2019 ScreenCraft Short Screenplay Competition Winners Announced

by ScreenCraft on November 14, 2019

Dunked by John Bickerstaff has been selected as the winner of the 2019 ScreenCraft Short Screenplay Competition. A teen discovers that his resistance to being baptized might be about more than his rebellion against his ultra-religious, overbearing mother. The judges responded to the strong atmosphere built by the piece and the gripping confrontation between the main character and his mother.

Leila’s Gift by Mithra Alavi, Zein Khleif, and Kathleen Peiris, has been named the runner-up. Nineteen-year-old, half-Arab Leila must confront the complexities in the relationship with her American mother after Leila returns to Los Angeles from Jordan with a startling new appearance.

In addition to the ScreenCraft team, the judges included: Alice Kharoubi, the Head of the Cannes Film Festival’s Court Métrage; Sudeep Sharma, a Programmer for Short Film submissions at the Sundance Film Festival, Andrew Allen, the Founder & Managing Director of Short of the Week; and Linda Olszewski, a Creative Executive at Shorts.TV.

The following projects have been selected to complete the top ten:

*A Beautiful Day*	J. Logan Alexander
*A Graduation*	Peier Shen
*Kid Midnight*	Mychal Sargent
*Lunchbox*	Anne Hu
*Residue*	Matt Thomas and Braden LuBell
*Taipei Suicide Story*	Kevin Wang
*The Other Side*	Snigdha Kapoor
*You Are My Fish And I Will Keep You Alive*	Emily Frederick

Congratulations to these winning writers and finalists, and thank you to our judges and to everyone who submitted projects. View the quarterfinalists, semifinalists, and finalists here. The top two winners will receive cash prizes and circulation of their projects to the ScreenCraft Network, and the top three finalists will receive a lifetime license to WriterDuet screenwriting software.

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