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Author: Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch To Judge This Year’s Moonshot Initiative Film Challenge
Dr. Welch To Judge 2025 Moonshot Initiative Film Challenge
I’m proud to have been asked to serve as a judge for this year’s Moonshot Initiative Film Challenge, designed to help students “Make a short film in one weekend and meet women and gender-expansive people in every role of production”. It takes place in October 2025, in New York.
Moonshot provides cinema-quality equipment courtesy of their sponsors, production insurance, stipends to submit to film fests and more!
You do have to be a member to apply and membership costs $112 a year. If accepted, it is FREE to participate in the challenge. Applications will be open from August 1-31.
It’s my first time being invited to judge the writing in this challenge, and I’m looking forward to reading some innovative scripts that move me emotionally and have something to say about the world.
“Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women” Panel at the Writers Guild Foundation – Friday, August 8, 2025, 7pm
Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women
During every MFA Residency Workshop I moderate a panel of writers – often proudly including one of our MFA alums – and this August we’re doing it again. Join us on Friday, August 8, 2025 from 7:00 PM 8:30 PM at the Writers Guild Foundation (7000 West 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA, 90048) for:
Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women
We’ll explore how writers develop these strong characters, how to approach sensitive scenes intentionally, and how they navigate nuances of character personalities, behaviors, and motivations.
Panelists include:
- Karen Joseph Adcock – Yellowjackets
- Beth Appel – The Sex Lives of College Girls
- Sahar Jahani – Life and Beth (MFA alum!)
- Autumn Joy Jimerson – Forever
- Dr. Rosanne Welch – Moderator/Executive Director, Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting
Get tickts for this WGA Panel Discussion
And if you’d like to see some of our previous WGA panels you can find them on our MFA Website
Rosanne Talks “Why The Monkees Matter” on “Johnny D’s Rock n Roll PhD” Podcast [Video]
![Rosanne Talks “Why The Monkees Matter” on “Johnny D’s Rock n Roll PhD” Podcast [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/monkees-thumbnail-1-1200x675.jpg)
Watch the entire video – Johnny D’s Rock n Roll PhD – Author Rosanne Welch “Why The Monkees Matter”
Get the book, Why The Monkees Matter , from Amazon, Bookshop.org, or McFarland
I had a great conversation about Why The Monkees Matter with the two hosts of “Johnny D’s Rock n Roll PhD”. Often, I speak with people who know the music more than the show – or the show more than the music. Here, both hosts had strong knowledge about both, and then we found out he shared the same top 1 songs as our favs.
Watch the video to learn about the many things the TV show taught us about friendship, going against authority and the patriarchy, and living a life full of passion for art above all things commerce – with lots of hidden nods toward the counter culture of the day (like rescuing a giant marijuana plant from misuse by supervillains who would corrupt its powerful fumes for evil). Yeah, they did a whole show about that!
A complete transcript is available here or on the YouTube Page
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Daughter, Wife, Widow, Screenwriter: The Heroines’ Journey of Dorothy Davenport – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, June 2025
Lois Weber: More than a Writer-Director She’s the Auteur Activist of Early Cinema – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, April 2025
Her Career Outlasted the Hays Code: Kathryn Scola – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, March 2025
Friend and editor Anna Weinstein’s book on Shonda Rhimes make Bloomsbury’s Essential New Books list for film students
Congratulations to my friend and editor Anna Weinstein!
The first book in her “Screen Storytellers” series, which is on The Works of Shonda Rhimes is on Bloomsbury’s Essential New Books list for film students.
I’m proud to have a chapter in the book discussing the idea that while most people think Rhimes is ‘only’ a feminist, her writings have always expressed an even wider humanist philosophy.
I can only hope that my upcoming The Works of Susan Harris will make the same list. Look for it in late 2026.
Women Making History Series now in Paperback!
Women Making History Series now in Paperback!
I’m excited to announce that the book series I co-edit with my dear friend and colleague Peg Lamphier – Women Making History – are now available in paperback which makes the books more affordable for birthday and holiday gift-buying!
Our original publisher – ABC-Clio – (who published our award-winning Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]) mostly sold to libraries, so hardbacks were the way to go, but Bloomsbury recently purchased them. That means ALL our previous biographies are now in paperback. That makes them much more affordable to our friends and colleagues.
The even cooler first news is that in the last few weeks 2 more of the biographies we shepherded saw publication – one on Dolores Huerta and the other on Sally Ride — so congratulations to authors April Tellez and Jackie Perez! And these 2 new ones will be in paperback about 18-24 months after release.
Here is the email blast Bloomsbury sent out to their list of 20,000 School librarians, 10,000 Academic librarians, and 9,000 public librarians for Women’s History Month:
That means our earlier co-written books: American Women’s History on Film and The Civil War on Film are also in paperback!
But never forget even in hardback it’s worth reminding folks to ask their local libraries to stock a copy so everyone in the neighborhood can read about these accomplished women.
Finally, we have 3 more books in the works right now on Bessie Coleman, Maria Tallchief, and Frida Kahlo with a few more in the works.
Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview, Screenwriting Research Network Conversations [Video]
![Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview, Screenwriting Research Network Conversations [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/rmw-srn-interview-1-1200x632.png)
I sat down for an interview about my time as Chair of the Screenwriting Research Network during our last conference in Olumouc, Czech Republic, last September.
I had the chance to discuss the conference we held at Stephens College the year before, how we chose the theme, and the benefit of being a smaller group where real connections have been made. This is part of a series of oral histories on past created by the Executive Council which have morphed into these “Conversations”recorded by EC member Lucian Georgescu (with Camera and editing by Marius Donici).
You can see several other members interviewed on the SRN YouTube Channel as well.
![Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview, Screenwriting Research Network Conversations [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/rmw-srn-interview.png)