With live script readings and cash awards, Pittsburgh Shorts & Script Competition is a destination festival for creators from around the world.
November 20 - 23, 2025
Placement
Genre
Format
Representation Status
Finalists
Finalist
Short
· Comedy
· 10 Pages
It’s Phil’s twentieth year entering the Chuffington Prog Rock Battle of the Bands. His genius has never been recognised by the judges. But this year, Phil’s not letting anyone stand in his way…
Berlin, DE
Pete creates offbeat stories exploring identity, hope and coming of age. He's written a number of darkly comic pilot scripts for TV and several short films, and is working on other ideas while seeking representation.
In 2021 after a decade as a copywriter & consultant, writing to sell developed into a desire to tell stories on screen.
Finalist
Short
· Other
· 13 Pages
A quick grocery run turns into a surreal nightmare when two best friends realize the store won’t let them leave—time warps, ghostly figures stalk the aisles, and their only escape might lie in the most unexpected place… the egg aisle.
Pickerington, Ohio
Michelle Farley is a screenwriter based in Columbus, Ohio whose work explores the layered, everyday experiences of Black women—their joy, ambition, humor, and contradictions. With an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and a background in education, advocacy, and content production, she writes stories that feel lived in—not manufactured.
Her original scri...
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Finalist
Short
· Horror
· 9 Pages
After being dumped at a party on Christmas Eve, a woman grapples with shock while suspecting the Christmas pudding she brought has come to life and is consuming guests. (Set in England)
Devizes, Wiltshire, GB
Kate is a screenwriter from near Stonehenge, England. She lived in Los Angeles for 12 years, where she took on a variety of jobs. From working as a sign twirler on Hollywood Blvd. to an apartment building manager to an Executive Assistant for a high-end fashion designer.
She recently graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, achieving a Scr...
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The One-Two
Private
Finalist
Short
· Drama
· 13 Pages
On the heels of an abusive relationship, a woman finds unexpected catharsis in a boxing lesson.
Los Angeles, CA
Rae Binstock is a playwright and screenwriter from Cambridge, MA. Her work interrogates climate change and social justice through the lens of intersectional reckoning. Rae served as the Writers’ Assistant on both FX Networks’ FOSSE/VERDON and Apple TV+’s shows Schmigadoon, IF/THEN, and LIBERTY. She lives in Los Angeles with her cats, Lila and Garli...
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Semifinalists
Semifinalist
Short
· Horror
· 15 Pages
Tormented by his manipulative violin teacher and the cutthroat culture of his elite music conservatory, a teenage prodigy's fears and suppressed trauma manifest as an evil shadow that threatens to consume him and the boy he loves. CARRIE meets WHIPLASH.
New York, NY
Frederik Ehrhardt is a writer & producer based in the US & Germany. He got his industry start as an associate producer for four-time Independent Spirit Award nominee Darren Dean. Most recently, Frederik produced the screen adaptation of Markus Potter’s Outer Critics Circle nominated Off-Broadway play STALKING THE BOGEYMAN starring Tony winner Santin...
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FIREWORKS ON CASCADE
Private
Semifinalist
Short
· Unknown
· 15 Pages
Two guys are selling stolen fireworks on the side of the street. What could go wrong?
No bio available.
Semifinalist
Short
· Drama
· 9 Pages
50 years after the murder of 32 people in an arson fire at a New Orleans gay bar, a survivor returns to make peace with his loss. Based on a true story.
New Orleans, Louisiana
As a cancer thriver, second-gen Auschwitz survivor, & New Orleanian, Leslie writes characters facing long odds, whether it's institutionalized prejudice, a Cat5 storm, or her own rogue cells. She won the Sundance Cassian Elwes Indie Screenwriting Prize & the Black List Hornitos "Take Your Shot" Fellowship. She's a Black List Google Assistant Storyte...
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Semifinalist
Short
· Drama
· 15 Pages
While burying their newest secret (a dead ex-boyfriend), two sisters find themselves forced to confront every secret in the middle of the New Mexican desert...
Los Angeles, CA
As a recovering student athlete (Equestrian) (yes, she is a horse girl), and now a writer/actor based in Los Angeles, Matilda finds herself sharing stories filled with a little bit of magic and a whole lot of heartbreak. Matilda hopes to give voice to women who have maybe been told to quiet down one too many times -- and maybe in the process, make...
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Just Out of Reach
Private
Semifinalist
Short
· Comedy
· 11 Pages
After a sexual mishap, Mary spirals, feeling as though her sanity and self-composure are no longer within reach.
Pittsburgh, PA
Sally Seitz is a writer-director for the screen and stage originally from Nashville, Tennessee. Currently, Sally is pursuing her MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, where she was the first-place winner of the 2023 Alfred P. Sloan Script Competition with her rom com feature Too Many Fish in the Sea.
Semifinalist
Short
· Drama
· 18 Pages
2031 – Caught in the middle of a cold civil war between red and blue states with competing laws centered on abortion/choice, a father and daughter undertake a risky state line crossing in a bid to repair their shattered lives.
Arlington, VA
Dave Schroeder is a husband, father of three boys, former lawyer, and retired diplomat. Having lived and worked in Ukraine, Mexico, Albania, China, Panama, and the Marshall Islands, he draws inspiration from a wide palette of perspectives and experiences. Strange encounters with Kings, awkward meetings with Presidents, a tour of Chernobyl’s exclusi...
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Quarterfinalists
Cruise Control (or Oedipus Wrecks)
Private
Quarterfinalist
Short
· Unknown
· 12 Pages
Forced to drive against his will, a boy rebels against his overbearing mother in the middle of a three-way intersection.
Alex Abrahams
No bio available.
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Quarterfinalist
Short
· Comedy
· 8 Pages
A couple rescues a helpless creature that isn't what they thought it was.
Los Angeles, CA
Julie is a Genre and Comedy Writer & Filmmaker living in LA without a car. A downtown New York theater kid at heart, Julie votes early, hikes daily, and loves a ghost story. A character-driven storyteller, her scripts and films have placed and screened in festivals around the world. BA: Vanderbilt. MFA: NYU (Acting). Member Film Fatales LA, WIF, AWD...
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Quarterfinalist
Short
· Comedy
· 14 Pages
A ten year old girl's unconventional friendship with her elderly neighbor in 1970s Hollywood opens her eyes to the magic of fate.
Ipswich, MA
SARA HALLOWELL is a writer/ director of film, television and theater. Her short films have garnered multiple accolades, including a Panavision grant and Best Short Film/Audience awards at U.S. festivals. She won awards through Filmaka's international competition, judged by directors Werner Herzog, Neil LaBute and Wim Wenders. As a screenwriter, her ...
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Knaves
Private
Quarterfinalist
Short
· Drama
· 12 Pages
After the house they live in with their father is condemned, two teenage sisters commit a daring heist of a games arcade.
No bio available.
Quarterfinalist
Short
· Horror
· 15 Pages
A teenage boy is hired to house sit for a wealthy couple whose young daughter has just died. The grieving parents have only one request for the night: Stay out of Maya's room.
Denver, Colorado
Andrew is a screenwriter who specializes in offbeat horror, dark comedy, and genre scripts with a strong emotional core. Most recently, he was a 2024 WeScreenplay Short Script Lab Fellow and a winner of the 2024 Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Andrew has a degree in Creative Writing from Middlebury College and worked for many years as a j...
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Me and Julio
Private
Quarterfinalist
Short
· Drama
· 12 Pages
When an undercover cop meets with his target at a motel, the sting operation takes a challenging and revealing turn.
Shannon Lee Clair
No bio available.
Quarterfinalist
Short
· Drama
· 13 Pages
Melody, a young Indian woman working as a prostitute in Philadelphia, examines her life as she faces its final moments.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
David H. Sanders is author of the novel Busara Road, a Nautilus Gold Medal winner and Screencraft Montaigne Medal finalist. His screenplay of the novel was a Semi-Finalist in R.I. Intl. Film Festival, Cinequest Screenwriting Competition, and Filmatic Screenplay Awards. His short screenplay, The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms, is a multiple Finalist...
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Quarterfinalist
Short
· Horror
· 8 Pages
A grieving father haunted by the loss of his child seeks solace in an unlikely visitor.
Mexico City, MX
Born in the underbelly of Appalachia, Michael cut his teeth in New York's fast-paced world of art. Today he writes stories about outsiders caught between real and imagined horrors.
In 2024, he was featured on Killer Shorts' list of LGBTQIA+ writers to watch. His feature script The Toy Collector entered a shopping agreement and his film Bath Bom...
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Quarterfinalist
Short
· Comedy
· 15 Pages
A woman dealing with the constant, critical, chaotic company of her inner critic meets a man run by his. But when they hit it off and quiet the noise, their inner critics decide to have some fun of their own.
Shreveport, LA
Arynetta is a Texas native and self-proclaimed 'city girl with a country heart.' She writes diverse, female-driven stories about ambition and moxie, and loves to give voice to the naughty, the flawed, the misbehaving and misunderstood. Her stories explore all of the hilarious and heartbreaking ways we win and lose, and she really, really, REALLY l...
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Quarterfinalist
Short
· Horror
· 10 Pages
Sometimes the things you'll do for love are murder.
Los Angeles, CA
Zena Logan lives in Southern California, where she spends her time momming two kids, wifing one husband, writing, acting, and working as a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.
She's the author of the fiction novel What No One Sees and spent years as a story producer on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Orange County.
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