The Slamdance Film Festival’s annual Screenwriting and Teleplay Competition has announced its award winners for 2013. From the official press release:
A record entry of over 2,500 submissions competed for record prizes in Slamdance’s 2013 Screenwriting and Teleplay Competition. Last night’s awards ceremony hosted by the Writers Guild of America, West presented awards in the following categories:
GRAND PRIZE WINNER presented by JuntoBox Films:
Butterfly Children by Melanie Schiele ($10,000 cash prize & $50,000 in production funds)
A husband and wife, whose marriage is on the brink of failure, reconnect as they help their young daughter try to beat an incredibly rare life-threatening skin disease that is leaving her skin as fragile as butterfly wings.FEATURE SCREENPLAY:
1st Place – The Ecdysiasts by Mary F. Unser ($3,000 cash prize plus entertainment legal service award from Pierce Law Group, LLP)
With the help of the entomologist next door and the majesty of a million cicadas, 13-year-old Trygg Tolefson breaks free of his isolation and lifts his heart-broken family out of their grief.2nd Place – Swine by Clayton Sakoda
Joint 3rd Place – Terrestrials by Elliot &Teresa Sutherland; Wallingford by Lisa RubinHORROR SCREENPLAY:
1st Place – Exquisite Corpses by Mark Strassel & Rebecca Rudell ($3,000 cash prize)
A Surrealist parlor game turns deadly when college art students under the thrall of a charming yet mysterious stranger summon a series of macabre creatures.2nd Place – That Time of the Month by Joe Hauler
3rd Place – Dead Tired by Geoffrey UlothSHORT SCREENPLAY:
1st Place – Think Ink by Emily Hu (Option to be produced and premiere at Slamdance 2015, plus entertainment legal service award from Pierce Law Group, LLP)
A young coffee stain dreams of becoming a professional inkblot for psychological testing.2nd Place – The Substitute by Madeleine Sims-Fewer
3rd Place – Before the Bomb by Tannaz Hazemi & James GrimaldiTELEPLAY/WEBISODE:
1st Place – Resident by Andrew Gerngross ($3,000 cash prize)
The Residents of a luxury apartment tower find they are players in a game where they must either entertain whoever or whatever is somehow watching and judging them, or they will die.2nd Place – Security by Brian Hurney
3rd Place – Kidding by David HolsteinWriters Guild of America, West Vice President Howard A. Rodman states, “The WGAW joins Slamdance in supporting emerging writers, and those whose work is made with an economy of means. Slamdance’s annual Screenwriting and Teleplay competition has always found writers of talent, and provided them with opportunities to expose their fine work to the larger community.”
“Partnering with Slamdance was a natural fit for JuntoBox Films as we share the mandate of discovering rich and original stories and do so by going outside the traditional paths to discover them,” added Philippe Caland, Founder and Co-Chairman of JuntoBox Films. “Through Slamdance’s Screenwriting and Teleplay Competition this year, we celebrate talented screenwriters and the exceptional quality of work they’ve created.”
“The 2013 Competition was a big one for us,” explains Slamdance Festival Manager Anna Germanidi. “By partnering with JuntoBox Films, we offered our biggest prize ever and brought the grand prize winner one step closer to the production of their script. The Slamdance readers and staff are all very proud of our finalists and we want to congratulate them again for making it this far. These are all scripts we want to see made, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you when that happens.”
The Slamdance Writing Competition has established a reputation for finding production-worthy screenplays written by emerging talent. Early examples include Joshua Marston’s Maria Full of Grace and The Woodsman written by Nicole Kassel and Stephen Fetcher. Every year finalists’ work is acquired for production, and as Chad Crawford Kinkle, the 2011 Grand Prize winning writer of Jug Face said, “it all started at Slamdance.” With this year’s production development of Butterfly Children, Melanie Schiele is bound to agree.
The Slamdance 2013 Screenwriting and Teleplay Competition sponsors are JuntoBox Films, Writers Guild of America, West and Pierce Law Group, LLP.
