Six new original screenplays to be developed via Climate Spring’s The Hot House 2024 writers’ lab, exploring stories of the climate transition

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

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.

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.

Josh Cockcroft, Director of Climate Spring said: “We’re thrilled by the breadth, variety and creativity of this year’s The Hot House submissions, which show just how diverse and interesting climate stories can be - hopeful, funny, romantic and nuanced - rooted in the genres we love, while highlighting solutions, resilience and human connections. At this critical moment in the climate crisis, we urgently need fresh, engaging climate narratives in film and TV that move beyond ‘doom and gloom’ and inspire a sense of agency in all of us. With The Hot House, Climate Spring is proud to be at the forefront of supporting an ever-growing movement of creatives, who lead a new wave of impactful climate storytelling on screen.”

Laurence Johnson, Sustainability Manager, Film London said: ‘’The submissions for this year’s Hot House competition were outstanding. It was so encouraging to see creatives understanding the nuance and opportunity in climate stories, breaking with traditional norms to offer a new framework for how we talk about climate. From comedies to thrillers, dramas to a hint of romance, I am so excited by the final selection and can’t wait to support them going forward.’’

The Hot House lab will culminate in an industry showcase, where projects will be considered for production deals and further development funding, in collaboration with Climate Spring’s production company partners.

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For further press information, please contact:
Sara Oberthaler, Communications & Events Lead at Climate Spring
Email: sara@climate-spring.org

IMAGE: Billie Collins, JIJO, Ross Mackay, Col Gordon, Bríd Arnstein, Alison Cummins, Jessica Riches, Sebastian Schlecht
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Notes to the Editor:

About The Hot House:

The Hot House is part of Climate Spring’s writers’ development offering and focuses on nurturing long-form TV and feature film projects. Launched in 2022, the programme provides editorial support, industry access, and development opportunities for screenwriters creating climate-themed stories.

About Climate Spring:

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.

Working closely with screen industry partners, gatekeepers, commissioners, creatives and producers, Climate Spring identifies, incentivises and supports new, engaging and commercially viable climate stories with potential to be developed into mainstream film and TV content.

Led by a collective of screen industry and climate experts, Climate Spring offers early-stage development funding for scripted and unscripted content; editorial consulting on the climate elements of feature film and TV projects for writers, commissioners and producers; training and writers development opportunities; and support in moving a project from idea to distribution.

Climate Spring is currently funding, co-financing and supporting 40+ film and TV projects, in a range of genres from crime to thriller to romantic comedy.

Website: www.climate-spring.org
Instagram: @climate__spring
X: @climate__spring
LinkedIn: Climate Spring

‍About The Hot House 2024 winners and projects:

JIJO

JIJO (he/they) is a versatile 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. As the founder of Just Be Nice Studios, his shorts have been selected for over 60 festivals including Sundance London, Tribeca and Raindance, also directing for platforms including Channel 4, National Geographic and BBC. Through his multi-platform work, JIJO commits to creating empathy-building, cinematic stories that challenge and inspire, while advocating for more inclusive, healthy and transparent industry practices.

Project Title: Secrets of the Delta

Logline: 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.

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Brid Arnstein

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. Bríd has numerous film projects in development, including an original feature with Anton Corp, and is working with acclaimed Polish directors Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert. Prior to her career as a screenwriter Bríd worked in development at Pulse Films. She has also run her own theatre company for new writing, producing work at Camden People’s Theatre and Tristan Bates, and participated in the Soho Theatre Writer’s Lab.
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Project Title: Territory

Logline: 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’s long feud.

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Jessica Riches

Jessica Riches is an activist-turned-strategist-turned-writer, living in Margate. She has two original feature films and an adaptation in development, all late-capitalism genre-mash stories. 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. Jess also works as a climate campaigner, currently with organisations including the UN. She founded the Messy Collective for filmmakers, and is a Film London mentor.

Project title: Renewablers

Logline: RENEWABLERS is a quirky workplace comedy set at a provincial renewables installer, specialising in new clean energy solutions, old professional vendettas, and unexpected relationships.

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Billie Collins

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

Logline: 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.

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Sebastian Schlecht

Sebastian Schlecht is a German writer. In 2022, he graduated from University College Dublin with an MA in Writing from Stage and Screen. In the same year, his work was presented at the Scene + Heard in Dublin. In 2014 his first play Kennel premiered at the theaterforum kreuzberg in Berlin. 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

Alison Cummins (she/her) is a writer based in New Jersey. She received her MA in Writing for Stage and Screen from University College Dublin and BA in sociology from Muhlenberg College. 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. Alison is the 2024 winner of the Princeton Writes Prize for her creative nonfiction essay The Blue Room.

Project Title: The Last Two Miles

Logline: 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.

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Ross Mackay

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. His productions toured across the world. His shows received numerous prestigious awards including a Scotsman Fringe First and a Critic’s Pick from The New York Times. He is currently a writer in residence with the National Theatre of Scotland. He was part of the 2023 Short Circuit Convergence Scheme. Since then, he has three tv projects under option with leading UK production companies. He is the proud owner of a Blue Peter badge.

Col Gordon

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. In 2021 Col wrote, narrated and co-produced the popular podcast mini-series “Landed” with Farmerama Radio which investigates the past, present and future of the family farm model through the lens of colonialism. 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

Logline: 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.

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