2016 Virginia Screenwriting Competition Winners

• Eric Carlson

  Reach For The Sky

  Eric Carlson is a Williamsburg, Virginia based screenwriter with a passion for creating captivating stories. His screenplays have won or finished in the top tier in numerous prestigious competitions, and he’s a previous winner of the Virginia Screenwriting Competition.  He also serves as the director of the Virginia Screenwriter’s Forum, a Richmond-based group of screenwriters who meet monthly to critique member scripts, discuss the film industry, and share their love and knowledge of screenwriting.

• Jesse Robinson

  Where Teardrops Fall

  In this darkly comedic film noir set in Northern Virginia, Dominic works as a government hitman to pay off his student loans until the weariness of the work forces him to reconsider his method of repayment.

   

• Ron Basso

  For Love Of Country

  During the Civil War, former slaves were trained in the North as spies and returned to the South as servants and laborers to seek out Confederate military secrets. Their bravery and courage in the face of danger and death preserved this nation

Finalists

• Todd Densmore

  Devil's Own Luck

  Bankrupt and about to lose his land, a small town farmer decides to knock off a local drug house, but things don’t go as planned.

• Neil Harvey

  Goat Rodeo

  A wise-cracking accountant finds both cash and chaos when he starts working for a colorful Southern criminal.

• Alec Richards

  Cold Was The Ground

  A small town fixer arranges the contract killing of a local man for a wealthy client; the client’s son-in-law. What seems a personal vendetta turns into a veritable nightmare, with repercussions for the client, the fixer, and the entire town.

• Alexander Mesmer

  Space People

  A suburban couple and a recently-arrived immigrant develop friendship and learn life lessons from each other after the latter is hired as a landscaper by the well-to-do family.

• Terry Gau

  Pines Of Rome

  A world-famous conductor finds himself exiled to a small town, where he butts heads with the female conductor of a local volunteer symphony.  He gains humility, perspective, and friendship as he re-discovers his passion for music and rights a wrong from his past.

• Eric Hurt

  Chesapeake

  On a secluded island in the Chesapeake Bay, an aging waterman lives an isolated life. When he rescues a boy and a woman from the banks of the bay, his solitary life becomes their shelter.

• Douglas Bari

  Yes Virginia

  The life story of Santa Claus as told by Mrs. Claus.  Think enchantment.

• Maja Olsson

  Smoke

  A teenage girl runs away to Richmond where she is taken under the wing of a college dropout who is struggling with the death of her sister.

• Johnny Saint Ours

  Shot At War

  A vigilante fighting for what’s been done to her and a photographer on a self-destructive quest for redemption meet in the midst of a war-ravaged landscape.