Screenwriting Conferences
What if every fictional screenplay were, in reality, a trial?
Through three conferences, I present my approach to screenwriting and the principles that follow from it.
Conferences by Florent Durth, author of The Screenwriting Code.
Understanding what the audience judges in a story changes the way we write it.
01
The screenplay as a trial
Every fictional screenplay tells a trial (even when it doesn’t seem to)
Format : 60 to 90 minutes + discussion
Audience : Screenwriters, film schools, producers, cinephiles
Whatever the genre — comedy, drama, thriller, adventure — a fictional screenplay always tells, beneath the surface, the trial of its characters.
The audience unconsciously turns behaviors into facts.
Then interprets the final situation as a verdict.
This conference makes this underlying layer of storytelling visible.
Through the analysis of well-known films, participants discover a simple framework for reading any fictional screenplay as a moral case.
👉 Takeaway: a reading framework that can be applied immediately.
02
The truth about the “happy ending”
The three expectations that create a “happy ending”
Format : 60 to 90 minutes + discussion
Audience : Screenwriters, film schools, producers, cinephiles
Why do some endings feel immediately satisfying, while others leave a sense of emptiness?
Without being aware of it, the audience expects three things at the end of a fictional story:
- that the characters receive a sentence
- that this sentence is just
- that its intensity is proportional to what has happened
This conference clarifies these three expectations and shows how to shape an ending with precision, without relying on imposed narrative models.
👉 Takeaway: a practical checklist to diagnose and improve a story’s ending.
03
Why a Screenplay Doesn’t Work
Diagnosing a failed ending in 20 minutes
Format : 60 minutes + live demonstration on a synopsis
Audience : Professionals, writing residencies, fiction development programs
A fictional screenplay can contain strong scenes — and still fail to hold together.
In most cases, the issue is identifiable: the ending does not validate the sense of justice the audience expects unconsciously.
This conference presents a precise and immediately applicable diagnostic method:
- identify who must receive a final outcome
- check the moral coherence of the ending
- adjust intensity
- correct with minimal changes
Live demonstration, followed by a solution-oriented discussion.
👉 Takeaway: a concrete revision protocol.
Writing a fictional screenplay means orchestrating an invisible trial.
These conferences provide a clear understanding of its principles and how to apply them directly to one’s own work.
They can be adapted to your format — film schools, festivals, writing residencies, professional events — as well as to the desired duration.