By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2012 SCREENPLAY & TELEPLAY COMPETITION WINNERS

AUSTIN, Texas-Oct. 21, 2012-Austin Film Festival (AFF) is pleased to announce its 2012 Screenplay and Teleplay Competition winners. Winners received cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, reimbursements for travel and lodging while at the festival, and access to and recognition by some of the most important writers, agents, producers and filmmakers in the industry.

A record number of over 6,500 submissions were received this year and the Finalists were reviewed by an industry jury including: Larry Doyle (screenwriter, DuplexI Love Your Beth Cooper), Christopher Kyle (screenwriter, SerenaAlexander), Craig Mazin (screenwriter, The Hangover II), John J. McLaughlin (screenwriter, HitchcockBlack Swan), Stephen Schiff (Wall Street 2: Money Never SleepsTrue Crime), Herschel Weingrod (producer, Falling Down and screenwriter, Trading PlacesTwins, and Kindergarten Cop), Noah Hawley (showrunner, “My Generation” and executive producer, “The Unusuals”), Kyle Killen (showrunner, “Lonestar” and “Awake”), and Nancy Pimental (Executive Producer, Shameless).

The following winners were selected by category:

*   Drama Screenplay Award presented by the Writers Guild of America, East: Jack Davidson “Clouds of Sorrow”

*   Comedy Screenplay Award: Dan Shea ­ “The P.A.N.D.A. War”

*   Enderby Entertainment Award: Adeline Colangelo ­ “The Break-Up Nurse”

*   Dark Hero Studios Sci-Fi Award: “The Domain” by Michael Raymond (This award is sponsored by Dark Hero Studios, a new production company co-founded by company President David Hayter)

*   One-Hour Teleplay Pilot: “Horizon” by B.D. Flory

*   Sitcom Teleplay Pilot: “Katie and Becca Grow-Up” by Leila Cohan-Miccio

*   One-Hour Teleplay Spec: Dexter ­ “The Second Coming” by David Radcliff

*   Sitcom Teleplay Spec: Modern Family ­ “Earthquake Party” by Abi Wurdeman & Phil Wurdeman

In its 19-year history, the AFF Screenplay and Teleplay Competition has served to jumpstart many writing careers. In the competition’s first year, screenplay competition winner Max Adams’ script Excess Baggagewas optioned by Columbia and made into a film starring Alicia Silverstone and Benicio Del Toro. Rachel Long and Brian Pittman’s 2008 Semifinalist script Stranded was recently acquired in 2010 by Enderby Entertainment (Daniel Petrie, Jr. and Rick Dugdale’s production company). The project is currently in pre-production with Petrie set to direct. Julie Howe, 2010 Comedy Screenplay Award Winner for Jasper Milliken, signed an exclusive deal with Experience Media Studios through a contact from an AFF judge and panelist after winning.  Christopher Cantwell, a 2010 Semifinalist, recently had his script “Off the Grid” optioned by Indian Paintbrush and his script (along with co-writer Chris Rogers) Shadow Runners will be produced by AFF panelist alum Simon Kinberg.  For a full list of our success stories, please visit www.austinfilmfestival.com.

About the Austin Film Festival                                                                                     

The Austin Film Festival (AFF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the art, craft and business of writers and filmmakers and recognizing their contributions to film, television and new media. The AFF champions the work of aspiring and established writers and filmmakers by providing unique cultural events and services, enhancing public awareness and participation, and encouraging dynamic and long-lasting community partnerships.  www.austinfilmfestival.com

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon