ACTION & SCI-FI
Winner
Parallel by Nate Wilcoxen
Growing up in the rural Midwest, Nate found an escape from the mundane through books and movies. Years later, when he discovered the magic of screenwriting, he dove in headfirst and never looked back.
Now an award-winning screenwriter with over 20 feature scripts and TV pilots under his belt, Nate’s talent for specializing in elevated action, sci-fi, horror, and thriller projects was discovered in 2021 when he was signed by Gravity Squared Entertainment to represent his vast catalog of work.
Some of Nate’s other notable awards include being a two-time semi-finalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship Competition, a Tracking Board Launch Pad Top 10 finalist, as well as a Silver Prize winner in the PAGE International Screenwriting Contest.
Follow on: X
Runner-up
Charlotte D’Artagna by Julia Bergeron
Julia is a Los Angeles-based writer obsessed with telling stories about people forced to answer the question, “What would you do for family?” This question runs through all her work—comedy, horror, drama, and sci-fi. As the mom of a bio and an adopted kid, “family” means adoptive, step, found, and traditional.
Her feature Murder Van releases in 2024, and Phil Traill (Chalet Girl, All About Steve, Good Burger 2) is set to direct her screenplay Austen Time. Other screenplays have been optioned and placed as finalists in numerous contests, including AFF, Page, ScreenCraft, and Shore Scripts. Her short film Porch Light has won at several film festivals.
She’s also the vice president of PaintScaping, one of the top 3D projection mapping companies in the U.S., and one of the few women working in this highly technical and creative arena.
COMEDY
Winner
Dad Times by Eli Black
Eli Black is a screenwriter and playwright living in Los Angeles. Originally from Austin, Texas, he studied film at UC Santa Cruz. Eli writes comedies that blend the big and ridiculous with the small and painful. He’s currently a staff writer at Pocket FM.
He loves his dog and fears the void.
Runner-up
Diet Crime by Zoë Mills
Zoë Mills hails from Northeast, Washington, DC and began her journey in entertainment by initially setting out to be a novelist.
As a biracial woman, she has always desired to showcase other Black and biracial women in a nuanced and realistic way. Her journey led her to USC, where she graduated from their School of Cinematic Arts with a BFA in Film & Television Production in 2020. While in school, she focused on comedy writing and directing. Upon graduating into the 2020 pandemic, she worked on a series of industry and non-industry jobs until she landed a role at the American Black Film Festival where she furthered her love for showcasing the talents of comics in the industry.
In 2023, Zoë was currently the Writers’ PA on Percy Jackson & The Olympians on Disney+ (S2) and The Old Man on Hulu (S2).
Follow on: IG
DRAMA
Winner
The Devil and Dick Gregory by Sean Slater
Sean Slater was born in the UK and grew up in the Bay Area. He apprenticed for many years at the Actors Theater Workshop while getting his MA in theatre education from New York University. His work explores themes of politics, diversity and history. His theatre work, including The Business Lunch, Man+Woman=Play, and Algerians have been showcased around the world, most notably at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and the Provincetown Playhouse.
His film work available for streaming on Tubi and Prime includes Empire Gypsy, The Squatter, Man at the Door, and the documentaries Target: St. Louis and ScarfFace. He currently lives with his family in Southern California.
Runner-up
The Automat by Alexander Blum
Alexander Blum has been writing since he was a 5-year-old scribbling down Lord of the Rings fanfiction on unlined computer paper. An Indian-American screenwriter living in Los Angeles, he tells stories that demonstrate the absurdities of fortune and the ways in which people find themselves compromised, becoming strangers in their own lives.
Previously, his 1-hour science fiction pilot LOGOS placed as a finalist in the 2022 BlueCat Screenplay Competition, and was a Second Rounder in the 2022 AFF Screenplay Competition. He produced a short film he co-wrote, titled They Came From Dansville, a dark satire about modern masculinity and politics. He has also embarked on a career in the videogame industry, serving as Narrative Dev Support at Santa Monica Studio, where he wrote lines for God of War Ragnarök. Prior to that, he wrote short stories in online magazines such as Eclectica Magazine, New Pop Lit, and Soft Cartel.
Follow on: IG
HORROR & THRILLER
Winner
The Corpse Dresser by Adam Cooper & Daniel Cooper
Daniel and Adam Cooper are twin brothers who have directed six award-winning short films, each receiving acclaim at festivals such as TIFF, Cannes, HollyShorts, and The Hamptons.
With an extensive background in creative marketing, they have produced and edited trailers for the world’s highest-grossing movies, earning between them a Daytime Emmy, over 50 Clio Awards, and 25 Golden Trailers. They currently have multiple features and TV shows in development with Warner Bros Discovery, Gilbert Films, and Roadside Attractions.
Follow on: X (Adam) | X (Daniel) | IG (Adam) | IG (Daniel)
Runner-up
Sundown by Eve Symington
Eve started making films when she discovered a video camera in her basement at the age of eleven. Her first feature film Brut Force, a wine country thriller distributed by XYZ Films, is available to rent/buy on Amazon, AppleTV and more! Brut Force has a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and comes recommended by the New York Times.
Eve has backpacked solo to nineteen countries and visited twenty more. After graduating with a B.A. in Film Studies from Columbia University, Eve’s twin passions for film and travel came together at New York University’s Tisch Asia program in Singapore, where she earned her MFA. Her thesis short Tether, filmed in Guatemala, screened at Palm Springs, Rhode Island, and Newport Beach. Eve is based in Los Angeles, where she spent several years assisting producer/director Rob Lorenz (American Sniper, Million Dollar Baby). She directs commercials, produces branded videos for BuzzFeed (clients include McDonald’s, Subway, Visit California, General Mills), and has produced films for the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and the Alliance of Women Directors.
Eve’s debut screenplay Californias was an Academy Nicholls Fellowship Semifinalist and a Slamdance Competition Semifinalist. Her comedy Orientation was an Austin Competition Finalist and was selected for the Women at Sundance Financing Intensive. She is developing and packaging a horror feature titled Sundown, which was in the 2023 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Top 10, a Shore Finalist, a Slamdance Semifinalist, a Vail Semifinalist, and in the top 1% on Coverfly.
Follow on: IG
TV (HOURLONG)
Winner
Menace by Ross Schneiderman & Nick Kendrick
Bios coming soon.
Runner-up
The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard by Charlotte Lobdell & Jack Flynn
Jack Flynn and Charlotte Lobdell met as classmates at USC, graduated from the Film & Television Production BFA program in 2017, and have been collaborating together since.
Jack is a queer history fanatic. He sold an original series to Macro Ventures in 2017, and worked as a researcher on Babylon, producing a 350+ pg. historical brief for Damien Chazelle. Jack was then hired by Baz Luhrmann to be his writing assistant and primary researcher on Elvis, a job that became a four-year journey, living in Australia after he was stranded by the outbreak of covid and a coincident cancer diagnosis. Jack is once more in good health, but still asking big, existential questions.
Charlotte loves blending high and low culture to tell stories about impetuous young women– their obsessive friendships, messy romances, and the moral gray areas in which they operate in pursuit of their dreams. She worked as showrunner’s assistant for both seasons of Hulu’s Dollface, and as the writers’ assistant on Amazon’s upcoming television reboot of Cruel Intentions She has also produced content at Snapchat and worked in the lit department at UTA.
Together, Jack and Charlotte have three pilot scripts, an active book option, and an animated, gothic-fantasy short.
Follow Charlotte on: IG
Follow Jack on: IG
TV (HALF-HOUR)
Winner
Down and Out by Nick Madson
Nick Madson was unfortunately raised by a loving Italian family on the outskirts of Philadelphia, where his artistic aspirations were entirely supported. The banterous bickering between his Catholic father and Wiccan mother provided plenty of material for his writing and a unique challenge for his therapist.
After earning a reasonably priced bachelor’s degree and a really cool varsity jacket from Boston University, he briefly ventured into the world of professional ice hockey, which obviously went super well. Keeping with his theme of realistic endeavors, he then moved to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a supermodel, but he’d settle for being a TV writer. Outside of his writing, Nick holds several Guinness World Records, including Most Humble Human and Fewest Lies Told.
Runner-up
Jesus One-Stop by Frederik Ehrhardt
Frederik Ehrhardt is a NYC-based producer and award-winning screenwriter from Germany.
He got his industry start as an associate producer for four-time Independent Spirit nominee Darren Dean (Tangerine, The Florida Project).
Most recently, Frederik produced the screen adaptation of the Outer Critics Circle nominated Off-Broadway play Stalking the Bogeyman starring Tony winner Santino Fontana (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski (Wild), as well as Pandemic Players, featuring Zachary Levi (Shazam!) and Alison Pill (Star Trek: Picard).
Next up, Frederik will produce Alex Murawski’s feature debut Walking in Iowa alongside executive producer and two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy).
Frederik’s writing honors include best screenplay wins at the Woods Hole Film Festival and HorrOrigins, 3rd place at Anchorage International, placing in the top 2.5% at Slamdance, and reaching the finals at FilmQuest, SF Indie, Richmond International, Creative World Awards, and the Southern California Screenplay Competition.
He’s currently co-writing the coming-of-age feature Big Man with Independent Spirit winner Rashaad Ernesto Green.
Frederik earned his Master of Science in Public Policy from Oxford and also holds a postgraduate certificate in Entertainment Management from UCLA.