Zach Bandler

Writer

Zach’s drama “The Lightkeeper” (2018) was named final recipient of the CINE Golden Eagle Award for Narrative Short Film, an award recognizing rising filmmakers since 1962. His medical comedy “Torn” premiered with Directors Notes in 2019. As a screenwriter, his feature film screenplay “Land of the Young” was named by Francis Ford Coppola as winner of the 2023 American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition, and was a Semifinalist in the 2024 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.

Zach served as a 2022 Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health with the Global Brain Health Institute in Dublin, Ireland, where he developed work at the intersection of narrative film and advocacy for those with neurodegenerative and psychological conditions.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Theatre from Northwestern University, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Brain Health from Trinity College Dublin. He is an author in the journal Frontiers, publishing on the neurobiological benefits of hope.