Write LA |
2023
3 Winners are read by Literary Managers, and win $500 cash! Helpful Prizes for Semifinalists. A competition run by writers who help launch careers.
Placement
Genre
Format
Representation Status
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mention
TV Script
· Comedy
· 30 Pages
A young, sensitive rapper is thrown into his first public feud against an old rap legend, sending his vigilant team on a mission to come out on top no matter the cost.
Los Angeles, CA
No bio available.
Honorable Mention
TV Script
· Comedy
· 39 Pages
Dramedy 30-minute pilot: An awkward 30-year-old NYC Ad salesman's dad dies and he has to go back to Cincinnati to figure out if he is grieving his dad or his new Autism diagnosis.
New York, NY
Autistic Comedian who wants to educate with authentic Autistic and Disabled characters through laughter and feelings.
Honorable Mention
TV Script
· Comedy
· 33 Pages
The date is 23rd June, 2016. This is now "Brexit Britain".
And the people responsible are not who you think.
Mack, Lou & Al are three self-professed "woke" "liberal" "allies". But they all forgot to vote on the day of the EU referendum.
After jobs are lost, businesses are tanked, families implode and everyone is canceled, they're thrust out of ...
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Brooklyn, NY
Katy McClellan is a Writer-Producer-Director living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work ranges from prime-time documentary television to animated comedy shorts. She is Creative Director and Co-Founder of Verna Studios, a female-owned and operated production company focusing on stories of humor, possibility and invention.
Honorable Mention
Feature
· Western
· 117 Pages
When arthritic outlaw Silje Rash rides into Reno to retire and inadvertently kills the local Sheriff, she must decide whether to look out for her own interests or those of the half-Chinese niece of a double-amputee under threat from the Sheriff’s dastardly successor before her declining body decides for her.
Nipomo, California
Brian Koukol is an award-winning screenwriter, prose writer, and poet. A lifelong battle with muscular dystrophy has informed the majority of the darkly comedic stories he favors, which are written with the aid of voice recognition and eye gaze technology out of physical necessity. And because keyboards are for suckers.
Honorable Mention
Feature
· Western
· 102 Pages
An old, disgraced, gunfighter and outlaw tries to outrun his past and make amends with his estranged daughter in a dying mining town in the 1930's. When a criminal gang takes over the town he is once again forced to raise iron (guns) to protect his family.
Mission Hills, California
Born and raised in Los Angeles to immigrant parents, Stan was able to avoid the gang and prison pipeline that swallowed up many young Latinos in the neighborhoods he grew up in. He joined the army at 18 and served for 15 years, completing combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. His work reflects his social, economic and military/wartime experiences.
Honorable Mention
TV Script
· Drama
· 65 Pages
The Ridge family copes with the internal drama and external pressures of running a one hundred year old vineyard when everything in the world is changing.
- Verified WGA Member
Los Angeles, California
Ali was born in Madrid, Spain, where she spent enough time to not remember any of it, and then grew up in cosmopolitan New Jersey. As a USC student, she produced a TV Academy College TV Award-winning comedy short. Her love of writing (and her supply of non-fiction stories) developed as an assistant at The Weinstein Company. She was the WA on LEGENDS...
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Honorable Mention
Feature
· Drama
· 116 Pages
After falling for the same beautiful con artist, a group of lonely misfits follow her paper trail on a cross-country road trip to confront her- but they may find what they’re truly seeking on the detours they make along the way.
Los Angeles, CA
John got their start making docs exploring LGBTQIA+ struggles in their hometown of Memphis, TN. After earning their MFA in film directing from UCLA, they made their writer-director feature debut with THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT (Gravitas Ventures), a fantasy rom-com that explores queer themes. After working as a Writers Assistant and Script Coordina...
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Honorable Mention
Feature
· Comedy
· 107 Pages
Two young Amish men discover themselves while traveling across the country to Las Vegas for their Rumspringa. It’s Dumb & Dumber meets Superbad: a buddy road trip comedy with a raunchy and crazy exterior and a heart-filled emotional core.
New York, NY
Growing up, I was always inspired by the oddly beautiful and the outrageous. I naturally use comedy and satire as a way of expressing myself in life as well as on the page. I am a working partner in Small, But Big productions with fellow producer and writing partner Jake Haddock. We love writing character based comedies with a statement based in h...
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Honorable Mention
TV Script
· Comedy
· 56 Pages
A depressed thirty-year-old battles with his mental health while working a humiliating job at the pool of a budget resort in his hometown of Orlando, FL.
Orlando, Florida
AJ's journey into storytelling began as a baseball player on the fields of swamp grass in Orlando where he was recruited to sword fight on stage. Ever the renegade, he moved to LA to pursue acting, but found writing to be equally satisfying. He won the Filmmatic TV Pilot Award for A NEED TO KILL. His feature screenwriting and directorial debut THE C...
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Honorable Mention
Feature
· Comedy
· 118 Pages
A recently fired broadcast sports commentator, trying to make a comeback after a humiliating sex scandal, finds a different kind of redemption when he takes a job in a small town doing radio commentary for a high school football team on an eight year losing streak. A drama/comedy
- Verified WGA Member
Los Angeles, CA
Thomas Thonson’s brand is about bold storytelling that challenges the status quo––subversive, full of ideas, darkly funny, and deeply human––across multiple genres. Numerous options to studio and independent producers. His scripts have been awarded 28 times in screenplay competitions, including a Genre Winner and 6 finalist placements. He is also a...
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Honorable Mention
Feature
· Drama
· 110 Pages
To lose someone once is hard enough—the second time, to dementia, is crushing. In the vein of The Notebook meets Still Alice, and a nod to Black Swan, The Nexus chronicles a budding author and an aspiring ballerina’s bittersweet triumphs, tragedies, and betrayals along their shared path.
No bio available.
Honorable Mention
Feature
· Horror
· 100 Pages
A discredited journalist who has cried wolf one too many times must convince the masses that a plague of giant worms is using the sewer system to invade human hosts and turn them into crazed carnivores.
Melbourne, Victoria, AU
Steve is an award-winning writer who produced the acclaimed low-budget feature The Heckler (soon to get a Spanish-language remake). He directed The Unusual Suspects (Tropfest), and created the (very) original web-series Comedians in Bars Drinking Beer. He won the John Hinde Award for SF screenwriting (2019) and Animal Logic Entertainment's screenwr...
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Finalists (Top 5)s
Finalists (Top 5)
TV Script
· Drama
· 55 Pages
Inspired by a secret U.S. intelligence program, Operation Paperclip, a quintessential 195O’s housewife becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder in her pristine suburb, leading to the discovery of a sadistic Nazi doctor hiding in plain sight and the subsequent unraveling of her own life.
Minneapolis, MN
I write my heart out so I can break yours. My screenplay, Dollhouse of Death was purchased by HBO and Academy Award Winner, Guillermo del Toro. I made the documentary film, Of Dolls & Murder, starring legendary filmmaker John Waters. Recently, my pilot script, All that Glitters won Outstanding Table Read at the Catalyst Content Festival and won Wr...
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Finalists (Top 5)
Feature
· Drama
· 115 Pages
On the eve of World War II, a British aristocrat visits the seaside estate of an American tycoon, plunging his host and a family of Irish servants into a whirlpool of class conflict, forbidden love, betrayal and revenge .
Newtown, Pa
I am a retired attorney who believes that baby boomers are incredibly under-served in today's film industry. They have money, time on their hands and love movies but not necessarily those based on Marvel comic books, social messaging films and comedies written by and for millennials. What they are looking for are compelling character-driven dra...
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Finalists (Top 5)
TV Script
· Drama
· 64 Pages
Newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, former independent minor league shortstop Coyote Ledger wakes on his 47th birthday to learn his ex-wife has bought his rival team -- on which their son is playing. In a twisted attempt to re-win their love, Coyote maneuvers to become the manager of his former team, The Cokeville Goats -- causing him to wonder...
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Los Angeles, CA
Howard Emanuel co-wrote the feature TRAIN BABY (avail. on Amazon). His plays have attracted talents ranging from Chita Rivera to Chloë Sevigny. In 2020, Armie Hammer starred in a production of his play SUNDOGS. Howard thinks his involvement's aged super well.
Prior to becoming disabled, Howard, an alumnus of USC's Grad. Screenwriting Program, wa...
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Finalists (Top 5)
Feature
· Drama
· 102 Pages
Two attendants working in an underground public bathroom in the seediest part of town develop a friendship with a sex worker who forces them all to face their secrets, as they form the world's most unexpected book club.
Toronto, ON, CA
Sarah Deakins was heavily inspired by her artist stepmother, and deeply effected by her descent into Schizophrenia. Having lost her childhood idol to the streets, her work often illustrates the fragility and unexpected integrity of the downtrodden. An award winning short filmmaker, her feature script VIOLET has placed and won in several top competit...
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Semifinalists (Top 15)s
Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Comedy
· 100 Pages
After being love-struck by a charming theatre student (and her right hook), a reserved math major with a latent imagination accidentally lands the lead role in a controversial play and must overcome death threats, a politician with a vendetta, and his crushing self-doubts to win the heart of his brilliant co-star.
Based on a true story…loosely.
...
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Los Angeles, CA
A former teacher, mascot, and assembly line worker. Jeff Bower earned a BA in Mathematics from Binghamton and an MFA in Theatre from FAU where he received death threats for performing his thesis role. He has a play published by Samuel French and won/placed in 80+ script competitions in the last four years. He still hopes to achieve his 1st grade dr...
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Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Thriller
· 90 Pages
When an autistic boy is inadvertently taken during a carjacking, his parents give chase, remotely connecting to the car's dashcam in order to follow their son. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman attempts to goad the accidental kidnapper into murdering the boy—for reasons known only to her.
The writer does a great job of keeping the pace up throughout, but also gives us enough moments with the characters that we really care about what happens to them. The villains are suitably evil, and it's a fast, fun ride with a surprisingly touching ending.
Merry's Recommendation
Coverfly Writer Development Team
Boones Mill, VA
I germinated the ill-conceived notion to study film in college. I did okay—my thesis film won an AMPAS Foundation Award. Mentored by a Sundance winner, worked as an editor and producer in LA, wrote some more. Won some contests, started working with interested producers, thought about giving it up to make raku pottery. Nope—still writing and shootin...
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Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Drama
· 98 Pages
In 1989, a restless teenage punk finds herself trapped in a sinkhole on a North Carolina barrier island with only a young paraplegic homebody and his deaf uncle to save her.
Nipomo, California
Brian Koukol is an award-winning screenwriter, prose writer, and poet. A lifelong battle with muscular dystrophy has informed the majority of the darkly comedic stories he favors, which are written with the aid of voice recognition and eye gaze technology out of physical necessity. And because keyboards are for suckers.
Sonoran
Private
Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Thriller
· 91 Pages
A young dancer and a tough old woman flee through the desert, pursued by murderous cops.
Semifinalist (Top 15), Write LA
Semifinalist, Shore Scripts Feature Contest
Semifinalist, The Golden Script Fellowship
Semifinalist, Scriptation Showcase
Semifinalist, Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Semifinalist, Filmmatic Inroads Fellowship
Semifinalist, Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition
Finalist, Plot Point Awards
Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Comedy
· 117 Pages
In this darkish comedy, restaurant professionals Sammy and Bruce test the limits of their partnership when Sammy's miscarriage rocks their foundation, and their lives.
Los Angeles, CA
Lea (she/her) is an LGBTQ, neurodivergent screenwriter who writes about outsiders. Lea was a 2023 Hollywood Radio and Television Society Fellow, a top 10 finalist for the Launch Pad 2023 and semifinalist for Austin Film Festival 2023 and WriteLA 2023. She holds an MFA from UCLA in screenwriting, an MA from University of St. Andrews, and is a gradua...
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Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Drama
· 113 Pages
After discovering her best friend is terminally ill, a young girl embarks on a journey up the coast in an attempt to save him.
Los Angeles, California
Rebecca focuses on character-driven Action/Thriller Comedies and coming-of-age stories across film and television. Her scripts The Other Side and Birdwatchers have placed in several competitions including, The Page Awards, Final Draft Big Break, Launchpad Pilot, The Golden Script Competition, and The Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards.
...
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Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Drama
· 102 Pages
A reluctant vampire works as a blood donation clinician, keeping herself under tight control. When trouble strikes her estranged human family, she risks exposure to help the woman she loves.
London, GB
I am a writer and director with a background in theatre. I trained at RADA and created The Night Kitchen Cabaret series. I am currently working on two features that I plan to direct. I am also a freelance creative for charities and brands.
Semifinalists (Top 15)
Feature
· Historical
· 105 Pages
A brilliant but headstrong Irish immigrant cook unintentionally spreads typhoid to some of the wealthiest homes in Gilded Age New York, until relentless investigators hunt her down, feed her to the tabloids and make her name infamous even to this day.
New York, NY
A California native, Rachel earned a bachelor’s degree from USC’s
School of Cinematic Arts before defecting to New York to earn her
MFA at Columbia University. She has been a producer on six feature
films, such as Space Station 76, Super Dark Times, and Beats, Rhymes
and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, which was nominated for
a Grammy and...
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Upstate
Private
Semifinalists (Top 15)
TV Script
· Drama
· 58 Pages
A man haunted by the tragic choices of his past is given a chance to atone for them by working with the people who've been hurt the most by them.
No bio available.
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