Shore Scripts Announces Short Film Fund Finalists

Shore Scripts has announced their Short Film Fund finalists. Fifteen scripts have advanced, representing the top one percent of all submissions.

PRODUCTION GRANT SEMFINALISTS

(in alphabetical order by script title, 15 screenplays have progressed)

Beluga
Alexander Gustaveson
After belugas have gone extinct, a daughter dives into the future and her father fights to protect her.

Cult Favorite
J Taylor D’Andrea & David Espey U
nder the guise of a girl’s weekend, three women kidnap and attempt to deprogram their friend who is deep in the throes of a wellness cult.

Frankie
Rachel Thomas-Medwid
After a young girl with a frankfurter fixation inadvertently grows an army of murderous hot dogs, the glossy veneer of her 1950’s American household explodes as the bloodthirsty creatures begin enacting revenge on her behalf.

I Was a Teenage Lesbian Werewolf
Zoey James Towner
After bungling her first kill, a young werewolf ends up on a date and must balance her desire to devour with her longing for connection.

Lejos de Aquí (Far From Here)
Missy Hernandez
Desperate to create a better life for her daughter, a tenant farmer’s wife must clean up a murder scene and get rid of a body before sunrise. A Feminist Western Murder Mystery set in rural 1950s Puerto Rico.

Marigold Leaves Her Body
Adesola Thomas
After partner abuse isolates her from her beloved punk scene, Marigold, a Black punkfemme, attends a house show for the first time in a year with plans to mosh.

Northern Lights
Julien Trauman
After colliding with an iceberg while attempting a solo crossing of the Northeast Passage, Raphael is forced to make a stop in an abandoned mining town in Northern Siberia, where he encounters Vassili, who has been surviving alone since being left behind during the hasty evacuation of 1991. As they work together to repair the boat, a friendship develops between the two men, but when Raphael offers to bring him back to civilization, Vassili refuses.

Paper Daughter
Cameron Kwan
A young Chinese woman grapples with the guilt of using the identity of a deceased girl to immigrate to the United States via Angel Island in 1926.

Sheigetz
Joseph Schweitzer
A rebellious 12-year-old from Brooklyn’s Ultra Orthodox Jewish community sneaks out to a punk show, uncovering a life-altering family secret about his beloved older brother.

Squirrel
Laura Campbell
A woman struggles to help her father on the day he is released from prison.

Talk To Me Like A Person
Casimir Nozkowski
A stoned fingerboarder, trying to print an important document, tumbles down a digital rabbit hole when she calls the helpline for her mom’s obsolete printer.

The Short Escape
Paweł Grajnert
An elderly former secretary of a Nazi death camp evades responsibility for her actions one last time, based on true events in 2021 and 1945.

The Worst Choices
May Suri
When a teenager grappling with the aftermath of sexual violence turns to her closest friend for support in securing an abortion, their relationship is tested as a devastating betrayal surfaces.

Threads
Jordan John & Georgina Ambrey
A mixed-race man grapples with his estranged culture when he’s thrown into a family gathering where language and tradition collide.

Weight Class
Matt Campanella
On the eve of his biggest wrestling match, a queer Sri Lankan American teen battling body dysmorphia makes a questionable choice in search of validation — forcing him to confront what it really means to be seen.

Updated: 06/09/2025

Additional Contest Info: Shore Scripts Short Film Fund