Joshua Paul Johnson is a writer, director, and sound editor working between Los Angeles and Albuquerque.
In 2014 he wrote the screenplay for the short film Tomorrow, which has screened at 27 festivals worldwide. It won the Audience Award for Best Overall Short Film at the 17th FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Women and Minorities in Media Film Festival, as well as the Best Student Film Award at the Desperado LGBT Film Festival.
He won the Best Editing Award at the 2014 Women’s Independent Film Festival for his work as co-editor on the documentary Wheels: An American Dream (dir. Sara Joe Wolansky) as well as the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound at the 2016 First Look Film Festival for the DGA award winning short The Lost City of Tomorrow (dir. Auden Bui.)
Recently, he completed a two year undertaking as Associate Supervising Sound Editor on the National Geographic feature documentary Jane (2018, dir. Brett Morgen) about the life of primatologist Jane Goodall.
The screenplay Getaway is his second feature collaboration with co-writer Jamie Napoli.
He holds an MFA in Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and BA in Economics from the University of Iowa.
Occasionally, he enjoys snuggling with his sassy orange tabby cat “Chief Marge Gunderson.”
Jamie Napoli is a writer and director from the exotic state of New Jersey. He received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he spent his days writing screenplays, directing short films, binging the “mind-bending,” “foreign,” “quirky romance,” and “steamy thriller” categories on Netflix, and rowing crew. Unfortunately, this left very little time for actual schoolwork, so there was no six-figure Wall Street job waiting for him at graduation.
Instead, Jamie moved to Los Angeles to pursue an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. At USC, he produced the science fiction short film Limitless Potential, which premiered at the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival, and directed the dramatic short film Still in San Pedro, which premiered at the USC First Look Film Festival. He was selected by USC and James Franco to co-write a feature film adaptation of Don Quixote, which premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Jamie continues to co-write feature screenplays and original television pilots with Joshua Paul Johnson.
Their script to Getaway was produced in 2025 and released as Untitled Home Invasion Romance in 2026 through Republic Pictures.
The 14th Annual First Look Project searches for higher-concept material across MULTIPLE categories for film and TV, introducing select writers to reps and producers.
Well. What’s old is new again … It’s been over 15 years since Evan Daugherty (2008 Screenwriting winner) sold Snow White and the Huntsman to Universal—in what is still one of the biggest spec sales ($3.5m) from an unproduced writer in Hollywood history. So why not another fantasy script in 2026? Paramount Primal picked up […]
Scott Wagner, winner of the First Look Project (Drama) with his screenplay Intern of the Year signed with manager Aubrey Morgan at Adventure Media in 2026. Pipeline execs called Intern of the Year, loosely based on Scott's own experiences working in a hospital, as "one of the "most riveting dramas we've ever reviewed." The Pipeline […]
Screenwriting Competition winner Untitled Home Invasion Romance (formerly Getaway) was produced in the summer of 2024 released in 2026 and is now on streaming. Jason Biggs (American Pie, Orange is the New Black) makes his directorial debut with the crime/comedy. Stars Anna Conkle (Pen15), Arturo Castro (Broad City), Meaghan Rath (Hawaii Five-o), and Justin H. […]
