by John | Aug 20, 2018 | Our Winners, WriteMovies News
Our International Screenwriting Contest isn’t just for full length screenplays – we accept short scripts as well! In our Spring 2018 Contest, the winner of Best Short Script also made it all the way to the semi-finals: ROLL WITH IT by Rosie Byrnes!
As most of our readers know, writing a screenplay is tough work that takes diligence, planning, and a whole lot of hours spent typing. It might seem like writing a short script is easier, but it brings with it an entire set of challenges you won’t find elsewhere. Imagine trying to cram a 120 page story into 10 pages and you’ll see how difficult it is!
Congratulations to Rosie for winning in this category; her script charmed us with its rich story, likeable characters, and colorful concepts. She now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as her prizes, plus a set of Development Notes to give her professional feedback on her work.
Read on to find out more about this short script which captured our hearts: ROLL WITH IT!
Here’s Rosie’s summary of her script…
“Max is the king of the roller disco, and he knows it—that is, until the spunky (and far more admirable) Lucy arrives at the rink. His crown threatened, Max challenges her to the ultimate dance-off. But he’s in over his head, and finds that he’s head over heels for the gal who knows what it means to be groovy.”
And a short biography of Rosie, too…
“Rosie Byrnes is a writer, a second grade teacher, and a notorious ice cream lover. Originally from Colorado but currently residing in Tainan City, Taiwan, Rosie has spent most of her life writing outlandish stories. Only after following her crush into a college screenwriting class did she realize that, hey, it’s actually pretty neat. Her most recent passion project is a feature-length screenplay about Bigfoot (who’s a big softie, deep down), and she currently holds the “Worst Female Bowler” title in her hometown’s championship.
Rosie can be found on Twitter via the username @rosiebwrites.”
Rosie has won previews of the WriteMovies Academy, and Phase 1 opens on September 15th – join now to take your work to take your screenwriting and production skills to the next level!
by John | Aug 13, 2018 | Our Winners, Updates, WriteMovies News
The winner of our Best Stageplay Award in our Spring 2018 Contest also made it all the way to the final, receiving an Honorable Mention: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, by John Woodard!
Our congratulations to John for this achievement; stageplays are judged on their screen potential but equally the quality of the writing. “Viability” is the deciding factor here! John now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as his prizes.
Read on to find out about the stageplay which took the prize in this category: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR!
Here’s John’s summary of his script…
“In 1944 racist Georgia, a black drifter saves a white recluse by killing her lecherous neighbor — setting in motion a chain of deadly events while uncovering secrets better left hidden.”
And a short biography of John, too…
“John Woodard is a multiple award winning screen, teleplay, and stageplay play writer living in Los Angeles, Ca.. Winner of The 2016 Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Youth Theatre Award for his play “The Princess Parodies.” John has written screen and teleplays in a variety of genres that have all gone on to win various contests, including The Scriptapalooza Grand Jury Prize, Several Nicholl Fellowship finalists, Rhode Island International Grand Jury Prize, 2nd Place Story Pros Screenplay Contest, Page and Page International and many others.
John looks forward to seeing the first production of “The Crack in Peggy Sue’s Floor” on stage as well as his screenplays on the big screen!“
If you’ve got a stageplay that would adapt well to the screen, why not commission our help to get it there?
With our Summer Offers running until 31st August 2018, you can get all the professional feedback you need at great prices – take a look at our Script Report services!
by John | Aug 10, 2018 | Our Winners, Updates, WriteMovies News
We are delighted to announce the winners of our Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest!
We’ve read many fantastic scripts over the last few months, but at long last, our Spring 2018 Contest comes to a close. In every genre and in every format, there have been many scripts that shone – but we’ve finally managed to decide on our winners!
A massive thanks to everyone who entered, and who gave us so much great material to read! If you want to find out why your script placed where it did in our competition, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of our Script Report services – which are currently on special offer until 31st August 2018!
Our Grand Prize Winner walks away with:
- $2000 cash prize
- A year of script and pitching development worth $3200
- Exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School and a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual
And the top three submissions all receive:
- Guaranteed pitching and promotion to the top of the film industry
- Exclusive prizes from InkTip – an InkTip Script Listing and the winning scripts’ loglines will be featured in InkTip’s Magazine, read by thousands of writers and producers.
So, a huge congratulations to our GRAND PRIZE WINNER:
DESERT RUN
by
Christopher Thomas
A great win for Christopher, and a thrilling script with strongly voiced characters. Christopher now takes home those wonderful prizes listed above.
But we must also congratulate our SECOND PLACED WINNER:
KLONDIKE MIKE
by
Thomas Zmiarovich
And our THIRD PLACED WINNER:
FIRE ON THE ISLAND
by
Timothy Jay Smith
A round of applause also for our Honorable Mentions: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN by Urs Aebersold, LOVERS IN PARIS by Andy Conway, THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR by John Woodard, THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN by Natasha Le Petit, THE ELECTRIC WAR by Arthur Tiersky, and HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE by Manny Jimenez Sr.
A very well done to everyone named here and the many other impressive scripts we read this time around. It’s been a tough field to choose from! See the results in full below.
We’ll be telling you all about our winners in the coming weeks, and getting their script development phase underway.
Head to our Facebook page and our Twitter feed to congratulate our top three winners and Honorable Mentions yourself!
Here are the Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest Winners and Honorable Mentions…
|
GRAND PRIZE WINNER |
|
|
DESERT RUN
by Christopher Thomas |
|
| SECOND PLACE |
|
THIRD PLACE
|
KLONDIKE MIKE
by Thomas Zmiarovich |
|
FIRE ON THE ISLAND
by Timothy Jay Smith |
|
HONORABLE MENTIONS |
|
BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN
by Urs Aebersold |
LOVERS IN PARIS
by Andy Conway |
THE ELECTRIC WAR
by Arthur Tiersky |
THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN
by Natasha Le Petit |
HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED:
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE
by Manny Jimenez Sr |
THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR
by John Woodard |
by John | Aug 6, 2018 | Our Winners, Updates, WriteMovies News
We announced the winner of our Best Book award a short while ago, along with our Quarter-Finalists: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN by Urs Aebersold!
Our congratulations to Urs for winning in this category, in which we assess both the quality of the writing itself and also its potential for screen adaptation. He now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as his prizes.
Read on to find out more about the script which so drew our attention: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN!
Here’s Urs’ summary of his script…
“Several mysterious suicides are disturbing police detective Nina Brandner – and when her partner dies in the same way, she is certain it is murder.”
And a short biography of Urs, too…
“Urs Aebersold was born in Switzerland, in the famous Emmental area. During his High School time in Biel/Bienne, a lakeshore town with excellent wines, he created several short films with close friends culminating in the 90 minute family drama DIE FABRIKANTEN.
In 1967 Urs went to Munich, studying there at the film school, and later on concentrated on screenwriting. He wrote several screenplays for TATORT, the popular crime series of the First German Television Channel. In the 80s Urs worked for several years for Bavarian Television as a producer and gained the Student Oscar with the short ABGESCHMINKT by Katja von Garnier, and was nominated for the Oscar for foreign language with the movie by Caroline Link JENSEITS DER STILLE.
In 2016 Urs began to write prose; his latest book is the psychothriller BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN.”
If you’ve got a book that would adapt well to the screen, why not commission our help to get it there?
With our Summer Offers running until 31st August 2018, you can get all the professional feedback you need at great prices – take a look at our Script Report services!
by John | Aug 3, 2018 | Our Winners, Results, WMC, WriteMovies News
We are pleased to announce the Semi-Finalists for our Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest – and the winner of our Best Studio Script, Best Indie Script, and Best Short Script Awards!
After another tough judging period, we’ve decided on the Semi-Finalists for our Spring 2018 Contest – plus three awards in new categories!
The scripts that advanced to the semi-finals impressed us for many reasons, with fantastic stories, well-crafted dialogue, and strong commercial potential – and as ever, a lot of great scripts just missed the cut. If yours is one of them, don’t feel downhearted – all of our Quarter-Finalists were impressive entries.
And don’t forget, if you want to find out why your script didn’t make it, and want to take it to the next level, all our Script Report services are on special offer until 31st August – and you get free entry to our next contest as a bonus!
Alternatively, check out our Elite Mentoring service: invaluable one-to-one advice from actual Hollywood producers and studio execs!
See the full list of Semi-Finalists below… but first, we’re announcing the best of those movie scripts that aimed themselves firmly at either a HIGH or a LOW budget which we felt could be the most desirable to producers at the budget it set… and, working to a different kind of constraint, we’re also announcing the Best Short Script! Writing a short film demands a particular skill: the ability to tell a complete, poignant story in the space of only a few short minutes – normally less than 15 pages instead of the usual 120.
Next week: we name our top ten and our Overall Winner! Who will take the big prize for the very best entry in our latest major contest?
| Best Studio Script |
Best Indie Script |
Best Short Script |
DESERT RUN, by Christopher Thomas!
With Honorable Mentions to: CHARMER, David Kurtz, and KLONDIKE MIKE, Thomas Zmiarovich. |
FIRE ON THE ISLAND, by Timothy Jay Smith!
With Honorable Mentions to: LOVERS IN PARIS, Andy Conway, and THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN, Natasha Le Petit. |
ROLL WITH IT, by Rosie Byrnes! |
A big congratulations to the latest winners; we’ll be in touch with them soon about their winnings! Meanwhile, these are all of the other SEMI-FINALISTS who are still in the running for the big one… congratulations to all of them!
|
Semi-Finalists |
|
| BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN, Urs Aebersold |
REMOTELY WORKING, William Baber |
ROLL WITH IT, Rosie Byrnes |
| PARDON MY GENDER: SUCH A FARCE!, Bob Canning |
LOVERS IN PARIS, Andy Conway |
UNE CHANCE POUR GUÉRIR, Christine de Chauvelin |
| LES NIOCKS, Edith Devillet |
THE GOOD CITIZEN, Joel Doty |
OPERATION BROTHER SAM, Gustavo Freitas |
| ON THE SPARROW, RW Hahn |
THE LAST KING OF AMERICA, Richard Guimond |
SOUL OF AN EMPIRE, Ryan Jaroncyk |
| THE SAX, Pascal Kulcsar |
HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE, Manny Jimenez Sr. |
SHOOTING ANGELS, RW Hahn |
| HOBBY AND FITZ, James Milton |
CHARMER, David Kurtz |
WINDSPIRIT, Paul Penley |
| MAUDITE ÉQUATION, Joel Prost |
THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN, Natasha Le Petit |
THE MYTHICAL GOLDEN TROUT, Craig Peters |
| DESERT RUN, Christopher Thomas |
WHEN I WAS A CHILD, T. L. Needham |
FIRE ON THE ISLAND, Timothy Smith |
| THE LOST OPERA, Rachel, Thomas-Medwid |
THE ARIZONA BALLOON BUSTER, Mark Perlick and Steven Pripps |
THE ELECTRIC WAR, Arthur Tiersky |
| THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, John Woodard |
CHILDREN OF EDEN, Raymond Just |
KLONDIKE MIKE, Thomas Zmiarovich |
| MANHATTAN MARILYN (book), Philippe Laguerre |
MASON, Andrew Marshall |
|
by John | Jul 20, 2018 | Deutsch (Neuigkeiten), Our Winners, Results, WMC, WriteMovies News
We are delighted to announce the Quarter-Finalists for our Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest! And even more importantly, our next two winners…
There have been a lot of great scripts for us to read for this contest, especially with our extended late entry running into June! The competition has been especially fierce, and we’ve enjoyed judging all the scripts we were sent.
So congratulations to our Spring 2018 Quarter-Finalists! Each script here deservedly advances in the contest. We’ll be giving every last one of them a fresh read as we consider which ones will make the Semi-Finals…
With so much competition this time around, a number of promising writers have unfortunately missed out – so don’t feel down if you’re one of them. A lot of the scripts that didn’t make it were strong contenders with a lot of positive features.
If you’d like to know why your script placed where it did, and how to take it to the next level, commission a Script Report from us to get a professional analyst’s opinion on what’s currently working and what’s holding it back. We provide large numbers of studio-quality Script Reports for writers and producers every year – and as an added bonus, you’ll get free entry into our next main contest!
Alternatively, check out our Elite Mentoring service: invaluable one-to-one advice from actual Hollywood producers and studio execs!
See the full list of Quarter-Finalists below… but first, here are the winners of Best Book and Best Stageplay!
BEST BOOK: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN, by Urs Aebersold
BEST STAGEPLAY: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, by John Woodard
Hearty congratulations to them and everyone else who is still in the running for our other prizes! We’ll be in touch with them soon about their winnings…
|
Quarter-Finalists |
|
| BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN, Urs Aebersold |
REMOTELY WORKING, William Baber |
NICKERBACHER, Terry Barto |
| THE DAWN OF EVE, James Bingham |
HOPE IS NOT A BLACK AND WHITE RAINBOW, Harold L. Brown |
ROLL WITH IT, Rosie Byrnes |
| PARDON MY GENDER: SUCH A FARCE!, Bob Canning |
LOVERS IN PARIS, Andy Conway |
UNE CHANCE POUR GUÉRIR, Christine de Chauvelin |
| LES NIOCKS, Edith Devillet |
THE GOOD CITIZEN, Joel Doty |
RELENTLESS, Jay Fisher |
| OPERATION BORTHER SAM, Gustavo Freitas |
THE LAST KING OF AMERICA, Richard Guimond |
BIG BALLS aka FUTUREBALL, Richard Guimond |
| ON THE SPARROW, RW Hahn |
SHOOTING ANGELS, RW Hahn |
RACE, Justin Jackson |
| THE HAPPY PLACE, Justin Jackson |
THE BROKEN CYPHER, Justin Jackson |
SOUL OF AN EMPIRE, Ryan Jaroncyk |
| VIVA – A COLDPLAY MUSICAL, Ines Jimenez |
HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE, Manny Jimenez Sr. |
CHILDREN OF EDEN, Raymond A. Just |
| THE SAX, Pascal Kulcsar |
CHARMER, David Kurtz |
THE HEART OF A TIGER, SreyRam Kuy (book and screenplay) |
| MANHATTAN MARILYN, Philippe Laguerre (book and screenplay) |
THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN, Natasha Le Petit |
INSPIRED, David Lawrence Lynch |
| HOBBY AND FITZ, James Milton |
WHEN I WAS A CHILD, T. L. Needham |
WINDSPIRIT, Paul Penley |
| THE SHADOW OF DHARMA, Mark Perlick |
THE ARIZONA BALLOON BUSTER, Mark Perlick and Steven Pripps |
THE MYTHICAL GOLDEN TROUT, Craig Peters |
| MAUDITE ÉQUATION, Joel Prost |
WHATEVER IT TAKES, Robin Regensburg |
THE LAST JOURNEY OF NOAH, Mark Rigoglioso |
| PERISH, Mike Rogers |
IMMORTALIZING RAYMOND, James Rosenfield |
FIRE ON THE ISLAND, Timothy Smith |
| DESERT RUN, Christopher Thomas |
THE LOST OPERA, Rachel, Thomas-Medwid |
THE ELECTRIC WAR, Arthur Tiersky |
| THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, John Woodard |
KLONDIKE MIKE, Thomas Zmiarovich |
|
by WriteMovies | Jun 6, 2018 | Actualités Francophones, WriteMovies News
A warm welcome to our new Director of French Services, Nicolas Bodereau!
Nicolas est un auteur/producteur français. Féru d’innovation et de nouvelles technologies, il s’intéresse également aux différentes techniques de réalisation, notamment avec les smartphones. Écrivain et poète publié, il est aussi acteur, réalisateur et producteur de court métrage.
Ayant remporté lui même une Mention Honorable lors d’un precedent concours Writemovies, Nicolas est fier d’aider à la découverte de nouveaux talents, et de permettre aux auteurs français de percer au niveau international. « Nous avons tellement de bons scénaristes en France, qu’il est grand temps de le prouver maintenant. C’est pourquoi, j’invite nos ambitieux auteurs à soumettre leurs textes, rapidement, et ce afin de multiplier les chances de succès.
C’est officiel, c’est le Printemps ! Et comme une bonne nouvelle n’arrive jamais seule, les textes en français font leur retour dans les concours, après plusieurs mois d’arrêt. Je sais que cette nouvelle va ravir beaucoup d’entre vous, car certains attendaient avec une impatience non dissimulée. Et les autres, tous les nouveaux venus ? Il faut les prévenir, je vous invite donc à diffuser la nouvelle, sur Facebook, Twitter, partout. Voilà, chers auteurs français, et francophiles du monde entier, vous pouvez à nouveau soumettre vos textes, et avec de la chance participer aux Oscars 2019, rêvez grand ! N’oubliez pas de vous inscrire ou réinscrire à la niouzlettre, afin de connaître dernières nouvelles. »
And in translation:
Nicolas is a French author and producer who innovates with new production technologies including smartphones. He works as a published poet, novel writer, actor, director and short film producer.
Having won an Honorable Mention himself from WriteMovies in the past, Nicolas is proud to be helping discover new talent and help French language writers break into the international entertainment industry: “We have so many good scriptwriters in France, and now is the perfect time to catch our eye. All ambitious writers should get their submissions in as soon as possible to get the most chances for success!”
“Springtime is there, officially ! And good news never arrives on its own, the french-speaking contests are also back, officially, after being stopped for months. And I know some of you will be really happy to read that, because they’ve just been waiting for so long. What about the others, the newbies ? Well, spread the news, I urge you to tell them the contest in french is back, on facebook, twitter, everywhere. So, dear French writers, and all around the world Francophiles, all you have to do is submit your scripts anew, and why not be a part of the Oscars 2019, dream big ! Don’t forget to subscribe or resubscribe to the newsletter, so you can have all the fresh news.”
