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2009 Slamdance Teleplay Winners Announced
August 26, 2009 For Immediate Release SLAMDANCE ANNOUNCES TELEPLAY 2009 COMPETITION WINNERS - "THE CLAYTONS" WINS ACT III's SPONSORED $10,000 FIRST PLACE CASH PRIZE IN SCRIPTED CATEGORY AND "FX FACTORY" WINS FOR UNSCRIPTED The winners of Annual Slamdance Teleplay Competition have been announced with "The Claytons" taking top honors in Slamdance's scripted category. "The Claytons" is written by Beverly Neufeld and says about her first teleplay work "forget the Kennedys forget the Bushes. The Claytons will rule the world". A graduate of UCLA's MFA Screenwriting program, Neufeld will be awarded Act III's sponsored $10,000 prize during an awards presentation hosted by the Writers Guild of America, West on October 6 in Los Angeles. "FX Factory" is the winner of Slamdance's unscripted category and was conceived by the newly formed partnership of James Wade, Brian Beacock and Lauren Bass. The writing team wins $5,000 in goods and services from Filmworksfx for their future production endeavors. As fans of special effects and horror, their reality show takes you behind the scenes of the various artists that craft this field. Runners-up in the Teleplay Scripted Category are 2nd place "Standards and Practices" by Chase Sprull, 3rd place "Miseducated" by Martin Aguilera, 4th place "Fatima" by Sabrina Naqvi and 5th place "Corporate Debt" by Zach Esper. Act III's Norman Lear and Lara Bergthold worked closely with Slamdance to find this year's top placed teleplay's, "We were excited about working with Slamdance to discover talented new and independent screenwriters and the effort did not disappoint. We look forward to getting to know these writers and to seeing their dreams realized on the small screen soon." The Teleplay competition is part of Slamdance's increasingly successful Writing component that over the past twelve years has discovered many new writers and continues to attract the attention of industry searching for the best new independent writing talent. Previous success stories include Slamdance's alum Marc Forster introducing eventual producer Lee Daniels to first place winner "The Woodsman" written by Nicole Nicole Kassell and Steven Fechter. Every year now top placed written works are subsequently produced or optioned. Last year's horror competition winner "The Punished" was optioned by producer Gregory Segal and most recently Slamdance helped writer Nancy Kissam find production for her first place feature script "Drool" with Upload Films. "Drool" showcased at the Slamdance 2009 Festival and will be theatrically released later this year by Strand. Slamdance's President and Co-founder Peter Baxter says, "it's our goal to keep developing great independent talent for commercial success". As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent and is dedicated to the nurturing and development of new independent artists and their cinematic vision. Slamdance has received over 2,600 writing submissions so far this year - a record number - and is currently accepting horror and thriller script submissions. Slamdance Film Festival will run concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival, January 21-28, 2010 in Park City, Utah. Slamdance still lives by its mantra: "By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers." No other festival is fully programmed by filmmakers. Slamdance is proud to count among its alumni many notable writers and directors who first gained notice at the festival, including such cinematic luminaries as Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster and Jared Hess. New filmmakers and writers today realize that Slamdance is a place to launch their careers. For more information, log onto www.slamdance.com. *** Press Contacts: Slamdance Film Festival 323 466 1786
