Screenplay Competition Finalists Announced for 2020

Congratulations to the 2020 Ojai Film Festival Screenplay Competition Finalists. Entries came from as far away as Edinbridge, Kent, UK, as well as from all over the US. Several of this year’s screenwriters entered in previous years, including Pearse Lehane who won our very first Screenplay Competition in 2016.

Immigrants by David Diamond and David Weissmann (Los Angeles, CA)

Veteran writing partners David Diamond and David Weissman bring us an epic tale of WW2-era refugees: talent-laden siblings who leave Nazi Germany and forge new lives in New York as they struggle to find a way to bring their parents safely out of Europe to reunite the family.

Modern Art by Laurence Fuller (Los Angeles, CA)

The turbulent career of influential art critic Peter Fuller is brought to life by his son, screenwriter and actor Laurence Fuller in this richly detailed journey of a tortured artist and writer, cutting his own path from the London art world of the swinging sixties through what he sees as the collapse of modern art in Thatcher-era Britain.

More Than One Idiot Brother by Pearse Lehane (Edinbridge, Kent, UK)

2016 Best Screenplay winner Pearse Lehane returns to the Ojai Film Festival with a rural American gothic tale of family dysfunction and corporate oppression in which a resourceful Army vet finds that intelligence and cynicism are her keys to outwitting the forces arrayed against her and — maybe — escaping a dead-end life.

After the Jump by Marquette Jones (Tuscaloosa, AL)

This fast-paced urban adventure follows law student Michelle, who deals with disgrace and social media infamy, when a rebellious grafitti artist steps in to whisk her away on a crazy nighttime journey that might wind up teaching her something important. Marquette Jones’s screenplay delivers action and wit and a pace that never flags.

Grynszpan/Thompson by Hal LaCroix (Somerville, MA)

Hal LaCroix offers a forceful story that draws on the historical tragedies of Nazi Germany and occupied France in the 1930s and 40s, and builds a personal narrative within them. When an American journalist, Dorothy Thompson, hears of a young Jewish refugee who has assassinated a Nazi diplomat, she champions his cause, and draws the attention of the world to them both, for good or ill.

Contest Founder, Bruce Novotny started the competition five years ago. When asked what kinds of scripts make the final cut, Novotny said, “We don’t favor any genre over others. What we’re looking for, in short, are good stories well told.”