Winners 2022 :
We Script Competition Award: Blood Splattered Pearls by Shanna Riker
Director’s Choice: Nursery Crimes by Charles Kline
Best of Horror: Escalation by Christian Kang Bachini
Best of Comedy: W.A.L.L.D by Johnny Ray Gill
Best of Sci-Fi : Anemoia by Zach Karem
Best of Drama: Into The Night by Levi Elizaga/Jessica Sanders
Best of Animation : H.E.R.A by Alaa Fleilel
Audience Favorites:Santa Quits Christmas by Clay Ivy
I love you I got you by Gary Taylor
Grimoire by Donovan Smith
Best of Arizona: Hanging Buddy by John Kestner
Official Selection 2022:
SACRED SUN | ‘Out of horror, belief.’ A horrific animal experiment carried out by the military at a solar energy plant in the southern deserts of North America sets off a series of strange, ominous events. | Michael Louis Gould |
Soul Survivors – An Obsession Of The Heart Part One | Is it coincidence or fate when the only woman he ever loved unexpectedly appears after he ran away fifteen years earlier. A man must confront regrets he has always carried of running away from the only true love of his life. | Adam Poulos |
Blood Splattered Pearls | After a deadly altercation with her abuser, Darla Bates flees the city and seeks solace at her beloved grandmother’s home in rural Texas. Between church, homemade pies and poker, she soon discovers that murder runs in her blood and the pecan grove knows how to keep a secret. | Shanna Riker |
Kate’s Ballad | This is a play within a play within a play where two actors grapple with their feelings for one another through the text’s ambiguity. | Rory O’Connor |
No Address | A group of homeless people bond together as a family, struggling to survive the streets while fending off a harassing gang, an unforgiving community and the local authorities in hopes of finding their humanity again. | Julia Verdin, James Papa |
Moral Trial | An old man is on trail for war crimes, when he shares the truth, it will shock everyone, mostly his accuser. | Tyrel Haight |
Hall Monitor | When a nerdy middle schooler assumes the role of hall monitor, he transcends into popularity; but being cool just might be too heavy a mass to balance. | Kyle Jordan |
Friendship, Honor, and Murder | Three young boys swear to an oath of friendship and honor; years later, one of them breaks the oath — now someone must die. | Giacomo Giammatteo |
Elevator Pitch | A desperate writer must pitch his idea to a big time producer, before reaching the top floor. | Charles Williams |
Desperately Seeking Sikh | A self-absorbed American woman, desperate to land the corporate job of her dreams tries to gain an advantage over her competition. She understands the hiring manager is Punjabi and decides to immerse herself in learning the language and culture over a 5-day period. She hires a traditional Punjabi Sikh to live with her and winds up receiving more than just an education. | Mariella Spagnolo |
I’m Coming | ||
Daddy | A gruff Australian beef farmer attempts to mend the broken relationships in his life, until an incident sees him revert to his violent old ways. A gruff, rural Australian beef farmer longs to see his family, after his wife leaves him and claims custody over his children. He spirals into drunken oblivion, until he meets a young, indigenous bartender, who inspires him pull to his life together. Things in his new relationship eventually go south, which sees him revert to his violent old ways, attacking his ex-wife and kidnapping his children. Later, she exacts her revenge, shooting him in the stomach with his 12-gauge shotgun. | Indy Davies |
Faithful | Black ash, lava, the crust of the planet, flames, lightning – all in a calamity – spew a mile upwards, and a concentric circle of invisible death speeds out from the center, flattening everything in its path. A movie star, who had recently gained fame and admiration at the expense of his family, takes refuge in a cave when the super volcano erupts. He emerges from the shelter to traverse a dark, brutal world and must decide to search for his family or continue to seek fame. | |
Windy City | WINDY CITY tells the thrilling story of the rival Mancini and Caruso families and their friends living in Chicago. | Joseph Anthony Francis |
Nursery Crimes | Animation is, by far the densest medium of storytelling; it is not hindered by style, colours, sound, and imagination. Infact, imagination and freedom of thought become the primary driving forces of this magical medium of art. While engaged in the making of live-action cinema that are concentrated heavily with fantastical elements, filmmakers find it difficult to naturally blend in the supernatural within a world filled with characters from our plane of existence. With animation, however, talking animals can be made to seem natural when put appropriately in a well-defined environment. Charles Kline’s world is one of sorrow, devastation, and darkness; however, the true uniqueness of his world lies in the direct juxtaposition of nursery rhymes, with visuals that are out of a child’s nightmares. | Charles Kline |
I love you I got you | A couple’s relationship is tested under the duress of the man’s consuming depression. | Gary Taylor |
Grimoire | Donovan Smith | |
Hanging Buddy | A female-to-male transgender patient is stunned when the newly-attached male organ begins speaking its own mind. | John Kestner |
Santa Quits Christmas | An old man is on trail for war crimes, when he shares the truth, it will shock everyone, mostly his accuse | Clay Ivy |
H.E.R.A | Alaa Fleilel | |
Into The Night | After years away, a woman returns home, not to visit friends, but to unravel the past. During her time there, she reunites with an old friend and convinces him to help her take vengeance on those who hurt her. | Levi Elizaga/Jessica Sanders |
Anemoia | In 2061, a woman obsessed with the past finds the digital memories of a man who was obsessed with the future and falls in love with his avatar but when she discovers that he seemingly died in an accident, it feels like the end – or is it? | Zach Karem |
W.A.L.L.D | Johnny Ray Gill | |
Escalation | When a friend reaches out to him to confront him about his past promises, Chris has to decide what kind of person he is inside, or it may just eat him…alive. | Christian Kang Bachini |