Rod Peyton

A South Dakota native, Rod is a Second Year Screenwriting Fellow at the AFI Conservatory, and the recipient of the prestigious Joseph Stefano Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. He holds a B.A. in Studies in Cinema and Media Culture from the University of Minnesota, where he co-founded a student organization dedicated to film production. Rod’’s short film, …Please Press Three, has been seen on Twin Cities Public Television, sundancechannel.com and at the University of Minnesota’’s Violence and Repercussion screening series; it was also a finalist in the Exposure Film Contest on the Sci Fi Channel. His short script The Reservoir was a finalist for IFP Minnesota’’s Fresh Filmmakers Grant, where judges called it “sad and terrifying,” and “a kick-ass script.” In his first year at AFI Conservatory, Rod wrote four short scripts, three feature scripts, served on the Fellows Advisory Committee and interned with Ghost House Pictures. Before coming to AFI, he studied screenwriting with Thomas Pope (F/X, Sweet Land) and Marc Nieson (The Speed of Life), as well as directing with renowned Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr (Werckmeister Harmonies).