Announcing the Winners and Finalists of the Nashville Live Read Screenwriting Competition

We’re thrilled to announce that Tim Schildberger has been selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the Nashville Live Read Screenwriting Competition with his screenplay His Son. A dramedy with heart, it tells the story of an acerbic writer who is visited by his famous father for the first time in twenty years and who must grapple with his father's unusual request: to kill him in the wake of a terminal cancer diagnosis. 

Schildberger will receive the grand prize of $1,000 cash, a trip to the Nashville Film Festival and an Elite Badge to ScreenCraft's 2016 Nashville Writers Conference, granting him VIP access to three days of festival premieres, networking events, and parties. His script will be read and workshopped with a live audience and professional actors at the screenwriting conference, featuring top Hollywood writers, agents, managers, producers and studio executives.

Samuel Laskey has been named the runner-up for his screenplay The Fake and will receive $300, a phone consultation with a top literary manager, and an Elite Badge to the Nashville Writers Conference & Film Festival screenings and events.

Congratulations also to our Top Five Finalists, who will receive $100 and a Basic Badge for the conference:

• Heidi R. Willis, Black Sunday
• Melanie Schiele, Butterfly Children
• Cate Honzl, Dust To Dust
• Tracey Bradley, Sweet Souls Atrocious
• Katherine Waskul, Maze

Each of the Top Five Finalists will receive $100 and a Basic Badge for the Nashville Writers Conference. 

The Nashville Writers Conference draws on a legacy of screenwriting excellence and combines literary, new media and multi-hyphenate talent to celebrate the best of entertainment writing worldwide.

The conference will kick off Wednesday April 20th and continue with two full days of programming and events on Thursday April 21st and Friday the 22nd , in the heart of the Nashville Film Festival.  Programming will include: panels, keynotes, workshops, this live table read, small-group mentorship and “The Big Pitch” event where writers and filmmakers will pitch directly to agents, producers and A-list writers. The events will bring together aspiring and veteran screenwriters, agents and producers for learning, networking and dealmaking.

Confirmed speakers include: Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton, World Trade Center), Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive), Shauna Cross (Bad Santa 2, Whip It, If I Stay, What to Expect When You’re Expecting), Phil Hay (Clash of the Titans, Ride Along, Aeon Flux), Max Borenstein (Godzilla, Minority Report on Fox), Chad Hayes & Carey Hayes (The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2), Keya Khayatian (Sr Agent at UTA, clients wrote Stick It, Dallas Buyers Club, Brokeback Mountain, Serendipity, etc.) and more. In addition to high-level writers, the “Indie Track” will offer panels and guidance specifically for writers and filmmakers planning to produce their first film.  There will also be programming dedicated to music in film, drawing on Nashville’s legendary music background.

If you'd like to join us, be sure to GET YOUR BADGE for the Nashville Writers Conference HERE!