2014 Virginia Screenwriting Competition Winners

• Dawn Wise

  The Poem

  The Poem follows a teenage journalist who gets more than he bargained for when he interviews a reclusive heiress on her deathbed about her affair with a famous poet.  The screenplay is based on the true story of Lynchburg, Virginia’s first poet, Bransford Vawter

• Neil Harvey

  Charter Arms

  Charter Arms tells the story of residents of a suburban cul-de-sac — a disenchanted high school basketball player; a troubled-but-devoted father, a narcissistic housewife and her peculiar husband – who find their lives intertwining in unexpected and dangerous ways. Mr. Neil Harvey is a 3 time Virginia Screenwriting Competition winner (2011, 2013, 2014)

• Eric Carlson

  Semple's Gold

  Semple’s Gold goes back to the final days of the Confederacy, as Confederate naval officer James Semple and Julia Tyler, the widowed wife of the 10th President, make a daring attempt to smuggle the Confederate treasury gold from Georgia to Canada, while a determined Union general gives relentless pursuit. The screenplay was inspired by true events. Mr. Eric Carlson is a 2 time Virginia Screenwriting Competition winner (2012, 2014)

Finalists

• Daniel Ardura

  The Buckingham Horror

  After a botched suicide attempt, Matthew Moore is admitted to a psychiatric facility on the outskirts of the city. Police are baffled by his mental state and purpose – he won’t cooperate, he won’t speak to anyone, and his only acquaintance in the state, his younger sister Megan, has been missing for weeks. In order to find the girl and uncover the truth of his situation, investigators turn to a tenacious young psychologist – but what they discover is more horrifying than they ever could have imagined.

• Chris Bishop

  Pungo

  Dismal Swamp teens in wheelchairs build a flying machine.

• Jennie Engle

  The Cartel

  Rogue CIA Agent Iris Beeman assembles an undercover boy band comprised of Special Ops soldiers in order to take down a drug cartel. When the band achieves fame and fortune, though, Iris must convince them to stay the course and fulfill their mission, no matter how alluring the boy band lifestyle is.

• Eric Hurt

  Chesapeake

  On a secluded island in the Chesapeake Bay, an aging waterman, Burnham Maphis, lives an isolated life. When Burnham rescues a boy and a woman from the banks of the bay, his solitary life becomes their shelter.  Burnham’s deep seeded sorrow slowly dissipates as he finds hope and vows to protect the boy and woman from the dangers that follow them.

• Jeff Landon

  The Goners

  The Goners is an unusual love story about a family that leaves their home in Virginia Beach after the father has lost his job, to stay in Roanoke for the summer with the father’s grandmother and her live-in boyfriend.  Eventually, the father finds work at a low-end traveling carnival, and the story chronicles the family’s rocky, humorous-at-times journey to make a life that feels OK.

• Shirley Mills

  Dog House

  A man adopts 25 shelter dogs and in so doing, saves a beach town from real estate development and also finds the girl he loves.

• Tom Randolph

  Mosby's Raiders

  During the Civil War, a band of guerrilla raiders on horseback in the northern Virginia countryside  comprise ‘Mosby’s Raider’s’. Honor and valor was their code; their lives were spiced with love and adventure.  When the word went out, forty or fewer of them would meet and battle an enemy that outnumbered them forty to one.

• Scott Selden

  Let It Bleed

  Private counsel Johanna Palmer is sent to a mountain town on a case that threatens to swallow her very soul.

• Jürgen Vsych

  Chocolate Pirate

  When Clancy Redbeard, the sweet-natured son of a notorious Virginia pirate, bumps into Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine on his travels, he resists their pleas to employ his father’s teachings and join their fight against the British – until he meets William Death, a pirate with a sweet tooth.

• Lawrence Whitener

  Dog(e)

  After many years, a retired K-9 Sheriff visits his sister and discovers crime and corruption in her small hometown.  When the local crime boss tries to murder him, Jonathan Doge, known as “Dog,” uses his military and law enforcement training to bring everyone to justice.  Based on the unfortunate true facts surrounding dog fighting, this action drama was written to raise public awareness of these animals’ inhumane treatment.  DOG(e) – The “e” is Silent, Just like Him