UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Announces 2005 Showcase-Award Winning Scripts

UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television has announced to announce its five Showcase Award-winning screenwriters for 2005. Graduate students earning MFA's in Screenwriting, the winners submitted their work to a panel of industry judges and were selected as the creators of the five top scripts in the school's graduate program this year.

The five winners, as well as five honorable mentions, were announced June 13 at the Writers Guild Theatre during the school's annual Festival of New Creative Work. Selected live scene readings and a Distinguished Alumni Screenwriter Award for Alexander Payne and his co-writer Jim Taylor (this year's Oscar®®) winners for "Sideways") were also a part of the evening's festivities.

Previous UCLA screenwriting students include Sacha Gervasi ("The Terminal"), Nicholas Griffin ("Matchstick Men"), David Koepp ("War of the Worlds"), Dan Pyne ("The Machurian Candidate"), Eric Roth ("The Insider"), and many others.

Judges for the awards were given an exclusive first look at the scripts for a two-week period following the event; they are now available to the industry at large.

WINNING SCRIPTS:

Snake Dreaming by Yule Caise (Thriller) A geologist who believes the planet's last great untapped oil reserve lies beneath aboriginal sacred ground in the Australian Outback enters the mystical world of Dreamtime, jeopardizing his life. CONTACT: yulecaise@verizon.net

Green Drops by Ken Gerstein (Action/Adventure) After finding a priceless emerald and losing his father, a teenage boy must lead his siblings on a perilous journey from the Colombian jungle to the slums of Bogota. CONTACT: kgerstein@hotmail.com

Young Democrats by Chris Kyle (Comedy) A third-grade class nominates its teacher for president of the United States and learns the greatest lesson of all: that in a democracy, every voice, however small, counts. CONTACT: Maha Dakhil, CM (310) 288-4545; kyle@alumni.duke.edu

Reverse Psychology by Jenna McGrath (Teen Thriller) Two teenage girls decide to drive their school psychologist crazy. CONTACT: Matt Bedrosian, Paradigm (310) 288-8000; jhmcgrath@hotmai.com

Superego by Karl Williams (Comedy) A psychologist is recruited by the government to counsel a depressed superhero and his quarrelsome team, while an evil spider-villain with control issues plots to take over the world. CONTACT: Brian Flaherty, Blain & Associates (310) 358-3111; karlw@ucla.edu

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

5th Grade by David Garber (Comedy) With her wedding two weeks away, a woman receives signs that she will marry someone else - someone from her fifth grade class. Risking her future, she tracks down her former classmates to find her true love. CONTACT: davidgarber@gmaiLcom

Comic Book Heroes by Susan Hurwitz Arneson (Family) During the 1950's, a ten-year-old boy must help his favorite superhero battle the most daunting nemesis of all: a Texas politician crusading to rid the nation of comic books. CONTACT: smhur@mindspring.com

The Route by Laurel Minter (Action) When terrorists discover that a train is carrying deadly nuclear waste, residents of a small town must choose between harboring the dangerous train themselves or risking millions of American lives. CONTACT: laurelie@verizon.net

The Dam by Marcelo Mitnik (Historical Drama) The epic story of one man against the odds, a country at war with an untamed river, and a fight to build the world's greatest dam - a struggle that tests loyalty and pushes love to its limits. CONTACT: marce@mitnik.org; (310) 280-0863

Gordon by Danielle Wolff (Romantic Comedy) Gordon lives in the best country on earth: Canada. When a bureaucratic error reveals that he's actually a U.S. citizen, he finds help from an unlikely source - an employee at the Canadian Embassy whose only flaw is that she's American. CONTACT: DanielleDW@aoLcom; (323) 913-2518

Updated: 07/12/2005