I found out that my screenplay The Hatchling has advanced to the semi-final round in the 2012 Screenplay Festival in the Comedy category. Since I wrote it to be a comedy, that is encouraging. Screenplay Festival has been around since 2002, an early “Honorable Mention” awardee was Iris Yamashita, who later wrote the screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima. According to their website, Semi-Finalists represent roughly the top 25% of submissions. Finalists and Winners should be announced in the vicinity of March/April.
I never did contests/festivals in version 1.0 of my screenwriting career, and these days I’m ineligible for a lot of them because of my prior sale/options and WGA status; but it’s educational delving into the world of them now. It would be nice to bank a little money by winning; but as with my strategy for publishing short stories, it’s really more about exposure and making connections with the right people. It’s damn hard to get people to answer the phone in Hollywood. One way around this is to do something that makes them call you instead.
Of course it did. Your funny story made my knees and some other organs go weak. Earth has a dearth of talent where it counts, and The Powers That Greenlight are hoping to run into someone like you. You’re just undercover right now–sorta like Joe Klein writing PRIMARY COLORS anonymously. Your Cinderella moment will come. P.S. Remember me when it does, please!
Haha – Klein’s case proved that some forms of anonymity are more valuable than others. I feel a little too much like I’m in Witness Protection right now 🙂 My problem is I had my Cinderella moment, then I woke up one morning to find out that the Prince had left with all my stuff because he wasn’t like, in a settling-down place, girl.
Thanks for the encouragement and praise. Today has stumbled me into a realization – I don’t need praise for my writing in order to write. I write no matter what. But a little recognition now and then helps me cope with all the hours when I’m not writing.