2023 Screenplay Award Finalists

When not writing, Austin is an engineer for a nuclear plant, where most days seem no different than stocking shelves at Costco. In the last two years, Austin's screenplays: CAR HEROIN TRAIN, HER SEVENTH DEATH, WILLIAM THE II, and TAMING HOLDEN CAULFIELD have garnered over 75 nominations in film

Rod Kent started his career in computers in high school by getting a job at a top secret government laboratory after hacking into their computers to do homework…and getting caught. This led to a top secret clearance and finding out where Martians are buried in Area 51. After graduating, he went on

Born Nov. 23 1985 in Vladikavkaz, Russia to Inna Tedeeva, who was just a freshman at the time in a Moscow University and Boris Basiev, an aspiring actor at the VGIK drama school. He has Ossetian and Alani ancestry. George spent much of his youth in Brooklyn and graduated from Grover Cleveland H.S.

Drawn to the arts at a young age, Andrew quickly embraced his love of writing and film. The goal for all of his screenplays is to produce scripts with unique opportunities to showcase character development, extensive world building, and a balance between practical and digital effects. Above all, he

Jimmy Prosser is a writer/director from Los Angeles. He is a graduate of New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, where his pilot for the limited series "John & Meryl" was selected by NYU Tisch faculty as the Outstanding TV Drama Thesis. The

Karla M. Jay is the award-winning author of When We Were Brave, It Happened in Silence., The Puppet Maker's Daughter and her new vigilante novel, A Shot at Justice. She has wanted to write books since she was seven. Originally from the east coast, she makes her home in Salt Lake City. Over the years

From a young age, 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

Domenico graduated from the Diaz scientific high school in Caserta, and then attended the three-year degree course in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London. He was able to spend a fourth year at the University of Texas at Austin thanks to a scholarship sponsored by his home university. He

Jan is a novelist and screenwriter living in the magnificent Pacific Northwest. She was born and raised in northern Ohio. Enticed by the sea, she packed up and moved to Pleasure Island, North Carolina, and remained in the area with her family for 12 years. She now writes nestled between the Olympic

Previously a falconer, consultant and writer-presenter of CITV’s Wild World, Jo is now loving the writer’s life, and is also a script consultant and copywriter. She’s been involved in falconry and conservation industries for over twenty years and is passionate about protecting wildlife and educating

Joe Campbell Jr. is a father of three adult daughters and lives with his wife on Long Island in New York. With the high demand for IP from Hollywood, Joe took on a new challenge and created a TV pilot, adapted from his unpublished trilogy. Different Wings is ​​​​​​an emotional romance and family

I've published over 30 novels and nonfiction books, most notably the popular Shakespeare Stealer series. I'm also a widely produced playwright; my adaptation of The Shakespeare Stealer has been staged by most of the top children's theatres in the U.S. I've recently turned my hand to screenplays

Having grown up in North Texas, USA where my choices in life included playing women's sports or going to church, I obviously sided with Satan and got out of there to pursue film school at UT. Since then I've worked in broadcast news, tv/film production and lately as Producer in gaming. Dramatic

Arlene is passionate about art in all its forms. She fully believes that at the end of the day (and the end of all civilizations) art is the only thing that lasts after all the dust has settled. (That, and children— of which she has two.) Arlene grew up in an Appalachian town where everybody knows

Mark Rosendorf is a High School Guidance Counselor for students in the New York City Department of Education’s special education district. He is also a former professional magician. Mark shares his knowledge of magic with his students as part of the school's Performing Arts program. He uses stage

Melissa Hope is the author of Sea of Kings, a fantasy adventure middle-grade that Newbery Award winner Andrea Wang described as "everything a kid could want." More recently, her picture book Not My Order was a finalist in the Kids Choice Award 2023, and her short film finished as a quarterfinalist

Melissa Hope is the author of Sea of Kings, a fantasy adventure middle-grade that Newbery Award winner Andrea Wang described as "everything a kid could want." More recently, her picture book Not My Order was a finalist in the Kids Choice Award 2023, and her short film finished as a quarterfinalist

CLAIRE PARTIN is a storyteller, artist, writer, lyricist, song improvisor and actor living in West Hollywood, California. She recently co-wrote the musical “Heartland” with composer Kat Zimmerman about an Amish teen who moves to the big city only to have his American dreams dashed when he witnesses

A self published author of a children's novel titled 'Old Hige' and a graduate of Met Film School with a Master's Degree in Screenplay Writing.

Kim Black is a not-quite-cozy genre mixologist and award-winning author. She loves learning new things and returned to school in her fifties to receive her certification in screenwriting. She is a member of the Texas High Plains Writers, one of the oldest writers' groups in America. She speaks to

Born in Italy in 1961, I started to travel the world at the age of seventeen. As a Political Science university student I began exploring Western Africa, acquiring a deep knowledge of the territory and its people. In the ‘90s I moved to the United States where, as a TV producer, I realized several

Darren is an actor, writer, producer and director. He recently completed his debut short film BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE as a writer / director, where he was awarded the New York Screenwriting Award 2023 for Best Short Screenplay LGBTQIA Winner and Winner Best Performance – LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival 2023

Since attaining my MA in Play and Screenwriting – graduating from City, University of London, in 2014 – I have had three plays successfully produced in London, commissioned and directed by Martin Parr, known for producing work in unconventional spaces. Consequently, with a produced two-hander, one

Brian Bossetta is a native of New Orleans, a die-hard Saints fan, a frequent consumer of classical music, jazz, dark beer and Scotch — a photographer, a woefully average guitar player, avid runner, dog lover and eternally struggling writer still trying to determine if writing the great American

Writer & Artist exploring a mix of genres & styles including Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Cosmic Horror, plus digital art and traditional art. Liath LaVerne Hawke is my pen name that I plan to write and illustrate under, but I share my real name when required. Most of my experience comes with writing short

Paul has an MA in English Literature from Oxford University. He wrote and performed comedy, professionally, both live on stage and for TV and radio, with Ian Hislop, and Richard Curtis, the romantic comedy screenplay writer. His play - “A New Adam and Eve”- was performed by the Haymarket Theatre

A British Turkish Cypriot, twenty two year old neurodivergent writer and actor, raised in South East London, who has recently defected to North London.

Hi, I am Francesa. After graduating from the University of Exeter in 2016, I have dedicated the last seven years of my life to the film industry. I completed a screenwriting course at the Met Film School in London in 2017 and an 'Acting for Film' course in New York in 2018, which I funded through

Hannah J Shaw is a British fourth year student studying a BA Hons degree in Creative and Professional Writing with International Experience. She is currently completing her international scholarship year at The University of Canberra, ACT, Australia. Originally a waitress, Hannah was encouraged to

Erasmo Acosta was born in Cantaura, a small town in Venezuela, and moved to the United States in 1996 to pursue a software engineering career sponsored by a small Silicon Valley company. He retired to Portland, Oregon, in 2020 after achieving 32 successful years in the industry. In 2015, he became

Payton McCarty-Simas is a freelance writer and MA student at Columbia University studying film. They have won several awards for their screenwriting. Their academic and critical writing focuses primarily on horror film, sexuality, psychedelia, folk horror, and the occult. Payton's most recent work

Aged 18, I chose stability and certainty over creativity and impulse. I studied medicine, became a doctor, witnessed life and my fair share of death. For years, I built a narrative. Hard facts and logic win over ambiguity and emotion. But there was always a niggling feeling. A way to express what