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 Cajun
When a notorious pirate, made immortal by the curse of a Voodoo Queen, is invited to a mysterious poker game in modern day New Orleans, he discovers a clue to find the treasure that can set him free.
Xanadu Shores III Rescuing Atlas
The Xanadu Team, their credibility restored after rescuing Natalia and the painting, are recruited to recover the plans to save the world from a rogue aerospace engineer.
Xanadu Shores (20pgs) -
This Proof of Concept showcases the central characters being introduced with sex appeal, all quite happy, in an office reception area, before the heist, kidnapping and chase.
Xanadu Shores: 10 Minute PoC for The TV Pilot
This Proof of Concept showcases the central characters being introduced with sex appeal, all quite happy, in an office reception area, before the heist, kidnapping and chase.
Xanadu Shores Introducing SEAN LANDERS
A recently discharged Navy pilot returns home anticipating matrimony, soon learning his fiance has cleaned out their wedding account and moved to Las Vegas.
Xanadu Shores II:
Four friends form the "The Xanadu Team" offering security and transportation, land, sea and air when they become deceptively involved with a nefarious jeweler and his charming assistant during an island gem heist, eventually escalating to international espionage in Xanadu Shores III - "Rescuing Atlas".
Xanadu Shores I:
Four friends unknowingly become entrapped after their employer's gold heist escalates to kidnapping.
THE ANDREW JACKSON DEFENSE
A reformed prisoner with a violent past frames his clemency petition using the biography of Andrew Jackson, arguing that like the seventh president, a man forged by violence can still become a force for good.
MASTER OF STATECRAFT
Booker T. Washington risks his reputation and his life to outmaneuver those determined to erase Black voices from democracy.
MEDICARIA
A barren paramedic, desperate to be a mother, turns from healer to killer to protect a homeless boy she adopts, only to uncover his ties to a cartel — and they want him back.



