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.