Editor

The top 10 finalists of the 12th Annual Slamdance Screenplay Competition have been announced, with a script about the German women’s Olympic swim team in East Berlin taking top honors. The Wonder Girls writer Anthony Meindl, who runs a Los Angeles-based theatre company, was given a $7,000 cash prize for best feature-length screenplay during an awards presentation sponsored by the Writers Guild of America, West.

Other winners (in 2nd through 10th place order) include: Ezzy Fish by Tamar Halpern; An Entire Body by Bryan Wizemann; Child in the Dark by Damian Lahey and Ian Ogden; Mighty Oaks by Adam Lowery; Kidney by Stephen Lancelotti; The Falling Sky by Greg Weed; The Atomic Avenger by Ryan Landels; Porkchop & Slim by Seth Schader; and My Name is Sue by Lisa Cole and Mark Monroe. Honorable Mentions went to Chronically Single by Abby Anderson; Strike! by Mary McKay; and When God Sleeps by Daniel S. Elliott. The winner in the Best Short Screenplay category was Easy Pickins by Will Hartman.

The winners were announced last week at a special awards reception at the Writers Guild of America, West. Attendees included Slamdance alumni and members of the WGAw Independent Writers Caucus.

Slamdance received more than 2,000 submissions for the Screenplay Competition, which strives to bring attention to talented new and emerging screenwriters and introduce them to the industry. Previous Competition-winning screenplays that were acquired for production include Nicole Kassell and Stephen Fetcher’s The Woodsman, Joshua Marston’s Maria Full of Grace and Tim Boughn’s Neo Ned.

“This year our finalists are a diverse group of writers telling original stories with an unmistakable independent spirit,” says Screenplay Competition Director John Stoddard. “The Wonder Girls is a perfect example of an uncompromising voice that is just waiting to be discovered.”

Each year since the inception of the Screenplay Competition, Slamdance has received a significant number of zombie, slasher and vampire scripts. Capitalizing on this, and the tremendous popularity of the horror genre, Slamdance partnered with Angel Baby Entertainment and Maverick Films to introduce a separate competition solely for these types of screenplays. Launched as part of Slamdance 2007, the Horror Screenplay Competition guarantees the winning screenplay will be made into a feature motion picture, with the writer receiving an upfront payment of $10,000 against 5% of the film’s budget, plus net profits participation on the movie and payments for any sequels made. Angel Baby and Maverick finance and co-produce the film in association with Slamdance.

The winning screenplay of the inaugural Horror Screenplay competition, Slaughter (by Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby), is scheduled to begin shooting principal photography in Los Angeles on October 15th. The film is being directed by Victor Garcia, whose previous credits include the film Return to the House on Haunted Hill and the online serial 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails. Dominique Swain (Lolita, Face Off) has signed on to star. Slaughter is set to premiere at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival.

The deadline for the 2008 Horror Screenplay Competition is November 12th, 2007. For more information, log on to www.slamdance.com.

As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent and is dedicated to the nurturing and development of that talent.

The Slamdance Film Festival began in 1995 with a group of independent artists. The Festival is still organized and programmed exclusively by filmmakers, for filmmakers. This is just one of many elements that make Slamdance a pioneering standout among its counterparts. At Slamdance, the link between artist and festival - and, subsequently, artist and industry - is a direct and cohesive one. Slamdance alumni are recruited to serve as programmers, so first-timers are represented and assisted by Slamdance veterans. It's what put Slamdance on the festival map to begin with, and what's made it the viable, big-time contender it is today.

With a renowned Festival as its core, Slamdance has expanded its ventures to include the popular slamdance.com website, writing competitions for both screenplays and teleplays, the Anarchy Online Short Film Competition, a $99 Special short film
production project, a Games competition, international film programs and
the Slamdance Horror Screenplay Competition.

Slamdance film and script entries continue to rise each year. In 2007, Slamdance received 3,652 film submissions and over 3,100 scripts.

Slamdance alumni include high profile filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh (Traffic), Christopher Nolan (Batman) Marc Forster (Monster's Ball), and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite); and writers including Joshua Marston (Slamdance finalist Maria Full of Grace) and Nicole Kassel (Slamdance winner The Woodsman). Slamdance recognized, showcased and helped to discover these auteurs. Filmmakers and writers today realize Slamdance is a great way to begin their career.