AMC Networks, along with Stareable Fest 2020, has announced that the winner of this year's inaugural Best Female Creator Award is STORMCHASER, written and directed by Gretl Claggett.

In STORMCHASER, all Bonnie Blue (Mary Birdsong) ever wanted was to chase tornadoes with her Dad. But dreams die with time. Now, she’s become a different kind of storm chaser, hawking storm doors “door-to-door” for her charismatic boss, Flip Smyth (Stephen Plunkett): a cultish father figure who preaches Disaster Capitalism to Bonnie and his tribe of sales guys. As she realizes that Flip’s doctrine of “Flip the Switch!” is just a way to exploit customers, a different kind of switch flips inside Bonnie — unleashing an inner and outer storm of violence. Learn more about STORMCHASER here.

“I’m deeply honored to be the first recipient of the AMC Networks Best Female Creator Award,” Gretl Claggett said. “My passion is telling female-driven stories that entertain and bring socio-political issues to light in surprising, nuanced ways. It’s incredibly special to be recognized by AMC because of the Network’s influential track record in creating iconic, groundbreaking, original content.”

Claggett’s first short film Happy Hour — narrated by Julianne Moore — screened as an official selection at 18 festivals, winning awards and garnering praise from Oscar-winning Writer/Director Robert Benton: “Happy Hour is a lush, elegiac film about an extremely difficult subject and Ms. Claggett handles it masterfully.”

Claggett's latest film/pilot, STORMCHASER, has been selected by more than 45 festivals to date, and has won multiple Best Director, Best Short Film/Pilot, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Acting, Best Ensemble Cast, Best VFX and Best Original Score awards. Claggett is currently developing STORMCHASER as an anthology series as it continues to play the worldwide festival circuit. She’s also developing two other female-forward shows that explore and reflect socio-political issues in entertaining, surprising ways. Learn more about Clagget here. The media contact for Clagget and STORMCHASER is Cher Culver PR. Click here for inquiries.

AMC Networks sponsored the new prize with Stareable Fest for female category award finalists to recognize the best female web series and television creators and to earn meetings with AMCN executives overseeing its network and streaming platforms. To be eligible to win, the majority of the show’s creator/director/producer team must be made up of women.

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