She is a 2024 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow and was featured in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film". Diana’s debut feature film, DE LO MIO (Criterion / Janus Films), had its world premiere as the closing night film of BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and was initially distributed by HBO. The film was awarded "Best Narrative Feature" at IndieMemphis Film Festival. Diana is in development on her second feature, NO LOVE LOST, which has been supported by the Sundance Feature Film Labs, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. She currently teaches directing at Columbia University's Film MFA program. Aside from her film work, Diana worked as a creative producer in advertising for 10 years. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Film & Media Studies in 2011.

**PLEASE NOTE: Guests can choose to participate in the workshop, attend the film screening or both. If you plan to attend both make sure you RSVP for each. The screening is open to all audiences, regardless of whether or not you participated in the workshop, you can still RSVP for the screening alone.

Host or Publisher Third Horizon Film Festival