CHUCK GRIFFITH
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CHUCK GRIFFITH

Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Austin, Texas.

How did you discover The Palm Springs International Screenplay Awards and how did you decide to enter this contest among all the others?
I’ve always been a fan of Palm Springs. The mid-century design, the nostalgia, the sense of a very specific American moment frozen in time. It connects naturally to this project, especially the aviation era and the cultural blind spots it explores. When I came across the Palm Springs International Screenplay Awards, it felt like a genuine fit, not just another contest. I don’t enter many. If I submit, it’s because the sensibility aligns with the work. This one did.

Your script or media entry stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your project ?
It actually started at a dinner with friends. We were talking about how smoking is banned in so many public places now, and I had this bit of trivia stuck in my head about flight attendants and their role in pushing those changes. None of us could let it go. We started digging into it that night while playing Scrabble and drinking wine, pulling threads and realizing how big the story actually was. From there, it became about real people and real events, but not in a heroic way. I was drawn to the idea of ordinary people just doing their jobs, slowly realizing the system around them is lying or at least protecting itself. Once that realization sets in, there’s no clean way back. That quiet shift is what the show is really about.

How long did it take you to write your script or produce your pitch deck/sizzle reel/trailer...and what was your development process?
The first draft came together in about four weeks, but only after roughly a month of heavy research. I spent that time digging through archival letters and documents stored in libraries, and I was genuinely shocked by how buried this story is in our history.
Since then, the rewriting has been ongoing, small tweaks here and there as the shape sharpens. I’ve been living with the story for about six months now. The process is still active, but the foundation came fast once the research unlocked it.

What is your ultimate ambition as a writer or filmmaker?
I had some early luck more than twenty years ago with my first feature film. It was an incredible learning experience, but it didn’t lead anywhere lasting. Life took over, and I spent years building real-world experience in creative and corporate environments,
learning how systems actually work. Now I’m getting back into it with a lot more perspective. I’m more restrained, more grounded, and much clearer about the kind of work I want to make. My goal is to write and direct projects that trust the audience and reward attention. I’m determined to find the right representation and build a body of work that lasts. If it still holds up ten years from now, that’s what matters.

Which film directors or screenwriters inspire you? Why?
Mike Nichols, Vince Gilligan, Tony and Dan Gilroy, and Mimi Leder all loom large for me, especially on this project. They each understand that tone is story, and that moral tension doesn’t need to be shouted to be felt. Nichols had an extraordinary ability to frame power, intimacy, and hypocrisy without editorializing. Gilligan excels at letting consequences unfold patiently, trusting the audience to sit with discomfort. The Gilroys are masters of systems, how institutions protect themselves, and how individuals get ground down inside them. Mimi Leder brings empathy and urgency to true stories without flattening the people inside them. All of that feeds directly into this series. Stillness matters. Contradiction matters. Silence can carry as much weight as dialogue.

What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show?
All-time movie is still Citizen Kane. I know it’s clichéd to say that, but it earns it. It’s about power, myth-making, and the distance between who someone is and who they present to the world. That tension never stops being relevant. For television, it’s always been The Twilight Zone. The idea that you can smuggle moral questions and social critique into compelling storytelling shaped how I think about the medium. More recently, limited series like The Dropout, American Crime Story, and Dopesick have stayed with me. They sit in that space where systems, power, and human cost collide, which is very much where this project lives.

How do you approach competition entries, and what have you learned from participating in these contests?
I think of competitions as a kind of quiet collaboration with the industry, or at least with people who love this kind of work. Even if I never meet the reader, I’m always writing with the experience of reading in mind. What would be engaging here. What would be surprising. What would land emotionally on the page. I don’t treat contests as verdicts or scoreboards. They’re useful when they confirm instincts you already have about the work. The biggest lesson for me has been consistency. When the same script keeps connecting with different readers, you listen. And I want the work to linger with them after they’re done reading.

What advice do you have for others hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have?
Write for fun. I don’t mean careless or unserious, I mean genuinely enjoying the process. If you’re having fun discovering the story, the reader feels that energy on the page, and ideally the audience does too. Write the thing you can’t stop thinking about, not what you think will win. A lot of scripts fall flat because they’re chasing approval instead of conviction. Focus on intention. I also try to write with actors in mind, giving them something they’ll want to lean into, wrestle with, and inhabit. If the script knows what it is, readers feel it.

What else are you working on that the world needs to know about?
I recently completed my third short film, Ghost in the Glass, which is currently making the festival rounds this year. I’m also writing the feature-length version of that project, expanding the world and themes into a longer form. Alongside that, I’ve been doing early research on another historical story that’s caught my attention, but it’s still in a discovery phase and not something I’m ready to announce yet.

Where can the world find you? (Website, IMDB, etc.)
You can find me at chuckgriffithfilm.com, on IMDb, and probably at a wine bar.

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