Justin Lerner, UCLA student, on collaboration

Justin Lerner, MFA directing student, is visiting Sundance in support of his fellow Bruin filmmakers and hoping to make a deal to produce his latest feature-length script. Working with Endeavor on his career strategy, Lerner was schmoozing at the agency’s party Friday night.

Lerner is knee deep in the festival circuit screening his UCLA Spotlight Award-winning thesis film, “The Replacement Child.” After showing the dramatic short at Telluride, Florida, Santa Fe and Torino Festivals, the director is headed to the Santa Barbara Film Festival just days after he returns home to L.A. from Park City.

His newest screenplay is a family tragic comedy about the inheritance of a grudge. He collaborated on the script with Katharine O’Brien, a graduate student at Columbia, whom he met while they were both writing story coverage at The Weinstein Company. Lerner says collaborating “boosts the level of professionalism while writing a screenplay.” Lerner is not shy about collaborating with other film school students. Working on his thesis were filmmakers from Columbia, NYU and USC.

Update: Video interview, with Lerner and Katharine O’Brien, is now online.

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