Stephen Nagel

Stephen hails from Cape Town, the Mother of all cities. Son of a taxi driver and housewife, he found escape from the crushing sameness of late-2000s South Africa by frequenting the local cinema and writing his own adventure stories. Inspired to become an auteur filmmaker, Stephen dedicated himself to learning the rules, so that he could break them. To this end, he earned a Bachelor's degree in Film and Media Studies in 2010, specialising in Screenwriting from the University of Cape Town. Since then, he has written and directed a handful of short films including Day Zero, Detour, and MIA&I. These eclectic films have human stories with complex themes and ideas, produced on frugal production budgets. His unproduced screenplay, World Without End won the "Best Unproduced Screenplay" at the WGSA Muse Awards in 2020. His next script, MIA&I achieved a quarterfinals placement in the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest in 2020. Stephen is an emerging Screenwriter with a wealth of stories to share with the world through the lens of transnational cinema.