Austin Fest Names Screenplay Contest Winners
The 2023 Austin Film Festival Script Competition winners were chosen from a record field of 11,500 scripts entered in the Screenplay, Digital Series, Playwriting, and Fiction Podcast Competitions. The winners were selected by a distinguished panel of industry judges including, Tatiana Suarez-Pico (Hunters, Penny Dreadful, Iron Fist, Snowfall), Christina Hodson (Bumblebee, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, The Flash), Tripper Clancy (Stuber, I Am Not Okay With This, Die Hart), & Herschel Weingrod (Trading Places, Kindergarten Cop).
2023 SCRIPT AWARDS
- Drama Feature Screenplay Award presented by The Writers Guild of America, East - T-Minus Zero by Troy Anthony Miller and J.R Smith
- Drama Teleplay Pilot Award - State of the Art by Austin Elliott
- Drama Teleplay Spec Award - The Great: “Death Becomes Him” by Marguerite Spellman
- Comedy Feature Screenplay Award - A Forest Through The Trees By Ryan Ederer
- Comedy Teleplay Pilot Award - Arthur and Lancelot by Victoria Zeutzius
- Comedy Teleplay Spec Award - What We Do in the Shadows: “The Chupacabra” by Jordan Obey
- Scripted Digital Series Award - Psychic by Aiden Moretti
- Fiction Podcast Award - The Crime at Camp Ashwood by Laura Hunter Drago
- Short Screenplay Award - Good Evening, Marshall (Good Evening, Geraldine) by Jessica Mosher
- Playwriting Award - The Housing Situation on Neptune by Nijae Draine
- Horror Screenplay Award presented by Vertigo Entertainment - Paradise by Daniel Byers
- Sci-Fi Screenplay Award - ROY G. BIV by Sebastian Davis
- Rooster Teeth Fellowship Awards, BIPOC category - Turn the Heat Up by Helen K Thomas
- Rooster Teeth Fellowship Awards, Women & Animation category - Ulster by Allison Mick
- Enderby Entertainment Award - Black Mouth Cur by Kai Kido
- AMC One-Hour Pilot Award - Blind Mice by Aaron Milus
- Josephson Entertainment Screenwriting Fellowships - Black Waters by Kate Imy (Feature Film) and The Hellmouth by Francesco Staluppi (TV)
Updated: 11/07/2023
Additional Contest Info: Austin Film Festival Script Competition
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!THE FOURTH COURIER
When a series of grisly murders in Warsaw is linked to the disappearance of a Russian physicist with a portable atomic bomb, a straight white FBI agent and black gay CIA agent team up to find the bomb before it ends up in the wrong hands.
ISTANBUL CROSSING
A gay Syrian refugee in Istanbul, while juggling dangerous smuggling operations for both the CIA and Islamic State, falls in love with, and must decide between, two men who offer him very different futures.
The New Simon Harper
After a violent attack ends his surgical career, a hyper?structured dad becomes a spontaneous, emotionally open parent — leaving his wife to juggle the practical realities of raising their daughter while the family discovers a new, unexpected way to grow together.
Virgin, Warrior, Priest, Hero
In this dramedy, one actress plays three incarnations of Lucy over 30 years of oppression and crises, leading her through a succession of identities and a final act of redemptive sacrifice.
The Imbalance
Two best friends in their fifties leap back into acting — and dating — only to find an industry obsessed with youth, a culture addicted to reinvention, and a brutal truth: starting over is harder when you actually know who you are.
THE TORTOISE AND THE HEIR
When hired to find heirs to a large will, a lone wolf San Francisco private investigator finds the heirs are being killed by the same assassin that murdered his girlfriend years before, and must decide whether to save the remaining heir, or abandon him to hunt down the assassin.
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.
Tech Me Out
Fleeing Soviet Ukraine with his mother and grandmother, a quiet teenage immigrant builds a new life in America, where the resilience and kindness of those around him help shape the man who co-founded WhatsApp.
Tech Me Out
Fleeing Soviet Ukraine with his mother and grandmother, a quiet teenage immigrant builds a new life in America, where the resilience and kindness of those around him help shape the man who co-founded WhatsApp.
Med Frenzy - A Conspiracy
A single woman encounters an internationally undiagnosed skin ailment and cannot get medical help, but in her desperate search for relief discovers the cause and a conspiracy between powerful government and industry entities—but who can she trust to investigate her claim? 9 locations
