2004 Virginia Screenwriting Competition Winners

• C.B. (Cate) Wilson

  House On The River James

  In 1916, Maude Howar and her beloved brother George come to live in the house by the River James.  George has always been fascinated by the inscrutability and romance of the river while Maude delights in his happiness at being close to it every day — but an unquiet spirit walks by the shore of the River James.  Maude, with the help of Sheriff William Drake, searches for a way to rescue her brother from his growing obsession with the lovely and sad spectre that seems to long for his help.

• George Wills

  Kissing Tall Girls

  Two short boys, both of whom have never kissed a girl, make a bet on who will be the first to do so.  Both pursue taller girls.  The youngsters’ insecurities in the manner of courtship lead them on a quest — asking adults at every turn to recall their first kiss.  The comical stories they are privy to both repel and fascinate the boys.

• Wayde Byard

  Spotts: An American Legend

  For everyone who is first, there is someone who should have been.  Twenty-five years before Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in the major leagues, the New York Giants attempted to break the color barrier with Spottswood Poles. Son of a slave and war hero, Poles later tutored African-American players that reached the majors.  This is the story of the greatest player not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Finalists

• Thomas Roberts

  1607: Virginia And Company

  In 1607, scores of opportunistic English urbanites struggle to survive their journey into the Virginia wilderness where their mission is to establish a trading colony and to serve as ambassadors for their God, their king and the London-based trading company that hired them. This is the story of their adventures and misadventures.  Not surprisingly, the immigrants’ relationships with their neighbors turn sour, forcing them to build a fort and spend the rest of the year attempting to overcome its unhealthy location.  Repeated food shortages lead to a politial insurgency that dims their hope of establishing the first permanent English colony in North America.

• Jeff Hudson

  Bloodline

  Ben Shepherd, the son of a murdered research scientist, struggles to solve his father’s death and complete his research.  The fate of Ben’s family hangs in the balance and time is running out.  The key to salvation may be in the family bloodline.

• T.K. Ellmore

  Carte Blanche

  A long-retired actress from Hollywood’s golden age bucks the modern system and re-opens her late husband’s long-shuttered studio to make the picture begun at his death — on a shoestring budget and a deadline minutes ahead of the bulldozers.  With a little blackmail, a lot of pluck, and help from a crew of veterans, volunteers and unknowns (and with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek) she overcomes all obstacles with surprising results suggesting that everyone in Hollywood gets what they deserve in the end. Or do they?

• Jeff Bridgman

  Growth Spurt

  James Trotter is a 16 year-old boy genius on a sure path to great things.  Then,  he discovers girls.  Against his mother’s wishes, he quits his advanced studies at a local university to return to high school to be around girls his own age.  James struggles to find his way in his new world, but he also grows up faster than ever.

• Peter Ryan

  M Is For The Many Things She Gave Me

  This is a psychological thriller in which a stolen necklace brings Max Kelly home to help his mother solve its mystery.  In the process, he uncovers family history involving far more than the necklace, that may provide clues to the nightmares which have plagued him.  As the mystery unfolds, he is swept back into an old romance and a world he has tried hard to escape.  Nothing is as it seems — about the necklace, the romance and even his family.  Eventually, he must confront not only nameless threats and his mother’s needs and secrets,  but his fear of madness itself.

• Previn Taylor

  Made Not Born

  It is the beginning of the winter quarter, and D’Arby Delois Polite, a twelfth grader at the prestigious Davis Academy, is introduced to her new roommate, a shy, awkward girl named Jacey Lelande.  D’Arby takes her new roommate under her wing, initiating her to the decadent and self-indulgent lifestyle enjoyed by the privileged students at the last remaining all-black private boarding school.  But what D’Arby does not know is that Jacey has come to the Davis Academy for more than an education and a good time.  Jacey is a vampire and she targets D’Arby’s flamboyant friend Colleen as her new source of blood.  D’Arby, noticing that Colleen has fallen prey to a bizarre influence, realizes that all is not as it seems and finds herself in a confrontation with a vampire.

• Anne McLaughlin

  Point Of View

  Declan McCord, a hotshot defense attorney with a knack for discrediting eyewitnesses, finds himself on the receiving end of doubt when he commits a murder in supposed self-defense.  It doesn’t help that, due to a family history of mental illness that destroyed his parents’ lives, Declan doubts his own sanity when he most needs his sharp mind intact.

• Signs Following

  Allan Moye

  A city photographer revisits his Appalachian hometown to document a community of snake-handling Christians led by his estranged father.
  As he confronts demons from his own past, he is unexpectedly drawn into this world of faith through emotional involvement with a charismatic female believer,  her mute daughter and the dramatic events attached to their lives.

• Glenn Harris, Jr.

  Written

  Lisa Franklin investigates her grandmother’s murder and uncovers the fact that her grandmother had predicted her own death and many others, including Lisa’s, 60 years ago.  Lisa will have to decipher the writings if she, her family, and a rekindled love are going to survive the 200-year-old, evil  spirit of a tortured slave that is killing people in and around the small town of Shaw’s Creek.  Lisa and all who she loves are going to die unless she can decipher her grandmother’s writings and finally put out the fire that fuels this evil spirit.