The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television presented screenwriting awards on June 17 to 10 outstanding students for works written in the 2002–03 Professional Program in Screenwriting.
All nominees are students in the program who submitted feature-length screenplays for consideration. The competition was judged by a distinguished panel of professional writers and faculty members, including Lew Hunter, Linda Voorhees and Neil Landau.
The five winners of the screenplay competition are:
· “Jump the Shark� by Jason Freelin (Omaha, Neb.) — Unable to get time off for a role in an “Oscar-worthy� film, the star of an aging TV series conspires with a staff writer to kill the show with ludicrous plot lines, only to find it more popular than ever.
· “Two Wolves� by Chris Freeman (Columbus, Ohio) — A sighted man at a secluded school for the blind must face the ghosts of his past to determine if he’s responsible for a string of wolf-like murders.
· “Crying in the Darkness� by Dave Mango (Syracuse, N.Y.) — Against the backdrop of the war in Chechnya, a cold, heartless New York Times reporter learns about humanity from a beautiful, fiercely passionate suicide bomber.
· “Prison Makeover� by Brian Miller (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) — When a young Martha Stewart type commits a petty crime, the court orders her to decorate an Upstate New York prison for Christmas.
· “The Watershed� by Suzanne Workman (Hope Springs, Mo.) — A teenage lock-picker hits the wrong vending machine and is targeted for extortion by the brutal sons of a Colorado vending mogul.
Awarded honorable mentions in the competition are:
· “Ride of His Life� by Alan Condren (Fort Smith, Ark.) — A rugged, former world champion bull rider desperately wants to regain his alpha male status, but he’s struggling with a secret that threatens his macho image: he’s gay.
· “Missionary Position� by Chris Douglas (Miami, Fla.) — A dramedy about the love between a teenaged girl who becomes a missionary on the posh island of Palm Beach, and the troubled rich kid whose life she saves.
· “Turbulence� by Terry Holdredge (Anderson, S.C.) — A female Army captain risks her life to rescue a defecting Al Qaeda operative, only to discover he’s the judge who released her parents’ murderer years ago.
· “King River� by Jaime Hubbard (Litchfield Park, Ariz.) — In the summer of 1974, a 14-year-old girl battles puberty, her disillusioned mother, her overbearing grandfather and ultimately the raging waters of the King River, to find her place in the world.
· “The List� by Alison Saalbach (Ann Arbor, Mich.) — A sensible female radio host is obsessed with her list of qualities she must have in a man, but when her ex-boyfriend weaves his way back into her life, she must decide between the list and love.
UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting is a one-year, graduate-level program offered in the evenings on the Westwood campus as well as online through the Internet.
For more information on the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting, the Advanced Program in Screenwriting, the Online Screenwriting Program or the Mentorship Program, call Stephanie Moore at (310) 825-6827, e-mail stmoore@tft.ucla.edu or visit filmprograms.ucla.edu.