MFA Narrative Screenwriting student recognized for script in Atlanta Film Festival

For Shonté Hodnett, a Master of Fine Arts Narrative Media student, “Hidden Lines” is more than just a script she wrote for an assignment. It’s important cultural history that has a personal family connection.

Hodnett was recently recognized as a quarterfinalist in the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay competition, an impressive showing for a first-time scriptwriter. The competition had 1,106 total submissions, and the quarterfinalists were represented by 138 feature film screenplays, 66 pilots and 68 shorts.

“I’m so honored that my first script was selected by the Atlanta Film Festival,” Hodnett said. “This is a highly respected, Oscar qualifying festival.”

The Atlanta Film Festival takes place April 24 to May 4, 2025.

The script is based on a family story that she recently learned during a visit to her family church in North Carolina. As Hodnett and her uncle were walking in the cemetery behind the family’s church, her uncle told her the story of her distant relative, Dr. John Stephens, a biracial doctor passed as a white doctor during the Jim Crow era before his death in 1960.

Hodnett developed a narrative around that small amount of information. In “Hidden Lines,” the main character’s carefully guarded secret contributes to the murder of the woman he loves, and he faces an impossible choice: reveal his true identity and risk everything for her justice, or remain silent to protect his life and career.

Hodnett says by the end of the story, her main character discovers it is more enriching to be himself.

“It’s really a story about self-love,” Hodnett said. “There’s a historic element there, but I also wrote it in a way that it should be relatable to any human being.”

With the momentum and encouragement Hodnett received from the Atlanta Film Festival, she plans to work on re-writes with her mentor, Connie Burge, and will continue submitting the script to other film festivals.

“Working with Connie has been incredible, and she is such a legend in this industry,” Hodnett said of her mentor who she was paired with based on an interest in working in the television industry.

Burge, the creator of the long-running series “Charmed” as well as “Savannah,” the first one-hour drama for the WB Network, was a huge help to Hodnett in working out the order of the scenes and the storytelling format.

Hodnett will graduate from the two-year narrative MFA Media Writing program in August. Like other classmates, she has worked full time while earning her degree. The fact she would not have to travel far for the residency portion of the program was appealing, as well.

“I wanted to explore a program that was flexible with my work schedule because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop working,” said Hodnett, who currently works in higher education.

Most importantly, she wanted a program that was not solely online because she wanted to get to know her fellow students and mentors.

“The connections and the community are really big things for me,” Hodnett said.

Author: Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu