Meet Felix van Kann | Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Felix van Kann and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Felix, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Frankly, because there’s nothing that excites me as much as storytelling does. I grew into it quite organically since coming up with stories and writing them down has been my outlet from a young age on. For the longest time, however, I didn’t really know that whole careers can be built around it and I dreaded the day where I would have to take on a job that wouldn’t make me fully happy.

Only when I moved to LA for college did I understand that films don’t get made from thin air but that people actually need to write them first. So I figured I could be one of these people and my perspective changed. Then it became a question of whether I could bring myself to commit to fully pursuing writing as a career – because just doing it on the side and hoping that something comes from it hardly ever pays off. So I was determined to go to film school and really learn how to view filmmaking as a profession rather than a hobby. And despite the hardships that come with it, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I grew up in a sports-heavy environment. My grandfather was a soccer player on the first German team that reached the finals of the Champions League against Real Madrid in 1960, so I was born into a family of sports-enthusiasts and was encouraged to run around as much as possible as a child. To my grandpa’s slight disappointment, I ended up being a better tennis than soccer player. I spent my junior years playing international tournaments and I draw a lot from the people I’ve met in this world. To most outsiders any sport is just a game while for the people playing it it’s a life-or-death experience. Which comes with all sorts of irrational obsessions and competitions. I find this so fascinating and funny that I’ve focused a lot of my writing around these ideas.

I think the toughest part for me as a writer is that it encourages me – by my personal choice – to be on a different continent than my family and the people I love. I’m happy to be here in the US and it excites me to be in an environment where I’m constantly challenged to try something new but I’m still waiting for teleportation to be invented, so traveling between my real home and my chosen home gets a little bit easier. It’s also what I draw a lot of inspiration from since I love to write stories about cultural differences and the perspective changes that come alongside it as well. I use writing as a tool to explain my environment to myself and that means it helps me to constantly be in a place that I don’t fully know or understand yet.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
That’s a great question because my best friend is visiting soon, so this forces me to truly start planning an itinerary. I love West LA and live in Santa Monica, so I’d say that’s a good place to start. Being from Germany, it feels surreal to live so close to the beach, hence all my activities with friends would revolve around that. Taking the bike from Santa Monica to Venice Beach always brings you in contact with so many different people which is the perfect example of the bottled-up craziness of LA and a perfect spot for someone new to the city to get a glimpse of what life is like around here.

On a week-long trip, I’d definitely take the PCH up to the coast – it’s one of the most beautiful drives in the world and so many stunning little towns are around there, too. Then I’d explore San Francisco a bit before heading back down by way of Yosemite. That’s probably going to be a very intense week, so in an ideal case, we can add a few extra days to make it a bit more relaxed. I’ve done this trip twice so far, but now I really talked myself into going again.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are certainly a lot of people I have to give credit to. First and foremost, my parents have to be mentioned for never trying to push me in a different direction than the one I wanted to pursue myself even though it might not be the most linear – or rational – career choice.

Then there’s my professors and classmates at Columbia University where I went to film school and where I learned almost everything I know about film and storytelling; and also understood how much I don’t know about it yet. It’s been humbling and inspiring to learn with and from so many talented people from around the world in this intense rollercoaster of a program. Some of these classmates have moved out to LA with me post-graduation and they’ll be lifelong friends and collaborators.

But this question also randomly reminds me of this guy – I don’t really remember his name – who was one of my classmates in college when I first came to LA 10 years ago. He told me he was doing an internship in script development – which at that point I didn’t know existed. This simple information demystified the industry for me and made me feel like this was the kind of job I could be good at. I looked into film related jobs after that – then one thing led to another and here I am.

Website: https://www.felixvankann.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-van-kann-9b1136a7/