Female-driven comedy and grounded genre features (i.e. still feasible in the under $10 mil range). Still want to have meaningful character arcs and some sort of message or other food for thought--genre as a vehicle. Maven is still relatively early in getting into the TV space, so particularly when looking at earlier career writers more interested in features as we're not staffing any rooms yet.
Projects with no female characters.
Trauma porn. Very interested in Black and other POC stories, but also considering the experience of the viewer who would most identify with the bodies on screen; if it's about the Black experience I want there to be more to take away from the story than Black suffering. Message matters, but this is also entertainment, some element of escapism (i.e. through a good sense of humor or another genre element) is strongly preferred.
Also, the Maven team really isn't into more intense horror (e.g. slasher, body horror) (though I will note that I as an individual am quite fond; the rest of our team doesn't really respond.)
Ciara Wardlow is the development coordinator at Maven Screen Media, a film and TV production company whose past titles include The Kindergarten Teacher, Driveways, Skin, and American Honey. She is also a 2021 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow in the executive track. As a freelance writer and critic, her bylines include The Hollywood Reporter, Film School Rejects, RogerEbert.com, and Pajiba. She is a graduate of Wellesley College.