AUSTIN BUNN

Austin Bunn is a writer, filmmaker and professor. He is the author of Short Film Screenwriting: A Craft Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury), the short story collection The Brink: stories (Harper Perennial), and, with producer Christine Vachon, A Killer Life: How An Independent Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond (Simon and Schuster), #88 on The Hollywood Reporter’s “100 Greatest Film Books of All Time.” He wrote the script for Kill Your Darlings (Sony Pictures Classics) with the film's director John Krokidas, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and won the International Days Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Zoetrope, The Village Voice, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Science and Nature Writing, Best American Fantasy, and elsewhere. He has written feature screenplays for Fox, Lionsgate, Participant Media, Page1, and served as a mentor at the Screenwriters' Colony (Nantucket) and Outfest Screenwriting Lab. His award-winning short films and documentaries, "Lavender Hill,” "In the Hollow," “Campfire” (Oscar qualifying), “Ghosts,” “Ascent” and “The Suck” have screened nationally and internationally at the Cleveland International Film Festival, Frameline (SF), InsideOut (Toronto), Provincetown International Film Festival (MA), Sidewalk (AL), and beyond. “Farm Grrrl Folk Punk,” a collaboratively produced short doc made with students, debuted at the Sound Unseen Film Festival (Minneapolis MN and Austin TX).

His Audible Original “DENALI” reached #2 on the Audible “Top Audiobook” charts. His monologue, "Basement Story," won the Missouri Review Audio Essay Prize and has been broadcast on WBEZ, Third Coast, Australian Radio, and Michigan Public Radio. The audiobook of The Brink won the Audie for Best Fiction Collection from Audible. He teaches screenwriting and filmmaking at Cornell University.

“Screenwriting 101” session at Cinematography for Actors (LA), March 2025