MITCHELL P. GANEM, Writer/Director
Award-winning New York filmmaker Mitch Ganem has written and directed for both stage and screen. He is co-writer of the Joel Zwick-directed ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING, starring Academy Award winner Kim Basinger and John Corbett. Original screenplays include KNIGHTSHADE, which finished as one of top ten finalists in the Writer’s Foundation ‘America’s Best’ Competition; and LOVE IS A TANGLE, which reached the final consideration round for The Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker’s Lab. His original screenplay KINKY GRACE won a platinum award in the 2021 LGBTQ Unbordered Film Festival, a gold award in the 2019 WRPN Women's International Film Festival and was a semi-finalist in the Toronto LGBT Film Festival. His screenplay LOVE AND THUNDER was a finalist in the 2018 Artemis Women In Action Film Festival. His screenplay DRINKING IN NEW YORK finished in the top ten percent of the 2015 BlueCat Screenplay Competition. He wrote the screenplay RED GUN DIARY for RGD Movies in Dallas, Texas. Currently he is in pre-production on his original screenplay FLEUR DE LIS which he is directing for Beachfront Films and Angel Grace Worldwide. Other projects include rewrite work on the original screenplay ROBOT & FRANK for The Herrick Company and Park Pictures. The movie premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Mitch's other projects include writing the original screenplay NO VISIBLE HORIZON for Tueleos Partners and the screenplay adaption of J.P. Polidoro’s thrilling novel TATTOO: INCIDENT AT THE WEIRS for First Light Management.
Mitch has directed TV commercials for such clients as GoPro, Chevrolet, Lord & Company, and The New York State Division of Substance Abuse, and music videos for such stars as Meghan Cary. His short film "Killing Dinner" has played in film festivals across the country and as far away as Turkey. He also directed the short film “It Came From New Jersey,” which won the SMPTE Grand Prize Award.
For the stage, Mitch currently has in development THE CAPITOL YEARS, the story of some of the greatest music in history featuring star turns by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Ava Gardner, and EMPEROR NORTON, a musical about the eccentric life and times of San Francisco's most beloved folk hero. Most recently his play A TRAIN TO LAUGH won the grand prize in the William Faulkner Literary Competition and his play HE. SHE. US. THEM. premiered in 2021 as part of the 30th Anniversary Pittsburgh New Works Festival. Mitch has directed several of his own plays, as well as works by Shakespeare and Strindberg, among others. His plays have been produced across the country and won numerous awards, including the Playwrights Forum Award at the Spokane Civic Theatre, the Grand Prize in the DFAP National One-Act Playwriting Competition and the New England Actors Theatre Short & NEAT Playwriting Contest.
Mitch lives, works, rocks and rolls in New York City.
Unique traits: "I accept chaos but, I'm not sure it accepts me." - Bob Dylan
KINKY GRACE Budget: $100K - $1M | Romance ⋄ Comedy A lesbian couple engages the services of a sex guru to spice up their love life, with hysterically touching results.
ROCK AND ROLL HIGHWAY Budget: $1M - $5M | Romance ⋄ Comedy The death of pop music icon Davy Jones compels a woman to take a road trip to reclaim her record album collection from the three great loves of her life and in the process confront and conquer the insecurities of her past.
SING ME BACK HOME Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama ⋄ Comedy Three sisters are summoned back to the family home by their grandmother - who is convinced she is going to die and wants to reveal all the family secrets before she does.
CUT TO THE HEART Budget: $5M - $10M | Thriller ⋄ Crime As a serial killer terrorizes the city, Detective Amy Mullaney discovers that the killer has managed to become completely entwined in her personal life, bringing death right to her family's doorstep.
THE FALL OF DARK Budget: $1M - $5M | Horror A young film student's life becomes stranger than his fiction when a supernatural killer terrorizes the city and the new girl at school takes a more than passing interest in his work, his friends and his heart - landing him square in the sights of all those pursuing the killer.
ROCK AND ROLL ANIMALS Budget: $1M - $5M | Horror ⋄ Comedy A rock and roll superstar turns out to be a vampire queen with a band and entourage of werewolves, ghouls and zombies.
INNOCENT CRIMINALS Budget: $100K - $1M | Thriller ⋄ Crime A sexy criminal couple expecting an easy payday find themselves locked in a warehouse with dueling criminal elements, resulting in a dark and witty game of nerves.
Gold Award in the WRPN Women's International Film Fest
(2021)
Grand Prize in the William Faulkner Literary Competition
(2021)
Platinum Award in the LGBTQ Unbordered Film Festival
(2020)