Mashael Alqahtani: The Storyteller Shaping the Future of Genre Screenwriting

When Mashael Alqahtani talks about storytelling, her words are filled with purpose. She writes from a place of curiosity, conviction, and cultural memory, exploring how fear, identity, and faith intertwine in the stories that people tell. 

Her screenplays possess a quiet yet powerful force, rich with emotion and detail. They have already been recognized at film festivals, award circuits, and prestigious fellowship programs. 

Alqahtani is a leading voice in Saudi screenwriting today, a rare talent whose bold command of genre and narrative is making a significant impact in the global film industry. 

A Defining Voice in Global Horror

This year, Deadline announced Mashael Alqahtani as one of nine writers chosen for the Screamwriting Fellowship, a program led by Blumhouse, K Period Media, and the Sundance Institute. The fellowship platforms diverse film and television writers working in the horror genre. 

The program includes mentorship from leading filmmakers such as Ryan Murphy, Roy Lee, Akela Cooper, and Jason Blum, offering participants both creative guidance and professional access.

Image: Mashael Alqahtani among Blumhouse and K Period Media's latest Screamwriting fellows | source: deadline.com

For Alqahtani, the selection marked a defining moment, a sign of her distinct voice and cinematic perspective. Her project SILA, drawn from an Arab legend, follows a sheltered Muslim teen who inherits a demonic hunger for human flesh and hides her transformation from her devout mother. Through it, Alqahtani turns folklore into a lens for exploring faith, identity, and desire, crafting a story where horror becomes profoundly human.

The fellowship itself has become one of the most respected development programs in the industry, and Alqahtani’s inclusion within that group reflects her ability to bring new dimensions to a genre that thrives on reinvention. Her writing balances restraint with intensity, building tension through character rather than spectacle.

Craft, Recognition, and Creative Range

Before SILA, Alqahtani’s reputation had already been established through consistent recognition in leading screenwriting competitions. In 2024, she won Script Pipeline’s First Look Deal in Comedy, a distinction that highlights her ability to move between tone and form with clarity and purpose. Her feature-length romantic comedy, The Wedding, was a 2020 Script Pipeline Feature Finalist, praised for its structure and wit.

Image: Mashael Alqahtani nominations on Script Pipeline competitions | source: scriptpipeline.com 

Her other scripts have reached semifinalist and quarterfinalist rounds at the Austin Film Festival, BlueCat, Screencraft, and WeScreenplay. Each of these placements represents a level of writing that stands out among thousands of submissions. What sets Alqahtani apart is her capacity to work across genres while maintaining a strong authorial identity. Whether writing comedy or horror, her stories are defined by a precise understanding of human motivation and the power of emotional truth.

Awards have followed, but so has respect from within the professional screenwriting community. Producers and mentors often describe her work as meticulous and daring, a combination that has made her a trusted creative voice. Every project she completes builds upon the one before it, creating a body of work that is deliberate and evolving.

From Short Films to International Audiences

Alqahtani’s storytelling extends beyond feature-length scripts. Her short films have introduced her vision to audiences in Saudi Arabia and abroad, revealing both cultural specificity and universal themes.

Her 2024 short film Two Sisters, co-written with her brother Waleed Alqahtani, follows Nour, a failed actress forced by her sister to quit smoking. During a birthday party she never wanted, she spirals between comedy and tragedy, desperately hunting for a cigarette. 

 Image: Movie poster of Two Sisters | Source: imdb.com

The film explores family, addiction, and identity with a sharp sense of humor and empathy. It screened at the Red Sea Film Festival, Saudi Film Festival, NewFilmmakers LA, and the Brooklyn Film Festival, earning strong audience response for its balance of tone and character insight.

Her second short, The Witch Pricker and the Hare, presents a darker exploration of superstition, morality, and the female experience. The film screened at Lady Filmmakers, Sidewalk Film Fest, Montreal Women’s Film Festival, and the San Jose International Film Festival. Both projects reveal her interest in how personal stories intersect with collective myths and cultural expectations.

­­­­­­

Image: Movie poster of The Witch Picker & the Hare | Source: watch.afi.com

Through these films, Alqahtani has shown that Saudi cinema can carry emotional and thematic depth while engaging global audiences. Her ability to present local stories with international relevance has made her work stand out among an extraordinary wave of Saudi filmmakers redefining what cinema can be.

Fellowship, Mentorship, and Momentum

In the same year as her selection for the Screamwriting Fellowship, Alqahtani was also invited to join the 2025 Athena Writers’ Lab for SILA. The Athena Lab, known for developing women-led screenplays and supporting creative leadership, is another acknowledgment of her position among the most accomplished writers of her generation.

This combination of recognitions from institutions like Sundance and Athena represents more than exposure. It reflects how Alqahtani’s work has become part of an international dialogue about genre, gender, and storytelling. Each fellowship gives her access to a network of collaborators and mentors who recognize her not only as a participant but as an equal contributor.

Alqahtani’s career is not defined by a single success but by a pattern of consistency and creative ambition that continues to grow.

Redefining Genre and Representation

Alqahtani’s work expands the emotional and thematic range of genre storytelling. Her approach to horror is both bold and intimate, using the genre to explore fear, transformation, and the fragility of human relationships. In her world, horror becomes a reflection of what people hide from themselves, and comedy becomes a way to face those same fears with honesty.

Her perspective as a Saudi woman gives her stories a resonance that is both personal and universal. She writes about characters who navigate systems of control and expectation, about individuals caught between cultural boundaries and personal truth. The emotional authenticity of her writing allows these themes to resonate with audiences across languages and geographies.

Her characters resist simplification. They are flawed, ambitious, fearful, and courageous all at once. By grounding horror and myth in recognizable human experiences, she turns familiar genre tropes into spaces for introspection and empathy.

The Work Behind the Success

Behind every award and festival screening is a process defined by discipline. Alqahtani’s method involves extensive research, detailed outlining, and constant rewriting. Her attention to structure and pacing reflects her belief that emotion alone is not enough; the craft must support the feeling. This commitment has made her scripts both technically sound and profoundly affecting.

Her academic and professional training sharpened this approach. Alqahtani has studied film production and screenwriting at prestigious institutions that emphasize both artistry and analysis. She has a Bachelor’s degree Film Production from Emerson College and dual Screenwriting MFA degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Southern California. This background, combined with her real-world experience in development environments, has made her as comfortable in creative spaces as in production meetings. Those who have worked with her often note her ability to combine imagination with an understanding of how films actually get made.

A Future Already in Motion

Mashael Alqahtani’s career stands as proof that great storytelling transcends origin. She is part of a generation of Saudi filmmakers leading how the world perceives the region’s creative industry. Her vision extends beyond representation. She is not only contributing to global cinema but redefining it, expanding what genre storytelling can express and who it can speak for.

Her achievements, including the Blumhouse and Sundance fellowships, the Athena Writer’s Lab, the Script Pipeline awards, and the success of her short films, collectively reflect an artist already influencing the industry's direction. She writes from a place of confidence, building a career that bridges cultures while staying anchored in authenticity.

Alqahtani’s stories remind audiences that horror, comedy, and myth are not separate worlds but connected languages. They offer ways to explore who we are, what we fear, and what we hope to understand.

About the Author

Leen Al-Harthy is a film and television writer turned critic who writes about creative innovation, storytelling structure, and the new generation of cinematic voices.

References:

• Petski, Denise (2025, September). Blumhouse & K Period Media Announce Latest Group Of Screamwriting Fellows For Horror Film & TV Writing Program. Deadline. https://deadline.com/2025/09/screamwriting-fellows-2025-blumhouse-k-period-media-1236554855