Climate Spring, with Film London and BBC writers, reveals winners of writers lab

Climate Spring, in partnership with BBC Writers and Film London, announces the winners of its The Hot House 2024 writers’ development lab.

This year is focussing on ‘stories of the climate transition’. Six new original screenplays will now be created, as the winning writers enter a three-month development phase to turn their projects into long-form TV and feature films. 

In 2024, each winner receives £1,000 from Climate Spring alongside tailored editorial and high-level industry support from Climate Spring, Film London and BBC Writers.

Selected from a competitive pool of submissions, the six winning projects each explore different facets of the climate crisis and span a variety of genres and formats. From a mystical thriller set in the Sundarbans to a quirky comedy in a renewable energy company, the stories reflect the diverse ways in which humanity is navigating through the climate crisis:

• Secrets Of The Delta by JIJO: A chilling, character-driven mystery set in the Indian Sundarbans forest where folklore and corruption intertwine and the delicate balance between nature and humanity must be restored.

• The Last Two Miles by Sebastian Schlecht and Alison Cummins: A heartwarming tale of a community coming together through building a sustainable transport network.

• Renewablers by Jessica Riches: A quirky workplace comedy in a clean energy company, with old vendettas and unexpected relationships.

• Territory by Bríd Arnstein: A family drama set against the backdrop of flooding and a climate-driven relocation to the south coast of England. 

• Worms by Billie Collins: A rookie funeral director must confront a storm of controversy when she decides to compost her dad.

• Falaisg by Ross Mackay and Col Gordon: A tale of resistance, culture and community set in a rapidly changing Scottish village.

Launched in 2022, The Hot House is Climate Spring’s flagship development programme for nurturing fresh voices and climate stories in film and television. The programme aims to stimulate a pipeline of new, engaging and commercially viable climate stories for film and TV, whilst offering industry exposure and development support to screenwriting talent. See below for full details on the winners.

Climate Spring is a global development fund and a screen industry insider organisation aiming to harness the storytelling power of film and TV to shift how society perceives and responds to the climate crisis. It is currently funding, co-financing and supporting 40+ film and TV projects, in a range of genres from crime to thriller to romantic comedy.

JIJO (he/they) is an Indian-British director, writer and Shooting PD whose work spans narrative, documentary and commercial realms. Recognized with accolades like IMDb’s New Filmmaker of the Year, two Cannes Young Director nods and selection for the TV Collective Breakthrough Leaders Program, his work explores social justice, humanism and contemporary culture through character-led storytelling. 

Project Title: Secrets of the Delta. When estranged British Indian siblings Aisha and Rohan return to their roots for their mother’s memorial, a chilling murder propels them into the dark, mystical heart of the Sundarbans forest. Uncovering a sinister blend of corruption and supernatural folklore, they must thwart a cult leader’s apocalyptic vision in order to protect their family’s legacy, uncover the truth and restore the delicate balance between nature and humanity.

Bríd Arnstein is a BAFTA-nominated writer from London. Since graduating from the NFTS, she has set up original TV projects with DNA, FX, Element Pictures, FilmNation, Ray Pictures and House Productions. 

Project Title: Territory. When a devastating flood forces the Swift family from their home in London to a new location in the Scottish Cairngorms, the family’s attempts to embrace change are complicated by the arrival of their old neighbours, the Coopers, and their decade-long feud.

Jessica Riches is an activist-turned-strategist-turned-writer, living in Margate. 2024 has seen the release of her five-part podcast, Moonshot, starring Stephen Fry; and Beautiful Things, which won Best Drama Short at the New Renaissance Dreamer of Dreams festival. She was selected for the BFI Network Creative Producer training in 2023 and the ZFF Academy and Cinestory Episodic Lab in 2024. 

Project title: Renewablers: A quirky workplace comedy set at a provincial renewables installer, specialising in new clean energy solutions, old professional vendettas, and unexpected relationships.

Billie Collins is a writer from the Wirral, currently based in Manchester. Their recent work includes PEAK STUFF (ThickSkin Theatre, UK Tour 2024), TOO MUCH WORLD AT ONCE (Box of Tricks Theatre, UK Tour 2023), SAGA (BBC Radio 4) and episodes of MALORY TOWERS series 5 & 6 (King Bert Productions for CBBC). Billie also works as a dramaturg and facilitator, is a BBC Writersroom Northern Voices graduate and is published by Nick Hern Books.

Project Title: Worms. When rookie funeral director Ava decides to compost her dad, she must confront a storm of controversy, a love triangle, and her own fear of death. 

Sebastian Schlecht is a German writer. His play We End Up Breathing Rust was selected as part of Druid Debuts 2024 by the renowned Irish theatre company Druid. Sebastian has written several episodes for the popular German crime series SOKO Potsdam as well as for the long-running audio drama series Bibi Blocksberg.

Alison Cummins (she/her) is a writer based in New Jersey. Her work has been read and performed at Sapphest NYC, Seattle Pacific University, The Maker’s Ensemble and PlayZoomers. Her play, Ella’s Therapy Play, was a semi-finalist for the 2024 SheNYC Arts Summer Theater Festival.

Project Title: The Last Two Miles. When a queer teenager and an older lady begin to build a sustainable transport network for their home village, they don’t expect that this service will not only bring their rural community closer together, but also take them out of their respective loneliness.

Ross MacKay is an award-winning poet, author, playwright, screenwriter and occasional magician from Perthshire. Ross was previously artistic director of Tortoise in a Nutshell theatre company. He is currently a writer in residence with the National Theatre of Scotland. 

Col Gordon is a farmer, cook, and researcher based on his family’s farm in the Gàidhealtachd where he helps his father raise traditional livestock breeds and has slowly been building a seed-to-loaf, heritage grain bakery. He’s a director of numerous organisations including the Landworkers’ Alliance and The Shieling Project and is in the midst of renovating an old school building to be his family’s home.

Project Title: Falaisg. Eilidh’s world is changing, rapidly. When she learns her family home is to be sold, her connection to her community and the landscape the Gàidhealtachd village she grew up in is burning to nothing. But spurred on by the death of the village elder, Eilidh learns that cultures can change and still survive. Her final act of resistance is about making the change, on her own terms.

Image: Billie Collins, JIJO, Ross Mackay, Col Gordon, Bríd Arnstein, Alison Cummins, Jessica Riches, Sebastian Schlecht

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