When Ani Met Jo Met Cris
Written by Elizabeth Dwyer
"A story that has immense heart... It could be just what an audience needs today."
With her script for When Ani Met Jo Met Cris, writer Elizabeth Dwyer is a recipient of the 2025 Moonshot Feature Accelerator Fellowship and the 2023 Stowe Story Labs Launch Fellowship.
The Blacklist says...
"The comedy writing in this project is incredible. The easter eggs/plays on WHEN HARRY MET SALLY are unusually (sic) perfect."
"The dialogue sparkles."
"Smart... beautiful and charming."
"A modern romantic comedy that does a great job of providing a little something for everybody."
"The writer... leaves the audience feeling good… (the story is) warm and hopeful, its high spirits infectious."
"Full of rich, diverse characters who bring lots of vibrancy and humor to the story."
"...transcends the usual dynamics of heterosexual rom-coms."
"...the writer does a great job of creating distinct set pieces and backdrops... creating a vivid environment that will translate to the screen..."
The Story
From the writer: I knew my partner for eight years before we fell in love. We played the classic Queer Community long game of orbiting each other until it all clicked into place. And when I told my writing group about us, I said, “We’re basically the queer version of When Harry Met Sally.”
So When Ani Met Jo Met Cris is exactly that! It’s a recurring meet-cute over the course of a decade, but set in New Mexico and super gay, with a healthy serving of polyamory (on the side).
In the original, timeless classic, Harry and Sally debate a simple and powerful question: Can men and women really be friends? In this heartfelt homage to Nora Ephron’s inimitable script, the question shifts away from gender dynamics and lands on a new, pervasive conundrum of modern romance:
Is there more than one way to do Happily Ever After?
This film reflects the world so many of us live in - where queerness is a simple fact of who we are, not something to grapple with or suffer from. The story puts queer people front and center, showcasing the rich, flawed, beautiful complexities of our identities and our love.
In 2010, when Ani and Jo meet, Jo is happily engaged and believes we’re all destined to love one person for life. Ani is a gallivanting skeptic who doesn’t believe in monogamy, let alone fairytales.
Driving from L.A. to Albuquerque - through various southwestern panoramas - the unlikely pair debate everything from animal mating habits to lower lip tattoos, learning more about one another than either of them cares to know.
Such as: relentlessly idealistic Jo is making a documentary inspired by the elderly couples in When Harry Met Sally. Her subjects are real-life queer partners who illustrate that “we (gays) experience devotion like anyone else.” But Jo’s life is decidedly less romantic. She is engaged! But with no wedding date set yet, because Jo’s fiancé “wants to get her MBA first.”
Ani thinks romcoms are “heteronormative, patriarchal elevations of the princess myth.” Besides, being with one person forever is just playing a made-up game where the ultimate goal is… what, death? Because “that’s how you win at forever - you die.”
Want to know what happens next?
Ready to hear the whole pitch?
The (Love) Story Behind the Story
The story of Ani, Jo, and Cris is more than a simple homage. The stories shared by the couples in Jo's documentary expand on what it looks like to be queer and in love, so the movie contains not one love story but many.
This film is one of my love stories, in both the literal sense of autobiographical inspiration (watch the video!), and as a story of love for my community.
It is for my person, Tara (the Ani to my Jo), for our queer contemporaries who long to see their love celebrated on screen, and for all the queer ancestors whose love and bravery paved the way.
The characters
Disclaimer: This is not the actual cast - images are snippets of actors cast in our wildest, gayest dreams
pictured L to R: Mae Martin, Stephazie Beatriz, Roberta Colindrez, Rosanny Zayas, Punkie Johnson
The setting
A Love Letter to New Mexico
Wow your English is really good! Do you need a passport to visit? You're from where again, Arizona? Oh I love Breaking Bad - do you still have a bad meth problem there?
~
These are just a few of the delightful questions New Mexicans hear on a regular basis from folks who don't know our state. When Ani Met Jo Met Cris is a movie full of all kinds of love, and that includes love for New Mexico, where our tale is set.
Some fun facts: We are a part of the US! We are nestled right between Texas and Arizona. Spanish is a common language here, so it's helpful to know it, but not required. We are also home to 22 Native Pueblos, Tribes, and Nations! This includes Acoma Pueblo, the oldest consistently inhabited community in the entire country.
All those Georgia O'Keefe landscapes? That was here! The famous road (get your kicks on) Route 66 runs right through Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico. In the Land of Mañana we tend to move with ease, but there are countless museums, trails, parks, vast stargazing skies, and of course restaurants - many of them specializing in delicious New Mexican cuisine.
Pro tip: when ordering chile (and you will order chile) ask for red, green, or *Christmas* to get both!
