Grand Prize Winner
Cinderella Must Die by Matteo R. Bernardini & Penelope Chai
Matteo R. Bernardini was born in Milan, Italy, 32 years ago. He studied American literature at the Università Statale, Milan and has a Masters in Screenwriting from the University of the Sacred Heart, Milan. He worked as
entertainment critic for the news website IlSussidiario.net and wrote a weekly column for the national newspaper Pubblico.
He has been a staff writer on TV documentaries and variety shows, which have aired on both RAI and Mediaset national networks. He has written for the network TV drama Agrodolce and the cable sitcom Talent High-School.
In 2011 he followed Australian director Anna McGrath to her homeland (she knows about it, don’t worry–she even married him) and has been living there ever since.
There, he started writing features. His first feature script won first prize in the Italian screenwriting competition at the Fiuggi Film Festival (2013). His second script, Cinderella Must Die, co-written with Australian screenwriter Penelope Chai, won the 2016 Script Pipeline competition. So far so good.
Penelope Chai studied cinema at the University of Melbourne before hitting the road, living and working in London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Amsterdam, Honiara, and Kakadu. She’s been nominated for three Australian Writers Guild 
Awards, for the feature film Mary, Mary (2016), the short She was She (2014), and documentary Love & Fury (2013). Mary, Mary also won the John Hinde Award for Best Unproduced Science Fiction Feature.
She’s writing an online series, Other People’s Problems, which will screen on Australia’s ABC in 2017. She’s also working on a science-fiction feature set thirty years after a plague has wiped out all the women. And she’s about to travel to China for a feature film project set in an empty city in Inner Mongolia.
A couple of years ago, Matteo pitched Penelope the idea of a revisionist Cinderella story. Penelope was immedia tely on board, armed and ready to dismantle Cinderella’s false mythology and give her stepsisters a voice. The result is Cinderella Must Die, an action-adventure set eight years after happily ever after.
Runner Up
The Coat by Ross Saxon
Finalists
Alternate Ending by Michael Noonan
Ballerina Girl by Evan Cooper
Becoming Bessie by C. Paloma Martinez
Cinderella Must Die by Matteo R. Bernardini & Penelope Chai
CMYK by Stacia Black & Matt Ferrone
The Coat by Ross Saxon
Control Room by Gabriel Dowick & Ben Phelps
Cut Its Head Off by Andrew Martin Robinson
Death Of An Ortolan by Justin Piasecki
The Dragon Run by Bradley Stryker
#Escape by Michael Noonan
Halfway by Lukas Hassel
Inward by Tyler Theofilos
The Losing Kind by Ben Watts & Ivan Kander
Metronome by Ben Jones & Samuel Cheung
Sargent by Julia Batavia
Slut by Nadeem Siddiqui
Suicide Run by Sylvia Batey Alcala
Sunburst by Mark Wilson & Chris Retts
We Were Here by Noelle Liljedahl
Semifinalists
#Escape by Michael Noonan
1:58 by Mark Allen
All the Tiny Dancers by Ryan Vaughn
Alternate Ending by Michael Noonan
Alternates by Phil Hawkins
Artilect by Azhur Saleem
Ballerina Girl by Evan Cooper
Becoming Bessie by C. Paloma Martinez
Blind Pursuit by Debi Yazbeck
The Bullshit Boys by Toni Shepherd & Nickolas Shepherd
Cinderella Must Die by Matteo R. Bernardini & Penelope Chai
CMYK by Stacia Black & Matt Ferrone
The Coat by Ross Saxon
Congratulations, You’re Divorced! by Michael Felker
Control Room by Gabriel Dowick & Ben Phelps
Cut Its Head Off by Andrew Martin Robinson
Death of an Ortolan by Justin Piasecki
Dirty Girl by Joe Steenburgh & Daniel Blair
The Dragon Run by Bradley Stryker
Dustwun by Eric Nelson, Aidan McGlaze, & Adrian Bonenberger
Exxie by Jason Vaughn
The Fake by Samuel Laskey
The Groundlings by William Prenetta
Halfway by Lukas Hassel
Hemophilia by Guy Polin
Inward by Tyler Theofilos
The Last Account of Boss Tweed by Darren Ursino
The Losing Kind by Ben Watts & Ivan Kander
Metronome by Ben Jones & Samuel Cheung
Necessary Madness by Jenn Crowell
Oliver Clark and the Future Unknown by Toni Shepherd & Nickolas Shepherd
Omakase (Chef’s Choice) by Matt Tassone
Open 24 Hours by James F Napoli
The Other Boys of Summer by C. Craig Patterson
Penny Finch by Kelly Beck-Byrnes
Q Town by James Amicucci & Megan Amicucci
Sargent by Julia Batavia
The Savage Land by Jesus Celaya
Slut by Nadeem Siddiqui
Suicide Run by Sylvia Batey Alcala
Sunburst by Mark Wilson & Chris Retts
Surge by James K.M. Watts
Ted Will Return Shortly by Daniel Ochwat
Thembi by Tom Glasson
Wagon Trip by Mark Murphy
We Were Here by Noelle Liljedahl
Wilifer by Erik Michael Schill
Quarterfinalists
1:58 by Mark Allen
#Escape by Michael Noonan
All the Tiny Dancers by Ryan Vaughn
Alternate Ending by Michael Noonan
Alternates by Phil Hawkins
American Dodge by Adam Barish
Amok by Sven Mund
Artilect by Azhur Saleem
Awkworld by Colin Costello
Ballerina Girl by Evan Cooper
Becoming Bessie by C. Paloma Martinez
Bethlehem City by Nile Cappello
Blind Pursuit by Debi Yazbeck
Blood Beauty by James Watts
The Bullshit Boys by Toni Shepherd & Nickolas Shepherd
Brood X by Michael Phillip Cash
By Noble Means by Stephen Elwain Barber
Charming by Tom Albanese & Christopher Jones
Cinderella Must Die by Matteo R. Bernardini & Penelope Chai
CMYK by Stacia Black & Matt Ferrone
Coastal Eddie by Ryan Gorman
The Coat by Ross Saxon
Cold Abandon by Matthew O’Connell
Congratulations, You’re Divorced! by Michael Felker
Control by Christopher Blum
Control Room by Gabriel Dowick & Ben Phelps
Cornered by Linda Feferman
Cult-De-Sac by Charles Stulck
Cut Its Head Off by Andrew Martin Robinson
Dago Harlem by Chris Caleo
Dazzle Land by James Loos & Steve Schoen
Dead Inside by Elizabeth Rogers
Death of an Ortolan by Justin Piasecki
Delirium by Lee Roy Kunz & Isaac Bauman
Dirty Girl by Joe Steenburgh & Daniel Blair
The Dragon Run by Bradley Stryker
Dustwun by Eric Nelson, Aidan McGlaze, & Adrian Bonenberger
Etched on Me by Jenn Crowell
The Extinction Rule by Randall Greenland
Exxie by Jason Vaughn
Facsimile by Gary Makin
The Fake by Samuel Laskey
The Farm by Michelle Daniel
Fig by Alex George Pickering
Forgiving Evil by Michael Scherer
Four out of Five by Michael Felker
Fragile Sky by Percival Pasquin Jr
The Game Girls by Thesy Surface
The Groundlings by William Prenetta
Grace in the West by Odin Ozdil
Grimm Reapers by Michael E. Berg
Halfway by Lukas Hassel
Hemophilia by Guy Polin
Inward by Tyler Theofilos
Itch of the Seventh by Rob Carpenter
Julie 2.0 by Dwayne Conyers
The Last Account of Boss Tweed by Darren Ursino
The Losing Kind by Ben Watts & Ivan Kander
Metronome by Ben Jones & Samuel Cheung
Mind’s Eye by Arno Hazebroek & D.L.C. Heslop
Nanopirate by Ravi Satchi
Necessary Madness by Jenn Crowell
Oliver Clark and the Future Unknown by Toni Shepherd & Nickolas Shepherd
Omakase (Chef’s Choice)by Matt Tassone
Open 24 Hours by James F Napoli
The Other Boys of Summer by C. Craig Patterson
Penny Finch by Kelly Beck-Byrnes
Play Dirty by Jeff York
Q Town by James Amicucci & Megan Amicucci
Red Sand by Peter Hurd
Sanctuary by Thivanka R. Perera
Sargent by Julia Batavia
The Savage Land by Jesus Celaya
Scandalous by Matthew Fantaci
Skin in the Game by Rolf Potts
The Slide by Dennis Luu
Slipping into 50 by Dawn LeFever
Slut by Nadeem Siddiqui
South by Matt Brothers
Sovereign Citizen by Craig Peters
Spooked by Michael Berg
Spooked by Scott Ruane
Stem by Iqbal Ahmed
Stillwell by Michael Phillip Cash
Stone Drive by Sylvia Marie Llewellyn
Strange Relations by Christopher Matson
Street Jockeys by Colin Costello & Stephanie Jorden
The Suicide Code by Josh Barkey
Suicide Run by Sylvia Batey Alcala
Sunburst by Mark Wilson & Chris Retts
Surge by James K.M. Watts
Tech & Stryker by Odin Ozdil
Ted Will Return Shortly by Daniel Ochwat
Teton Reckoning by Debi Yazbeck
Thembi by Tom Glasson
Thunder & Iron by Brendan Casey
Wagon Trip by Mark Murphy
Wake Up Dead Man by Josh Covitt
We Are Kennedy by Dennis Luu
We Were Here by Noelle Liljedahl
Wheels by Jeremy Spektor & Jonathan Witz
Wilifer by Erik Michael Schill
Witches Protection Program by Michael Phillip Cash