Taking 3rd place in the Summer 2020 Screenwriting Contest is a biopic that grabbed us with its fascinating premise, telling the story of a 17th century nun who went on to live as a man and became a conquistador: THE LIEUTENANT NUN by Matthew Bernstein and Eva Mendieta!
An historical drama set in Roman Britain adapted from the novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, OUTCAST captured us from the first page to the last with its superb world-building and dramatic story. Congratulations to its writer, Sarah Bellwood, for placing 3rd in our Spring 2019 Screenwriting Contest!
WITHOUT BORDERS: a socio-political thriller, unravelling a mystery that spans the globe…
It takes a lot to grab our attention and make it into the top three in our contests, but WITHOUT BORDERS by Chris Gebhardt and Jenn Russi did it in style. With high-octane action, political conspiracies, and a web of intrigue, this is a script that kept us on the edge of our seats from the first page to the last! And this is just the pilot episode for the rest of the series – the rest of WITHOUT BORDERS promises a lot more to come!
For taking 3rd place in our Winter 2019 Contest, Chris and Jenn have won guaranteed pitching to industry and a year of free script development with us, and we’re really looking forward to working on WITHOUT BORDERS with them! If you’d like to follow in their footsteps, be sure to enter our Spring 2019 Screenwriting Contest, which has a Grand Prize of $2000 and more (click here!)
Here’s a summary of WITHOUT BORDERS:
Alhena Mansour, a seasoned UN human rights investigator, returns to the Democratic Republic of the Congo after ten years away to investigate the disappearance of a UN worker in the war-torn East.
As Alhena navigates the minefield of political instability and humanitarian crisis, she quickly becomes embroiled in a far-reaching conspiracy to control the global economy. With millions of lives hanging in the balance, Alhena has no choice but to see her investigation through to the end… no matter the personal cost.
Alhena encounters old friends and new enemies on her journey down a dark path of human rights abuses and corrupt politics spanning from New York to Beijing. To get to the truth about what’s happening in the Congo, Alhena must confront old wounds and relive a traumatic event in her past… one which holds the key not only to her current investigation but to the world’s economic future.
If you’re a producer interested in this project, email david.vogel@atalentscout.com today!
And here’s a quick bio of the writers of WITHOUT BORDERS, Chris Gebhardt and Jenn Russi:
As a writing team, Jenn and Chris come from dynamic backgrounds that allow them to balance each other’s perspectives while drawing on their unique life experiences. Jenn has worked for five years in international development, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Politics at the University of Glasgow on UN Peacekeeping. Chris was the Chair of the Board of Florida High Schools Model United Nations from 2013-2016 and is now putting his 11 years of experience reporting on the world’s space programs to good use as the Assistant Managing Editor of NASASpaceflight.com.
Through their 15 years of friendship and collaboration, they have developed a strong foundation of effective communication and mutual respect that has allowed the theme of their writing to tackle issues — both good and bad — surrounding the globalization of society.
As a writing team, they have been mentored by award-nominated writers/producers Marc and Elaine Zicree (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, BABYLON 5, SLIDERS, THE LAZARUS MAN). Their pilot, SURVEILLANCE, won “Best Pilot” for April 2016 in the TV Festival competition. Another pilot, TECHYCARDIA, won “Best Teleplay” at the 12th annual Action on Film Festival in September 2016 and was a Quarter-Finalist in the 2017 Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition.
Additionally, Chris received an LA-based production company grant in 2016 to write and produce a short filmed, AVOWED — which had a successful festival run and was nominated for Best Dramatic Short at the 2018 Central Florida Film Festival. He also received a paid, one-on-one mentorship in 2017 with TV and film writer David H. Steinberg.
It’s time to introduce the cream of the crop from our Spring 2018 Contest! Landing in third place is an exceptional screenplay, a topical mystery-thriller set in Greece: FIRE ON THE ISLAND by Timothy Jay Smith!
Congratulations to Timothy, who also won our award for Best Indie Script and is a former Grand Prize Winner from 2010! His prizes include a year of script and pitching development worth $3200, previews of our Virtual Film School, exclusive prizes from InkTip, and more!
Here’s the logline for FIRE ON THE ISLAND:
When an arsonist threatens an important Coast Guard station on a Greek island, the FBI agent stationed in Athens arrives to investigate, finds himself immersed in a community rife with conflict, and falls in love with his chief suspect.
And Timothy’s summary of his script:
An arsonist threatens to burn down a Greek island village by blowing up a fuel tank in its harbor. Alarmed by the possible disruption of the local Coast Guard’s vital operations in rescuing refugees, Nick Damigos, the FBI Agent posted to Athens, arrives to investigate.
The arsonist has struck eleven times in as many months, each fire coming closer to tiny Vourvoulos, and each followed by a mysterious poison pen letter. The last one makes it clear: the arsonist plans to strike within days. With no clues, Nick searches for a motive that would drive someone to such a destructive act. He discovers a village embroiled in conflicts, some dating back generations, and uncovers earlier crimes—all casting a wide net of suspicion.
Gradually the mystery is revealed through the interwoven stories of a struggling restaurant owner and her feminist teenage daughter, a seductive widow and lovelorn waiter, a scurrilous priest and patrician mayor, and a host of colorful characters who paint a portrait—both humorous and soulful—of Greece where the past mingles with the present. While sorting it out, Nick’s life is threatened, and he falls in love with a young waiter who becomes his chief suspect.
Plus a biography of Timothy himself:
Raised crisscrossing America pulling a small green trailer behind the family car, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he’s hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that’s seen him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.S. at the highest levels of foreign governments, and stowaway aboard a ‘devil’s barge’ for a three-day crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail.
Tim brings the same energy to his writing that he brought to a distinguished career, and as a result, he has won top honors for his novels, screenplays and stage plays in numerous prestigious competitions. Fire on the Island won the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel, and his screenplay adaptation of it was named Best Indie Script by WriteMovies. Another novel, The Fourth Courier, set in Poland, will be published in spring 2019 by Skyhorse Publishing. Previously, he won the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the Paris Literary Prize) for his novel, A Vision of Angels. Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012.
Tim was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. His stage play, How High the Moon, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award, and his screenplays have won competitions sponsored by the American Screenwriters Association, WriteMovies, Houston WorldFest, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Fresh Voices, StoryPros, and the Hollywood Screenwriting Institute. He is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater.
Timothy’s latest book, The Fourth Courier is now available for pre-order on Amazon – click here!