by John | Mar 5, 2018 | Industry News
Another glamorous Academy Awards ceremony, and while there weren’t huge surprises, there was a brilliant unifying message that ran through the entire night… Here’s our 2018 Oscars reaction… by Jamie White.
Looking at the winners, everything seemed to fit into place. THE SHAPE OF WATER took home Best Director and Best Picture (which we predicted, by the way) as well as two further awards. Gary Oldman won for his excellent, but kinda Oscar-baity, performance as Winston Churchill, and the Pixar film COCO won the “Pixar Award”, also known as “Best Animated Feature”… There weren’t that many shocks at all, if any, but this year was an enjoyable, albeit lengthy, watch.
Special congratulations to our pal Habib Zargarpour who got a mention in the winning speech from the BLADE RUNNER: 2049 crew after they won “Best Visual Effects”. A brilliant visual achievement from everyone involved in that film, and we’re so happy for Habib!
The night as a whole can be summed up wonderfully by the “Best Actress” win for Frances McDormand. Again, not a particularly surprising result, but a stunningly rousing speech. McDormand asked for her fellow female creatives – actors, directors, producers, costume designers, sound mixers, editors, everyone – to stand up and take some much-deserved applause. This summed up the brilliant message of unity, diversity and celebrating “minority” creatives – a message that was a motif of the night and was reflected by the winners themselves.
Sure, Pixar got it usual and expected win, but COCO was a great view on Mexican culture. Guillermo del Toro’s Best Director win was another celebration for Mexico on the night. And, of course, there was a momentous win for GET OUT and Jordan Peele for “Best Original Screenplay”.
Perhaps the most relevant speech for writers came from Peele himself. Peele stated that he stopped writing, and kept going back to, GET OUT about 20 times! He never gave up on his passion project. He always believed that if and when this project got made it would make a difference – that it would mean something. And boy was he right! Take this as some inspiration for your own work, your own passion project. Don’t ever give up on that one story, that one script that you truly love…
So, all in all, a great night with diverse winners, and a nice sharing of awards between the nominees – no film took home more than four awards (THE SHAPE OF WATER won there, too.) And once again, Jimmy Kimmel was a surprisingly good host…
Congrats to all the winners – bring on this year’s films!
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
by John | Mar 2, 2018 | Results, Updates, WMC, WriteMovies News
We are delighted to announce the Semi-Finalists for our Winter 2018 Screenwriting Contest.
We are delighted to announce the 26 Semi-Finalists for the Winter 2018 Screenwriting Competition! Selecting the scripts with the strongest claim to join our winners has made for a tough but enjoyable task for us the past couple of weeks.
Check out the full list of 26 Semi-Finalists below.
Head on over to our Facebook page and our Twitter feed to congratulate the Semi-Finalists yourselves!
The final results will be announced in two weeks’ time – Friday, March, 16th.
At this time, we try to only include scripts that we’re still considering as a potential winner. Having made the Quarter-Finalists shows that a script or writer already has some clear potential, and a Semi-Final place means that with more development this script could become a contender. Keep that in mind as you think about what to do with your script next. These results should give you a good guide to the current state of your idea, writing and script.
Next, we refocus our attention to the book and television entries as we wind up to next week’s TV and book awards announcement!
Here are the Winter 2018 Screenwriting Contest Semi-Finalists…
|
Semi-Finalists |
|
| THE DAWN OF EVE, James Bingham |
TO DIE IN TAJOUTE, Virginia Bola |
INSURRECTION, Simon Bowler |
| THE OUTSKIRTS OF PARADISE, Montgomery Burt |
WHEN THE WHITE DOVE SPEAKS, Al Case |
VALENTYNE, Dashiell Finley |
| ENDANGERED SPECIES, Mark Flood |
SHAKESPEARE OF AVON, James Hanson |
MAGIC MAN, Norma Hickox |
| BLACK SHEEP, John Hunter |
WHEN WE FALL BEHIND, Dan Hutchinson |
NEW REALITY, Carolyn Kras |
| CHARMER, David Kurtz |
THE LOCKSMITH, Jeffrey Morales |
BAD DOG, Phil Olsen |
| THE CRAWL UP, Gabriell DeBear Paye |
A SHADOW IN SPACE, Bryan Reilly |
SAVIOR, Bo Sanders
|
| STAR BLUE SOLDIER, Donahue Silvia |
THE FOURTH COURIER, Timothy Jay Smith |
THE FIRSTBORN, William Smith |
| SLAVE SHIP, Tyler True |
LAST PRINCE OF WALES, Ethan Westgate |
COLD FOOTED, Tanya M. Wheeler |
| THE REALM, Tanya M. Wheeler |
|
LEGACY OF THE GODS, Tim Wong |
by John | Feb 26, 2018 | Industry News
We hear there’s some big awards ceremony at the weekend? Well, here’s our 2018 Oscars Best Picture prediction and Best Director prediction for this year… By Jamie White.
Best Picture and Director
We’re doing something a little different here… It’s very rare that the Best Picture winner is not accompanied by Best Director, especially since the turn of the century. A Best Picture-Director split has only happened 7 times since the year 2000. And, hell, we’re confident enough that there won’t be a split this year.
So, we’re looking at the 5 Best Director nominees and picking our winner for BOTH Best Picture and Director – we’re that confident!
The nominees are…
“Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan
“Get Out,” Jordan Peele
“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
“Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro
Now, I think we can rule out DUNKIRK almost immediately. It has some recognition in categories like Cinematography and Editing, but we don’t think that’s enough for a win for Chris Nolan’s WWII epic.
The remaining four choices makes for a difficult decision – any four of these films and directors could win either category, but we just can’t see one of these directors winning and their corresponding film lucking out. So, we have to make a decision.
And we’re going with THE SHAPE OF WATER and Del Toro. For us, PHANTOM THREAD is a great film, but we don’t think Anderson has the same impact on his film as Del Toro. The same can really be said for LADY BIRD, in our opinion.
GET OUT is the main contender to Del Toro and SHAPE OF WATER, but we have to pick one winner (well, two…), and the magic of THE SHAPE OF WATER that Del Toro has transpired from other films of his such as PAN’S LABYRINTH makes it our favorite for the Oscar race.
Agree with our predictions or not? Let us now on Twitter and Facebook!
If you’re hungry for more winners, check out our Semi-Finalists announcement this Friday, then the TV and Book Awards winners the Friday after that!
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
by John | Feb 23, 2018 | Industry News
We continue our Oscars prediction by looking at the big guns in the acting categories…
By Jamie White.
The glitz and the glamour of the Oscars really comes alive when we get to the main acting categories. These categories are arguably the most entertaining and interesting for the general audience, and this year interesting is the right word!
Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”
This category seems pretty straight forward, to be honest – even with Daniel Day-Lewis involved!
DARKEST HOUR is one of the most blatant examples of an Oscar-bait film we’ve seen since… well LA LA LAND. Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood, after all. But, Churchill just seems like a character that someone would win an Oscar for playing. It’s about time Gary Oldman got one, too.
This category does seem to already be over, and it reminds us of the time Leo won his Oscar – the joke about him never winning was running thin, and the same can be said for Oldman. It would be a genuine shock if Oldman didn’t win this.
Best Actress
Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Meryl Streep, “The Post”
Now this category seems more like it! And again, we don’t think the Oscar nominee stalwart in this group (sorry, Meryl!) is gonna come out on top.
For us, we see this as a three-way stand-off between McDormand, Robbie, and Ronan. McDormand is definitely the front-runner, and rightly so. And if the love for McDormand at the BAFTAs is anything to go by, this should be as much a walkover as the male category should be for Oldman.
But for some reason our very own John Sullivan has this voice in the back of his head saying “It’s Margot’s time!” Similar wins have happened in the recent past (see Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone). But, maybe another year, John. This time we’re gonna overrule you! McDormand all the way for us.
Agree with our predictions or not? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook! Next we look at the big one – Best Picture!
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
by John | Feb 19, 2018 | Industry News
2018 Oscars Predictions: Supporting Actors and Actresses. By Jamie White.
The supporting actors categories don’t’ always get the recognition they deserve. They’re sometimes overlooked because the main acting category gets SO much attention. But this year may be the most interesting and competitive supporting acting categories yet… here’s our 2018 Oscars predictions for the Supporting Actors categories…
Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Five great actors with nominations in a category so competitive it sees two actors from the same film challenging each other!
And in truth, it would be a bit of a shock if THREE BILLBOARDS didn’t see one of its stars win out here. Both Harrelson and Rockwell were excellent performers in this masterpiece.
To choose one is difficult, though. But considering the critical buzz about his performance and his BAFTAs success last night, we’re leaning towards Rockwell taking this little gold man home.
Supporting Actress
Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”
As if it couldn’t get any harder to predict a winner…
A truly outstanding group of nominees here, including Octavia Spencer who is now tied for most Oscar nominations for a black actress (tying with Viola Davis). But while we love THE SHAPE OF WATE and Guillermo Del Toro, the film’s acting isn’t it’s strongest suit.
We see this category as another two-way head-to-head, this time between Allison Janney and Laurie Metcalf – and once again, it almost hurts to pick a winner here!
But we will – and we’ll give it to Metcalf. Despite missing out to Janney at the Globes, we think this will be Metcalf’s night for her astounding performance in LADY BIRD.
Agree with our predictions or not? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook! Next we’ll look at the main acting categories…
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
by John | Feb 16, 2018 | Results, Updates, WMC, WriteMovies News
We are delighted to announce the Quarter-Finalists for our Winter 2018 Screenwriting Contest.
Since that Bonus Extension in January, we have had a lot of interesting and high-quality scripts to get through – but it’s been another great judging period!
Congratulations to the 51 Winter 2018 Quarter-Finalists! All of them had some special spark that caught our eye and we’re looking forward to giving them new eyes as we consider our Semi-Finalists and winners…
Those who didn’t make it this time were an equally fascinating set of submissions too, and showed a lot of promising qualities. We hope that you will stay in touch with us: we’re currently confirming details for our next contest and will keep you informed.
If you want to know why your script didn’t make it, or where to take it next? Has a revised edition of your script come out short yet again? We recommend that you consider getting a mentoring service or consultancy, too. That way you can find out what we currently feel is holding your script back. And as a sweet bonus, you’ll get free entry into our next main contest!
See the full list of Quarter-Finalists below…
Congratulate the Quarter-Finalists on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed.
|
Quarter-Finalists |
|
| STRANDED, Christopher Andre |
STEVE DEUCE, Justin Andreas |
BUSHIDO BASEBALL, Charles R. Astone |
| MEGABALL$, Marc Baron |
THE DAWN OF EVE, James Bingham |
TO DIE IN TAJOUTE, Virginia Bola |
| INSURRECTION, Simon Bowler |
THE OUTSKIRTS OF PARADISE, Montgomery Burt |
WHEN THE WHITE DOVE SPEAKS, Al Case |
| ADIONA, Ian Causer |
DEAD MAN’S HEAD, Ronald Ecker |
ICE CREAM DON’T MELT IN ENGLEWOOD, Richard Ehrenreich |
| VALENTYNE, Dashiell Finley |
ENDANGERED SPECIES, Mark Flood |
THE OATH, Axel Gerand |
| SHAKESPEARE OF AVON, James Hanson |
MAGIC MAN, Norma Hickox |
BLACK SHEEP, John Hunter |
| WHEN WE FALL BEHIND, Dan Hutchinson |
BOMMY!, Boim Hwang |
A SECOND CHANCE, Manny Jimenez Sr.
|
| MATANZAS, Piotr Kaszuba |
NEW REALITY, Carolyn Kras |
CHARMER, David Kurtz |
| TALK THERAPY, Thomas Moore |
THE LOCKSMITH, Jeffrey Morales |
PROJECT ΩMEGA, P. James Norris |
| BAD DOG, Phil Olsen |
TREE HOUSE, Chris Ossman |
FINDING ATLANTIS, Katherine Panzella |
| AMERICAN REBEL, Sydney Parran |
THE CRAWL UP, Gabriell DeBear Paye |
GATEKEEPERS TO THE STARS, Thelma Pickett |
| A SHADOW IN SPACE, Bryan Reilly |
2020AD, Mike Rogers |
SAVIOR, Jerome Sanders |
| STAR BLUE SOLDIER, Donahue Silvia |
THE FOURTH COURIER, Timothy Jay Smith |
THE FIRSTBORN, William Smith |
| TIMBER, Patricia Stevens, Marian Mathews Clark |
CUL DE SAC, Charles Stock |
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, Charles Stock |
| SLAVE SHIP, Tyler True |
THE VENUS SYNDROME, Lynee Vincentnathan |
LAST PRINCE OF WALES, Ethan Westgate |
| COLD FOOTED, Tanya M. Wheeler |
THE REALM, Tanya M. Wheeler |
ISOLATION, Brian Whiteman |
| LEGACY OF THE GODS, Tim Wong |
DISRUPTED, Meredith Wood |
AMERICAN MYTHS OF BLACK & WHITE, Aaron Yarber |
by John | Feb 12, 2018 | Highlights, Our Winners, Success Stories, Updates
The Third Placed Winning writer to our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest, Evan Cooper, is making waves in the industry with his upcoming film THE WILL O WISP.
Evan, who came third with his script BALLERINA GIRL, is both directing and writing the psychological horror-thriller that has been described as SIGNS meets MISERY. Actor Chrissy Metz (THIS IS US, AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAKSHOW) is attached to the film to play a nurse with a chequered past… Evan tells us he hopes to head home to Canada for the shoot which would be great for him.
While it’s been exciting times for Evan, we’ve been deferring our usual free year of script development for BALLERINA GIRL, which he can resume with us anytime in the future. We’re keen to see that script progress as we believe it’s got strong potential too, and any success for THE WILL O THE WISP can only help that.
Click here for a reminder about Evan’s script BALLERINA GIRL and a little bit on the man himself…
You can check out Evan’s IMDB page here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3442948/?ref_=nmnw_hd
Check out the headlines Evan’s project is making here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/is-us-star-chrissy-metz-joins-horror-movie-will-o-wisp-1053916
Looking at the winners, everything seemed to fit into place. THE SHAPE OF WATER took home Best Director and Best Picture (which we predicted, by the way) as well as two further awards. Gary Oldman won for his excellent, but kinda Oscar-baity, performance as Winston Churchill, and the Pixar film COCO won the “Pixar Award”, also known as “Best Animated Feature”… There weren’t that many shocks at all, if any, but this year was an enjoyable, albeit lengthy, watch.
Perhaps the most relevant speech for writers came from Peele himself. Peele stated that he stopped writing, and kept going back to, GET OUT about 20 times! He never gave up on his passion project. He always believed that if and when this project got made it would make a difference – that it would mean something. And boy was he right! Take this as some inspiration for your own work, your own passion project. Don’t ever give up on that one story, that one script that you truly love…
