2013 Winners

Female Category

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:  THE DARK AGE written by Skye Lynch

Logline:   When a ruthless British king kills her father and brother and enslaves her, a young female Norse warrior seeks her freedom and revenge, igniting the Viking Age.

About the Writer:  Skye Lynch grew up in a small town outside of Boston.  She has a Masters in American History and is currently finishing her PhD (which people say would make a great movie!). Although she spends a good deal of time writing for academia, her passion is writing fiction, particularly historical fiction (besides THE DARK AGE she has written a short about a female sharpshooter during the American Civil War).  She loves telling stories from any era and is currently working on two modern day pieces-an art heist/thriller about a painting that has been missing for over one hundred years and a story about a female assassin. She wants to see more movies with strong female protagonists and action/adventure historical pieces.  She has been told both are hard sells but is determined to write stories that make the impossible possible!

SECOND PLACE:  DARBY PETTY AND THE LOST TREASURE OF THE IVERNI WRITTEN by Douglas Sayre

Logline: Held captive by an underground clan of Celtic warriors, a sticky-fingered, young girl races against time, monsters, and murderers, to steal St. Patrick’s harp from a museum and save the world.

About the Writer:  DC Sayre is a long time migratory film worker; most recently on feature films BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.  He started life as a teen in the camera department working in Los Angeles on TV shows and Movies of the Week until the start of the computer animation/effects era; animation and effects are now his normal day’s work.  Doug directs the occasional commercial and wishes writing Darby Petty mysteries was a full-time job.  In recent months DARBY PETTY AND THE LOST TREASURE OF THE IVERNI WON at the Eddie Bauer Jr. Screenwriting Competition, Big Star Screenwriting Competition, Peachtree Village International Film Festival, and the Gasparilla International Film Festival. 

THIRD PLACE: WARTIME REVELATIONS written by Carlo Bordone

Logline: In a Nazi-occupied city, a girl liberates the suffering citizens with the help of an angel on the run from heaven.

About the Writer:  Carlo Bordone was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He majored in Film Studies at York University. Last year he won a Royal Reel Award in the Canada International Film Festival and a Los Angeles Film and Script Award. He was also a finalist in the Beverly Hills Film Festival and the Reel Authors International Breakout Screenplay Contest. When not writing, and watching the Boston Celtics, he tends to gravitate toward hobbies that will help him grow as a person – such as going to art galleries, reading the biographies of great historical people, and most importantly, drinking really stiff cocktails.

Diversity Category

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: BALLET CRASHERS written by Jill Sexsmith & Penelope Thomas

Logline: A ten-year-old girl with an abnormally large foot must win a spot in a ballet recital to convince her mother, an extreme hoarder, that any problem can be overcome.  BALLET CRASHERS is a Family comedy-drama where the line between reality and fantasy sometimes blurs.

About the Writers:  Jill Sexsmith grew up in Manitoba Canada and has lived and worked in Australia and Japan. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines such as The Walrus, The Fiddlehead, and The New Quarterly. Jill lives in Winnipeg where she works in communications.

Penelope Thomas began life as a novel and features writer before stumbling into screenwriting, where she now wallows with any four-legged creature foolish enough to wander too near.

SECOND PLACE:  NO RUNNING by Elizabeth Savage Sullivan

Logline: An American born teen-aged girl struggles to keep her family from deportation as she tries to win a writing contest, fight off bullies, and find self confidence.  

About the Writer:  Elizabeth Savage Sullivan graduated from law school and soon realized that writing was her passion. While teaching English, she works as a Script Doctor on the side.  She has placed and won several screenplay competitions, including the 2011 Cynosure Screenwriting Award for her script THE BOY ON THE COVER.

THIRD PLACE:  FATHER FRANCES written by Tom Ziegler

Logline:  A crusty old Bishop appoints a rookie priest pastor of an inner city parish to toughen him up. What the bishop doesn’t know is that the priest is really a woman passing as a man, and it’s not the rookie who’s transformed, it’s the Bishop.

 About the Writer:  Tom Ziegler’s play, GRACE & GLORIE, staring Estelle Parsons and Lucie Arnaz, opened at the Laura Pels Theatre Off-Broadway in July of 1996. Ziegler went on to coauthor the adaptation of GRACE & GLORIE, for Hallmark Hall of Fame which first aired on CBS in December, 1998, staring Gena Rowlands and Diane Lane. The production won the 1999 “Christopher Award” presented to films which “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.” 

FEMALE QUARTERFINALISTS
After Julian by Dona Marans
American Buddha by Andrew Quinn
Artist of the Beautiful by Martha Mendenhall
Becoming Bella by Abbe Schorow
Best Part of the Day, The by Betty Ellington-Smith
Broken Wings by Kordesia Hester
Call Me Shine by Pedro Canais
Confessions by Diana Harrington & William Viglione
Drive Around by Patrick Parr
Earth High by Rene Rawls
Grace by Doris B. Gill
Heaven on a Stick by Elena Mikhailova
Independently Yours by Deborah Hand
Inherit the Earth by DJ Leonetti
Irrecoverable by Gus Avila
Jasmine Rose by Karen Ashikeh LaMantia
Lobster Trap, The by Jessica Montanez
Macy’s Grace by Mary Anne Quigley
Male Order Heroine by Isabel Still
Mickey Fagan’s Wake by Joan Golden
Of Wolves and Men by Robert Dan O’Neill
Ohio Finch by Chad Parsons & Wolfgang Bauer
One and All by Carmit Levite
Pearl by Lyvia Martinez
Primality of One, The by Amanda Cole
Real Life by Trudy Duisenberg
Reason, The by Robert Christian Frostholm
Rim of the World, The by Bettina Moss
Saving Sheila by Penelope Thomas
Second Last Breath, A by Amanda Creighlow
SIG by John Geraci
Snapper by Claire Fowler
Supermodel by Janis Brody
This Joyful Season by Darren & Dana Manns
True Love Never Dies by Patrick Champ Wier
Umpire Has No Balls, The by Debbie Bolsky
Under Fire by John Garofolo
Walking With A Ghost by Andrew Stone
Washing Away of Wrongs, The by Joanne Lalli
Young Blood by Charlie Rainer Gaston
Your Planet or Mine? by Richard Hohenrath

 

DIVERSITY QUARTERFINALISTS
Abomination by Richard Tichy
Alien Underground by Kari Ciardi
Angels by Martin Henshaw
Body Keepers by Emanuel Gironi
CheckPoint by Jerry Jennings & Avi Tsipori
Forces of Nature by Todd Sorrell
Good With Words by Irina Tuchinsky
Inmigrante by Susana Orozco
Mythomania by Howard Fridkin & Tom McCurrie
Nate of America by Robert Wooldridge
Poser by Thomas Barron
Princess and the Goblin, The by Michael O’Rourke
Reckoning, The by Fred Perry
Sacred Sky by James Earl McCoy
Seven Moons by Azaan Oluwa Mahdi
Sidekick, The by Lilah Vandenburgh
Striver’s Row by Sha-risse Smith
Tussle by Aaron Yarber
Will & Charlie’s Best Ever Christmas by Noelle Nelson
With You I Will Dance by Wendy Jane Henson & Michael Chase

cynosure screenwriting awards