Interview: Ana Lily Amirpour on Breaking Into the Industry

Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, premiered at Sundance and was hailed as one of the most original films of the decade. Before that, she was a BlueCat finalist.

From Script to Screen

BlueCat: When you first submitted to BlueCat, where were you in your career?

Ana Lily Amirpour: I was nowhere. I mean, I had written scripts, I had made short films, but nobody in the industry knew who I was. Submitting to BlueCat was one of the first things I did to put my writing out there.

BlueCat: What did the feedback mean to you at that stage?

Amirpour: It meant everything. When you're starting out, you don't know if you're any good. You suspect you might be, but you don't know. Having someone read your work carefully and respond to it thoughtfully — that's incredibly valuable. It's not just about winning. It's about being read.

Advice for Emerging Writers

BlueCat: What would you tell writers who are submitting their first screenplay to a competition?

Amirpour: Write the thing that scares you. Don't write what you think people want to read. Don't write the safe version. Write the version that makes you uncomfortable, that feels too personal, too weird, too specific. That's the version that will stand out.

The industry is full of competent scripts. What's rare is a voice. Your voice is the one thing nobody else has.