2021 Lonely Seal Screenplay Festival

Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay and Music Festival / 2021 Lonely Seal Screenplay Festival

 


The Lonely Seal Screenplay Contests are embedded in the belief the screenplay is the most important element of any cinematic, television or streaming project. A film without a great script is an empty canvas without paint. We are proudly sponsored by Final Draft, The Lonely Seal Company Group, and PageCraft.

Our Winners are showcased to international cinema buyers at the Cannes Film Festival & Cannes Film Market. We are deeply committed to the success of our writers far beyond our festival dates, so reach out to us if you need strategic advice or a soundboard for your next incredible creation.  

Below is a description of our Prizes, Categories, and  Recent Winners. We’ve also detailed our “Script Accessible” category. We appreciate you for checking us out and we can’t wait to read your words, so submit today!

Screenplay Awards


Best Feature Screenplay
$20,000 (in kind) A showcase and targeted marketing to worldwide cinema buyers at Cannes ($10,000) four months of advice ($10,000), Final Draft software and discounts on PageCraft.

Best Script Accessible Feature Screenplay $20,000 (in-kind) A showcase and targeted marketing to worldwide cinema buyers at Cannes ($10,000) four months of advice ($10,000), Final Draft software and discounts on PageCraft.

Best Short Screenplay $20,000 (in-kind) A showcase and targeted marketing to worldwide cinema buyers at Cannes ($10,000) four months of advice ($10,000), Final Draft software and discounts on PageCraft.

Best Script Accessible Short Screenplay $20,000 (in-kind) A showcase and targeted marketing to worldwide cinema buyers at Cannes ($10,000) four months of advice ($10,000), Final Draft software and discounts on PageCraft.

Screenplay Categories

Feature Film Screenplay
Screenplays must be 70-120 pages in length, in English and written in an industry standard format. All entries must be submitted in .PDF file form.
Short Film Screenplay
Short Screenplays must be no longer than 30 pages.
Script Accessible – Feature Film Screenplay
Screenplays must be 70-120 pages in length, in English and written in an industry standard format. All entries must be submitted in .PDF file form. Our mission is to encourage writers with disabilities to make their voice heard and to inspire all writers to create more stories with disabled characters. “The globe is our community and we strive to inspire every inch of it.”
Script Accessible – Short Film Screenplay
Short Screenplays must be no longer than 30 pages. Our mission is to encourage writers with disabilities to make their voice heard and to inspire all writers to create more stories with disabled characters. “The globe is our community and we strive to inspire every inch of it.”

2020 Screenplay Winners

BEST FEATURE SCREENPLAY

BLIND JUSTICE BY RAMONA TAYLOR

Blind Justice is an incredibly touching historical drama. In 1912, a young, uneducated Black girl, Virginia Christian, was accused of murdering her abusive white boss. The trial made national news and stirred concerns for racial unrest across the nation. No one would come to Virgie’s defense except George Washington Fields, a blind former slave who was the first Black person to graduate from Cornell Law School. Inspired by real events.

Taylor began screenwriting as a hobby in 1996.  Since that time, she has become a published writer, produced screenwriter and an award-winning filmmaker.  In 2008, the micro-budget horror film, Camp DOA, she penned for Birmingham-based Magic City Films, screened at the Pan African Film Festival.

BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY

EMMA’S GARDEN BY KELLY PHELAN

Emma’s Garden is a story of nine-year old twins and their journey into building stronger self-esteem after the death of their beloved grandmother.  They are guided on this thought provoking and fun-filled adventure by Buzz; a talking and singing bee coach and mentor. The magical garden has many garden dwellers and they all assist Emma and Chuckie in learning.

Kelly Phelan has a degree from NYU and a master’s from USC specializing in screenwriting. She is also an award-winning toy industry manufacturer’s rep responsible for selling millions of dollars of toys and children’s books in the Los Angeles area.

BEST SCRIPT ACCESSIBLE FEATURE SCREENPLAY (TIE)

ADD EM UP BY ROBERT J. MCCREA & KENNETH SIMMONS, JR.

Payton Jr. High in Chicago has instituted a new program for special ed kids with learning disorders especially Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Five students enrolled by their parents or guardians for this program come from various backgrounds and ethnic groups. JOSIE is a tough Italian girl from the West Side being raised by a social worker. She is an outstanding basketball player but her main goal is to someday be adopted and have loving parents of her own.

Education: BA History – Lewis University Masters of Public Administration – Governors State University Studied screenwriting and film at Northwestern University and the Chicago Learning Resource Center. Film screenplays include the theatrical feature “Find Me Guilty” directed by Sidney Lumet, and starred Vin Diesel and Peter Dinklage.

THE FLID SHOW BY RICHARD WILLETT

Duncan Mowbray is an English nightclub singer born with flipper-like arms because his mother took the drug thalidomide. He lives with his sister, earning a paltry living with an act in which he sings only songs from 1962, the year of his troubled birth. Despite his obsession with the time period, Duncan wants nothing to do with anything that defines him as a “flid,” especially a group that’s pestering him to sing at a candlelight vigil to commemorate the drug, which caused an epidemic of malformed births around the world.

Richard Willett was born in Hollywood but grew up in Vancouver, Canada. He spent several years as a playwright in New York City before returning a few years ago to Los Angeles. He is an optioned screenwriter currently working on his sixth paid writing assignment. His screenplays THE FLID SHOW and 9/10 were semifinalists in the Nicholl Fellowships competition (top 50 out of more than 7,000). Other honors include an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellowship; a Tennessee Williams Scholarship; grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts (among others); designation as a finalist for the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and a semifinalist for the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition; and showcasing with a featured screenplay in the IFP Market in New York. His stage plays have been presented off-off-Broadway and at theaters across the country, and TRIPTYCH, 2B, and THE FLID SHOW have all been published by United Stages.

BEST SCRIPT ACCESSIBLE SHORT SCREENPLAY

DONNA ON THE GO GO, (MAMA) BY PEGGY LANE

I want to tell stories that haven’t been told. Donna On The Go is a show I created about my friend Donna Russo. Donna uses a walker or wheelchair and still dances. I haven’t seen a show where the LEAD character has a disability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EMBRACE ABILITY.

THESE TWO SIMPLE WORDS ARE OUR BEDROCK. THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF CREATING “SCRIPT ACCESSIBLE” STARTED SEVERAL DECADES AGO, WHEN A HEAD INJURY TURNED MY HEALTHY SIX-MONTH-OLD BODY INTO ONE THAT HOUSED A WRITER THAT TYPES WITH ONE USABLE HAND. SINCE THEN, I’VE SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE EMBRACING MY ABILITIES, RATHER THAN MY INABILITIES. IT’S THAT PASSION THAT I CREATED THE “SCRIPT ACCESSIBLE” SCREENWRITING CONTEST. MY MISSION IS TO ENCOURAGE WRITERS WITH DISABILITIES TO MAKE THEIR VOICE HEARD AND TO INSPIRE ALL WRITERS TO CREATE MORE STORIES WITH DISABLED CHARACTERS.

“THE GLOBE IS OUR COMMUNITY, AND WE STRIVE TO INSPIRE EVERY INCH OF IT.”

SCRIPT ACCESSIBLE WAS HOUSED AT THE SLAMDANCE SCREENWRITING CONTEST IN 2009-2010 AND SPONSORED BY WGA-WEST. OUR 2009 WINNER, “ALL THE WRONG REASONS,” WHICH NOT ONLY WENT ON TO BE PRODUCED, BUT IT WON THE DISCOVERY AWARD OF THE 2013 TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL. WE’RE EXCITED TO BRING “SCRIPT ACCESSIBLE” IT BACK!

Gia Milani, “All the Wrong Reasons,” with Hammad Zaidi.

R. Ian Simpson, “Below The Waist,” with Hammad Zaidi