Dallas Screenplay Competition Announces Contest Winners
(S)hit Squad, by Harry Hunsicker, has been announced as the winning short script to be produced and premiered at the 2022 Dallas International Film Festival.
Hunsicker is a creative writing teacher, the author of eight crime thrillers and creator of numerous short stories. His crime comedy, (S)hit Squad, will be produced by Torfoot Films' Carrie Sternberg, Event Horizon Films' Jodi Frizzell and IdeaMan Studios with legal partners, Litwin Law Group, PLLC, and The Law Office of LaToya L. Blakely. Award-winning filmmaker Johnathan Brownlee will produce, direct and develop the short film.
"Our team is dedicated to helping writers get their works developed and produced," said Johnathan Brownlee, CEO & President of Torfoot Films. "It's great to write these short and feature scripts, but you must get them made and seen by an audience and that is our ultimate goal."
Dallas Screenwriting Competition is dedicated to helping emerging writers break into the industry. Alongside Hunsicker's (S)hit Squad, the competition also recognized the award-winning work of K. Jennifer Llagan for the feature script, BFF's Never Die; Haley Dercher for the TV pilot, The Ties that Bind; and Kristy Budding for the short script, Happy Ending Retirement Home.
The competition also honored several top-quality finalists, including:
Feature Scripts
Van 59 by Brian Trotter
Scuppernongs by Lynne Ashe
Don't You Know who I am? by Izzy Mariano
The Gates by John Burr
TV Pilots
Half-Assed by Tracie Laymon
Betsy and the Emperor by Staton Rabin
Invincible by Andreas Nelander
A Family by Cid Weinberg
Shorts
Identification by Larry Collins
The Last Prophet by Christopher Celestin
Green Love by Penny Jackson
Milo & Milly by Douglas Spaltro
Each script that entered the competition was vetted by readers from the industry's top talent agencies and management companies based on strength of characterization, dialogue, theme, concept and marketability. The winning scripts were selected by three time Oscar-winner Jana Memel; Billy Kelly, veteran screenwriter of Disney's Enchanted; Disney Channel-writer Jonathan Hurwitz; and award-winning director Johnathan Brownlee.
The winning screenwriters receive a writer's enrichment cruise, professional feedback, access to industry networking platforms and festival passes.
Updated: 11/22/2021
Additional Contest Info: Dallas International Film Festival
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!Less Traveled
When a beloved celebrity unknowingly falls for a grounded woman outside his world of fame, he's forced to choose between the weight of legacy and the pull of true love-risking scandal, status, and everything he thought he wanted.
AT THE MERCY OF FAITH
A former preacher, haunted by the tragic rape/murder of his twin sister, spirals into darkness as supernatural forces, both angelic and demonic, wage war for his soul.
New Jack Hustlers
Two seasoned D.E.A. agents go undercover with a rookie female officer to infiltrate a ruthless gang of New Jack Hustlers, moving large quantities of a potent new narcotic.
Medicaria
A barren paramedic, desperate to be a mother, turns from healer to killer to protect a homeless boy she adopts, only to uncover his ties to a cartel — and they want him back.
The Andrew Jackson Defense
A reformed prisoner with a violent past frames his clemency petition using the biography of Andrew Jackson, arguing that like the seventh president, a man forged by violence can still become a force for good.
The Cajun
When a notorious pirate, made immortal by the curse of a Voodoo Queen, is invited to a mysterious poker game in modern day New Orleans, he discovers a clue to find the treasure that can set him free.
Heat of the Moment
A former comedian and out-of-work chef gets invited to cook for some old friends, and he soon realizes you can't stop the heart's utmost desire in a weekend filled with love, drama, and betrayal.
Fidelity Clause 2 (the Passion of Revenge)
The toxic love triangle has shattered; the slinging shards don't discriminate who they slice! A tormented wife survived relentless, mind-adultering assaults and the vicious attack of an intrusive lost soul, all at the hands of her own psychiatrist husband.
Fidelity Clause (the Passion of Regret)
A former model-turned-entrepreneur once had the world at her fingertips, but as her cheating husband blurs the line between psychiatrist and psycho, he turns her world inside-out.
Palo Alto Bang & Burn
Trapped under siege in a secret government outpost, a young professor leads his team against terrorists, traitors, and the terrifying suspicion that non-human intelligence already controls the planet.
