Ojai Film Festival Announces Screenplay Competition Winner
Live Table Read Sunday, November 3
The very first Ojai Film Festival Table Read, a talented cast presents Pearse Lehane’s winning screenplay The Lean
Screenwriters from around the world submitted nearly one hundred original scripts to the fourth annual Ojai Film Festival Screenplay Competition in 2019.
This year’s finalists include The O’Malley by John F. Sarno (New York, NY), Scuppernongs by Lynn Ashe (Stone Mountain, GA), Tuxedo Terrace by Carmine Bicchetti (W. Hollywood), Timber by Pat Stevens (Portland, OR), and A Place Called Knock by Colleen Craig (Los Osos, CA).
Contest Founder, Bruce Novotny started the competition because, “A screenplay is the origin point . . . part of the process that most completely embodies the spirit of ‘sitting around the campfire’ storytelling.”
Part of the prize the winning screenwriter receives includes a professional team performing a Live Table Read after the Awards Brunch on Sunday, November 3.
“I could tell through a little research, no other festivals or competitions offered a live table read in front of an audience as a prize for the winning screenplay,” Novotny said.
“Our very first winner, Pearse Lehane, came all the way from the UK to see his screenplay The Lean performed in front of an appreciative Ojai crowd in November 2016. We’ve been graced with the presence of our winning screenwriter every year since.”
Novotny expressed praise for this year’s winner, screenwriter Colleen Craig from Los Osos, California, “She promised to accept the award for her comic road-drama A Place Called Knock and see it performed under the direction of accomplished actor and producer Will Wallace.”
“We celebrate the talents of so many skilled craftspeople in the film industry at the Ojai Film Festival – directors, actors, cinematographers, composers – and each is necessary to the successful creation of a film. But I thought time had come to formalize our recognition of the writer as the artist whose work starts the whole fantastic journey of making a movie.”
He credits those who helped shape the contest, a team of readers and a group of judges comprised of screenwriter and Ojai resident Peter Bellwood (Highlander), longtime Warner Brothers story editor and Ojai local Valerie Levitt, producer Michael Ewing, producer and story analyst Patty Reed of Roserock Films, and actor Bob Bancroft (Chicago Hope).
Lisa Cole and Rick Najera, 2018 Screenplay Competition honorees
“Our first two table reads were directed by veteran theater and TV director Larry Swerdlove, and in 2018 Miguel Orozco brought his Ánimo Theater company to perform Lisa Cole’s winning screenplay Matadora.”
This year’s winner receives an added perk. Veteran stuntman, director, and Ojai Film Festival Board member, John Branagan offered to direct and shoot a scene from the screenplay.
Novotny said, “I’m a film editor by trade, and I’ll be able to edit and finish the scene Branagan shoots for screening. The writer then has this valuable selling tool to help get attention for her film, and the audience gets a different perspective on the story they’re about to see.”
When asked what kinds of scripts make the final cut, Novotny said, “We don’t favor any genre over others; we’ve had horror stories that made it to the semifinals. Goofy comedies. Stories of alternative sexuality. Conservative Christian journeys of faith. Science fiction. Historical dramas. Contemporary thrillers. What we’re looking for, in short, are good stories well told. Tales of characters who want something and are willing to risk everything to reach their goal, living in worlds that we recognize, or at least come to recognize by ‘fade out.’ And it helps if there aren’t too many typos.”