For the fourth year in a row, CAPE is proud to partner with the Black List to create the latest edition of the CAPE List!
The fourth annual CAPE List will elevate the most promising unmade feature film scripts featuring a protagonist with Asian and/or Pacific Islander heritage, and must include authentic, accurate and inclusive Asian and/or Pacific Islander representation that if removed, would significantly alter or affect the story. We are proud to announce the finalists below.
THE 2024 CAPE LIST
(by alphabetical order of script title)
56 A.P.O.
by 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
by Bryson Chun & 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!
Featured on 2022 Indigenous List, a collaboration between The Black List, Illuminative and the Sundance Institute.
GOOD CHIPS
by 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.
A short film version with the same name, directed by Nell Hensey, of the feature script is currently going through film festival runs.
GUNSLINGER BRIDE
by 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.
GUNSLINGER BRIDE by Charmaine Colina is also a winner of the 2024 Academy Nicholl Fellowship.
RISING SUN
by 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.
RISING SUN was also a winner of the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab Spring 2020.
SINUOUS
by 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.”
Sam Boyer’s previous scripts have been a finalist on The CAPE List 2020 and 2021. He was also a finalist on The Black List in 2023.
SUN-YO
by Jean 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
by 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
by 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.
Alexandra Qin’s short film version of THIRSTY GIRL originally premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and is currently going through the film festival circuit. The short also received the U.S. Shorts to Features honor at the inaugural Gotham Week Honors.
TWENTY-TWO
by 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.
ABOUT THE CAPE LIST
The CAPE List is a partnership between CAPE and The Black List featuring 10 unproduced feature screenplays featuring Asian, Native Hawaiian and/or Pacific Islander stories.
The scripts are submitted to the Black List and reviewed by the CAPE selection committee. They are then evaluated on overall quality, whether or not the film’s protagonist identifies as a person from Asian and/or Pacific Islander heritage. and whether the script includes authentic, accurate and inclusive Asian and Pacific Islander representation that, if removed, would significantly alter or affect the story.
The scripts must also pass the CAPE Test’s requirements:
The lead or at least two characters are of Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent (Native Hawaiian, Pasifika, and Maori included).
At least one Asian and/or Pacific Islander character has a narrative arc distinct from helping or revolving around the main character.