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Ohio Independent Screenplay Award Winners Announced

Independent Pictures is proud to announce the three award-winning screenplays for this year's Ohio Independent Screenplay Awards, our sixth annual script competition. This marks the first year for the organization's Best Voice of Color Award, which highlights the writing achievements from a screenwriter whose voice, story and characters speak to generally marginalized audiences.

Winner of the Best Voice of Color Screenplay: INUGAMI by Rich Figel. A private eye must stop an evil creature from making him it's next victim, as foretold by a Japanese fortune teller-who was found mauled to death after the skeptical P.I. turned down her plea for help.

A favorite for screenplay submitters and judges alike, the Best Northcoast Screenplay Award focuses on stories that are set in Northern Ohio. Winner of the Best Northcoast Screenplay: HER MAJESTY'S MAGICIAN by David Pinzino. Nathan is a 12 year-old magician whose schizophrenic mother believes she is queen of an imaginary onion patch in their backyard. When Nathan's grandpa dies, the struggle begins for Nathan and his mother to stay together.

Finally, the Best Screenplay Award goes to the most overall well- written and crafted story. Winner of the Best Screenplay: 10 MINUTES FROM PARADISE by Janyce Lapore. Three Small time hustlers living in New York City live a desperate existence until the leader of the group offers them a glimmer of hope when he devises a plan to rob the Long Island Commuter Train.

Based on the its dialogue over description nature, HER MAJESTY'S MAGICIAN by David Pinzino has been chosen to receive the professional treatment at Script Mill, Independent Pictures' annual unstaged reading event. Similar screenplay readings are commonplace in Los Angeles and New York, and first brought to Northeast Ohio by the Ohio Independent Film Festival.

Many thanks to our team of over sixty readers and four film industry judges: Jane Alsobrook (Independent film producer; most recently Executive Producer on working title THE BROTHEL with Ira Deutchman), Sandra Birnhak (New York City based television and film producer, and current owner of the Killiam Collection), TC Rice (Vice President of Distribution for Manhattan Pictures International), and Dawn Wolfrom (Independent film and television producer; recently on Eric Schaeffer's USA Films release NEVER AGAIN).

Independent Pictures supports emerging media artists and the exhibition of their films and video projects to a wider audience through the Ohio Independent Film Festival and other programs such as the Ohio Independent Screenplay Awards, Script Mill, film training programs, and workshops.

SUPPORTERS: The George Gund Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, Writers Guild of America East, Sherwin Williams, IBM, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Filmmaker Magazine, Media Design Imaging, TVWriter.com, Hollywood.com Indie Films, FilmStew.com, WritersScriptNetwork.com, WriteSafe.com, Final Draft, Scr(i)pt Magazine, Cleveland Public Theatre.

Updated: 10/24/2002

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