Announcing 2014 Comedy Contest Finalists and Winner!

by Jason Hellerman on September 29, 2014

In what has been one of our closest contests ever, the judges have come to a consensus and we’re incredibly excited to announce THREE MONTHS by Jared Frieder as the grand prize winner of the second annual ScreenCraft Comedy Script Contest. The script is a shining example of a strong voice, telling the touching story of a young man forced to wait for the results of an HIV test while bringing levity to even the most complicated and dark moments of this story. This is a comedy with exceeding warmth and heart. The characters are engaging, the action fluid, and the stakes are palpable without ever skimping on the laughs.

A close runner up was PREGGERS, by Katiedid Langrock. This raucous adventure into the world of childbearing is truly a script that holds nothing back, with a barrage of laughs and a lead character so irreverent and filterless that it was hard not to love her.

The other eight finalists --- culled from over 1000 entries – are well-crafted screenplays that demonstrate unique voices and impressive skill at drawing genuinely unexpected laughs from our readers and judges.

They are . . .

3. Goat by Jordan Rane

4. New in Box by Lindsay Golder

5. Man to Man by Kranti Pally

6. I, Hoarder by Christy Stratton

7. At Least He's Jewish by Jeremy Padow

8. Jake & Anna by Anthony Giambusso

9. Our Band Is Called Mike And Colleen by Ramsey Ess

10. Who The F$%K Is Eli Davis? by Derek Asaff and Aviv Rubinstien

Grand prize winner Jared Frieder will receive $1500 and a phone consultation with comedy writer David Mandel (EuroTrip, The Dictator, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm), as well as introductions to agents, managers and producers!

Along with the features, ScreenCraft is equally happy to announce that CORPORATE by Kris Pathirana took top prize this year in our comedy SHORTS category. We loved this hilarious story with flashes of dark humor. The talkative hitman with an excessive mean streak and a flair for business management is a strong calling card for Kris.

Kris will receive $1000 to help fund his project, as well as a phone call with Joe Farrell, who is Director of Development at Funny or Die (owned by Yahoo and Will Ferrell) and a co-executive producer on Comedy Central’s @midnight.

The runner-up in the shorts category is FIVE DAYS IN CALCUTTA by Fred Perry - a memorably morbid comedy about suicide, depression, and friendship. It has characters that pop off the page and it bristles with humanity and heart.

The rest of the top ten are as follows . . .

3. Retained by Dana Whitney

4. Mother Knows Best by Shane Perez

5. The Yearbook Detectives by Rafael Friedan

6. The Importance of Sex Education by L. Elizabeth Powers

7. Man, Hitman, Henchman by James Lyons

8. Everybody Has A Thing by Allan George

9. No Place Like Home by Andrew Riley

10. Little Stevie Cool by Marco Sinigaglia

The TOP 5 in both Features and Shorts will receive a page of expert feedback from one of our industry judges. All semi-finalists in both the feature and short categories will receive a 1-year subscription to WriterDuet Pro real-time collaborative screenwriting software, courtesy of our sponsor.

The winners of the Feature and Short Comedy Contest were determined by our group of esteemed readers and judges that included Mark O’Connor (producer, Green Hat Films (THE HANGOVER, PROJECT X, DUE DATE)), Alex Palpinger (executive at Montecito Picture Company (I LOVE YOU MAN, UP IN THE AIR, OLD SCHOOL, NO STRINGS ATTACHED)) Billy Wee (executive at Happy Madison (Adam Sandler’s production company) Dave Rath (manager at Generate (clients: Patton Oswalt, Kyle Kinane)) Sean Covel (producer (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, BENEATH, BROKEN HILL)) Taylor Benzie (manager – Kaplan Perrone), Ben Mekler (Staff Writer, Nerdist Industries), and Olivia Gerke (Manager at 3 Arts Entertainment, the management company behind such comedy greats as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Louis CK, Maya Rudolph, Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling, George Lopez, Matt LeBlanc, BJ Novak, James Franco, Charlie Day, Ray William Johnson and many more!)

Congratulations to the winning writers and thank you to everyone who submitted!