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!583
A couple fights to save their home from demolition by the government after violating local ordinance 583 ‘Lawns must be mowed every 2 weeks’, even when buried under snow in December!
Bubbling Under the Surface
After an elderly Holocaust survivor is nearly murdered in her nursing home bed, her family and the Muslim carer who saved her are pulled into a widening chain of antisemitic attacks, domestic violence, and police investigation that threatens both communities before the hatred spreads further.
Zips bring me home
After loosing his owner and gaining a divine enlightenment, a devoted dog must navigate a hidden realm to stop an evil king from using God's magical crystals to alter the world and restore the natural order of a dying Earth.
The Bare Minimum
An unemployed thirtysomething turns his best friend's chaotic bachelor party into a desperate attempt to one-up the maid of honor who is hosting the bachelorette party on the same weekend, coming face-to-face with his try-hard tendencies and deepest insecurities.
The Turkey King
After failing to match his late father’s legendary Thanksgiving turkey, a suburban dad launches an increasingly unhinged quest to become the next “Turkey King,” dragging his family into a holiday showdown between obsession and connection.
FORBIDDEN PROVISIONS
A journalist goes undercover as an illegal migrant to get a story on how well the government is treating captured immigrants, only to uncover something grizzlier than he expected.
BUMPED
A deeply troubled man with little hope in life, is thrust into a world between life and death, which may provide the purpose he has long been searching for.
STRANGE
A man worried about his fading relevance agrees to the wrong favor for the wrong stranger, triggering a grimly comic nightmare that turns his anniversary celebration into a violent reckoning.
Rebels and Witches
Logline In a search for the missing Major Kateo Redwolf, an army squad falls through the same wormhole into a parallel world with a 13th century technology ruled by a fierce feline species and a powerful female led religion.
Yrrem Samtsirhc from Mars
After a highly intelligent alien crash-lands in a small town before Christmas, he teams up with a fearless girl with Down syndrome to save the holiday spirit and teach their divided community that differences can be strengths.
