Screenplay Competition Statements

SHORT SCREENPLAYS
Readers: Tara Le Reynolds, CK Anderson, Hortense Gerardo

COMEDY

Winner: IT ALL STARTED IN A PARKING LOT by Isabel Lieser (16 pages)
Carrie, a waitress first, delusional romantic second, encounters her casual crush in the parking lot after work. After a brief interaction, Carrie goes home and tries to create the perfect environment to fantasize about him. When her fantasy gets interrupted by everything ranging from soap in her eye to a clueless roommate, Carrie has to take matter into her own hands, even if that means murder.

Finalist: ASHES TO ASHES by Clark Childers (16 pages)
Two siblings, estranged by time and distance, return to the small town of Marfa, TX after the death of their mother. Faced with the task of sorting through the remnants of her life, they come to realize it’s all about them now, and maybe they should be more careful where they place that urn.

Finalist: RED BLOCK by Aaron David Harris (5 pages)
A sentient, hard-working spell check program squares off against an errorladened document that refuses to be corrected.

DRAMA

Winner: A GOOD DAY WILL COME by Amir Zargara (16 pages)
Arash is a professional wrestler with dreams of representing his country and winning gold medals. The country is in turmoil and its people are suffering. Arash must decide between using his platform to stand up to tyranny, or put his head down and remain silent.

Finalist: I AM SHE by Jessica Wilson (25 pages)
Do you really know who you are before someone claims to be you?

Finalist: THE TROUBLE WITH JENNY by Rani Deigh Crowe (36 pages)
Nine year old Jenny develops breasts that are deemed to be inappropriate for third grade. Her parents and teacher and Principal and protestors try to solve the problem in order to protect the children, but who is protecting Jenny?

FEATURE SCREENPLAYS
Readers: Kathleen Casey, Mark Riley, Hortense Gerardo

COMEDY

Winner: DON’T EAT PAPER by Julius Galacki (120 pages)
Roy is obnoxiously in love with his therapist, Joanie, whose attempt to “fire” her client unintentionally leads to his death, but Roy’s ghost expects to maintain their “relationship”; however, a wild road-trip with Roy leads Joanie to discover her true mission in life. FULL-ON FLAVOR by Jenny Goddard-Garcia
Feature comedy (96 pages)

Finalist: FULL-ON FLAVOR by Jenny Goddard-Garcia (96 pages)
After years of depriving herself for her job, vain diet food mascot Lana Stokes talks her frazzled, and recently divorced, friend Poppy Palmer into a whirlwind tour of questionable food choices that may bring both women flavor bliss, body confidence, and more than a little indigestion.

Finalist: THE STRANGE MISADVENTURES OF BUTTERCUP by Ned Eckhardt feature (52 pages)
There is only one Buttercup and she has no intention of slowing down. Her quest for happiness and the occasional tingle has taken her down some very funky bi-ways. As many people have learned the hard way, it’s her indomitable spirit, remarkable ability to adapt, and fast-talking cell phone obsession that somehow always get her through. OK. She’s not Gucci. But she’s not Gap either……

FEATURE

Winner: THE CROSSING by Clark Childers (112 pages)
For illegal immigrants that make their way across the Texas border, the crossing is the easy part. Beyond the border lie hundreds of miles of harsh ranch lands with little water, dangerous wildlife, and vegetation that slices skin like razors. Caroline Bishop, a fifth generation Texan, rancher and widow, has little sympathy for those who attempt this journey, especially the ones that cross her property every night to avoid the nearby Border Patrol checkpoint. Though some are mere migrant workers, many are drug dealers and human traffickers known to be armed and dangerous. Frustrated with the Border Patrol’s inability to secure their lands, Caroline and a small group of local ranchers have taken matters into their own hands and formed the “Border Brigade” – a group of citizens nostalgic for a time when border communities were peaceful and prosperous, when doors could be left unlocked and safety and security were not a concern. Though their apprehension is valid and their intentions honorable, their methods are questionable and have caught the attention of Riley, a local Border Patrol Agent who believes Caroline and her friends walk a fine line between concerned citizens and vigilantes. It is a fine line Caroline unintentionally crosses when in an act of rage, she shoots blindly into the night to scare off a human trafficker that has just killed her dog. The next morning, Caroline opens her front door to find Nadia, a wounded Mexican woman, sunburned, cut, bruised and wearing little more than rags, bleeding out in her front yard. Deserted by the cartel smuggler, she is lucky to be alive. Caroline has two choices… take her in and have the Border Brigade shut down for her actions or patch her up and return her to Mexico. Against the advice of Hector (a legal Mexican-American who grew up with Caroline’s husband and now manages the ranch after his passing) Caroline chooses the latter. With the help of Alice, a local bartender who has been taking nursing classes at night, they stabilize Nadia, but that’s just the beginning of her problems. A witness to the murder of a Border Patrol Agent and abandoned with valuable contraband, the cartel leaders want Nadia and anyone who has come in contact with her, dead. Caroline dug a much bigger hole than she ever could have imagined and now must decide just how far she is willing to go to save this girl’s life. At a crossroads, Caroline finds that her perspective on the life she has lived has been permanently altered. It isn’t until he’s standing next to Nadia, at the water’s edge of the Rio Grande, that she realizes she’s going to have to choose between two very different and uncertain futures.

Finalist: THE FAMILIAR FERRY by William Scott Williams (95 pages)
A struggling actor on the run from her cheating husband learns to parent her precocious teenage daughter with the help of her dying mother and her famously narcissistic grandmother.

Finalist: HUNTER’S WISH by Steven Keith Bogart (99 pages)
A young pig escapes doing his math homework by wishing his parents away and now must find them before they disappear into the Nowhere Place forever.