We are excited to announce the winner of the 2018 ScreenCraft Action/Thriller Screenplay competition. Selected from roughly 800 entries, Edison's Ghost by Kevin Bachar has been named the winner and Distortion by Travis Opgenorth has been named the runner-up.

In Edison's Ghost, after the mysterious death of his wife, young infamous inventor, Thomas Edison, teams up with renowned magician, Harry Houdini, to uncover the truth. Inspired by true events, the two men use their diametric skill sets to reveal diabolical forces at play. The judges were impressed with the slick confident writing and fun read akin to recent historical action films such as Sherlock Holmes.

Distortion follows a retired CIA Agent from a controversial program as she battles the onset of dementia. After her estranged husband and daughter find themselves targets of an assassination plot, the three find themselves on the run from her former boss. The judges found the unique concept to be superbly executed and kept them engaged as the truth of the program is revealed.

Exchange by Vivian Kerr, Stuck by Rich Van Tine, and An End to the Means by Martha Dunne also received honorable mention.

In addition to the ScreenCraft team, the judges included: Belles Avery of Apelles Entertainment and producer of blockbuster The Meg; Jeannette Francis, Creative Executive at Bad Robot, JJ Abrams’ company behind such franchises as Cloverfield, Star Wars, Mission Impossible and Star Trek;  Matthew Leonetti, formerly an Executive at Columbia Pictures, production company and distributor behind such action titles asJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and The Equalizer;  Andrew Bergamo, Creative Executive at Donners' Company, company behind such titles as Deadpool, Logan, Constantine, and The X-Men films; and Steven E. de Souza, the legendary screenwriter behind such legendary action films as Die Hard, 48 Hrs., Commando and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

Both the Grand Prize winner, Bachard, and runner-up, Opgenorth, will each receive cash prizes and have their material circulated to ScreenCraft's network of agents, managers, and producers.

Congratulations to these winning writers and finalists, and thank you to our judges and to everyone who submitted projects; we read a number of remarkable scripts. View the quarterfinalists, semifinalists and finalists here.

If you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries in 2019, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

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