BEST SCENE SCREENPLAY READINGS
The "best scene" take from features and TV pilots of winning screenplays.
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ACTION/FANTASY Festival Best Scene: DJINN, by Matthew Karram
In a Middle Eastern refugee camp, 16-year-old Saeed discovers a magical ring containing a Djinn (spirit) while hiding from bullies. The Djinn offers him three wishes. With his first wish, Saeed asks for protection from his tormentors, leading to the death of the bully Hassan. For his second wish,...
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ANIMATION Festival Reading: AMERICAN FAIRY TALES, by A. S. Templeton (interview)
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a pampered young American girl has her life turned upside-down by a series of harrowing encounters with fantastical characters.
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Get to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
In 1902 San Francisco, Annie Jane Moore is a pampered young Am...
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TV FESTIVAL Best Scene Reading: IN ALL BUT BLOOD, by A.S. Templeton
On a colonized exoplanet threatened by a solar storm, an Eagle Scout escapes the safe confines of Alpha Colony to search the hostile alien wilderness for his missing brother.
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LGBTQ+ Festival Best Scene: THIS IS BAT COUNTRY, by Kerry Ann Boyko
A washed-up vampire playing PI turns a murdered girl to preserve her testimony—but she refuses to play sidekick in his pity parade. Together, they navigate an underworld where identity is fluid, transformation is inevitable, and survival means reclaiming what others tried to erase.
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LGBTQ+ Festival Best Scene Script: STRIP CRAFT, by Wilson Large (interview)
A former cop’s search for her missing sister leads her into the dark world of a witch’s coven, where ancient rituals and forbidden magic force her to confront her deepest fears and uncover the truth about her family’s past.
https://instagram.com/stripcraftmovie
Get to know the writer:
1. What...
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HORROR Festival Best Scene Read: TEXAN WEREWOLF IN MANHATTAN, by Terrence Ross
What was the last great American werewolf movie? If you answered, An American Werewolf in London, you win the prize. Its combination of reality, humor and absolute terror, hasn’t been matched. Instead the few werewolf movies that have been made have mostly been exercises in gore and heavy breathi...
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Best Scene Reading: CROWNED LIES, by Kirene Bolsen-Long (interview)
Dive into the high-stakes world of beauty pageants where appearances are not just deceiving—they're deadly. In 'Crowned Lies,' a seemingly glamorous event spirals into a treacherous game when Emily Brooks and her fellow contestants uncover a corrupt scheme involving the pageant’s top officials. A...
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WILDsound Festival Best Scene Reading: DAFFODILS, by Andry Platrites
Torn between the weight of her secrets and the desire for freedom, a single mother is forced to reveal the truth about her past, her sexuality, and her ex-husband to their children.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Aria: Hannah Ehman
Grace Rose: Val Cole -
FEEDBACK Festival Best Scene: CALIGO INN, by Shaun Delliskave (pgs 48 to 50)
A rising political star retreats to a secluded Virginia inn to draft a campaign platform that will secure him a spot on a presidential ticket—but as nightmarish visions blur with reality, he’s forced to confront the ghosts of those he sacrificed to climb the political ladder. Caligo Inn is a psyc...
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ENVIRONMENTAL Fest Best Scene: POLAR BREAK, by Thomas M. DiGiacinto (interview)
Set in Churchill, Manitoba—The Polar Bear Capital of the World—Polar Break is a survival thriller where climate change isn’t exposition, but existential pressure. As the ice-free season pushes past record limits, starving bears flood the town. What begins as a containment mission spirals into a s...
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HORROR Festival Best Scene Read: NECROTICA, by Wesley Steven Drent (interview)
Six years after the Zombie Apocalypse, a suicidal widow must protect an orphaned child as the world descends into literal Hell on Earth.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Geoff Mays
Sophie: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Fiona: Hannah EhmanGet to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Necrotica ...
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HORROR Festival Best Scene: SCALE 35, by Joanna Lee Ramos (interview)
A female Veteran obsessed with her weight finds a magic scale that makes her lose weight fast but at a high cost.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Dr. Manger: Geoff Mays
Brend: Elizabeth Rose MorrissGet to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Obsession with food, weigh...
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FANTASY/SCI-FI Festival Best Scene: OLIVER, AGAIN, by Robert Benjamin
After using a cutting-edge “memory machine” to relive the best moments of his past, Oliver Parks wakes in a timeline where he never met his wife and his daughter no longer exists — and to undo it, he must outsmart a rival genius, manipulate time itself, and convince the machine’s washed-up invent...
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THRILLER Best Scene Read: EXECUTED AND RISEN, by Salvatore A. Bono (interview)
After a wrongful execution sends rock star, John Santo to the morgue, he rises from the dead, thinking he has a second chance to clear his name, but when he’s thrust into a life-and-death struggle to rescue his kidnapped daughter, Angela from renegade pastor, Sonny Romeo -- Satan stands in John’s...
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WILDsound Festival Best Scene: CALIGO INN, by Shaun Delliskave (interview)
A rising political star retreats to a secluded Virginia inn to draft a campaign platform that will secure him a spot on a presidential ticket—but as nightmarish visions blur with reality, he’s forced to confront the ghosts of those he sacrificed to climb the political ladder. Caligo Inn is a psyc...
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WILDsound Festival Best Scene: It End With Me, by Perry Power
After the sudden death of his father, a young man begins to unravel the truth about the silence that haunted his family for generations. As buried memories rise to the surface, he’s forced to confront his past and find the courage to speak the truth, no matter the cost.
https://www.instagram.com...
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WILDsound Festival BEST Scene Reading: P-Town, by Eric Faulkner (interview)
When Francis assumes the identity of Damian, his gay, identical twin brother, to meet his perfect leading lady, Francis first must come to terms with his own homophobia against his brother, but at the same time keep his con going with Virginia, who’s attending Damian’s P-town wedding
CAST LIST: ...
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CRIME/MYSTERY Festival Best Scene: CONUNDRUM, by Mark Bourbeau
An Iraq War veteran is haunted by a tragic mistake he made on the battlefield. When the CIA accidentally kills his family in an illegal domestic drone strike intended for terrorists, they cover it up, but he is suspicious and sets out to investigate. As his quest for the truth unfolds, he must we...
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CRIME/MYSTERY Festival Best Scene: MACHO MICCHU (pgs. 17 to 21)
Dr. Frank vows to climb Machu Picchu after his son is killed in Afghanistan and he suffers a major myocardial infarction. A feel-good story.
https://www.machopicchu.movie/
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Frank: Geoff Mays
Larry: Shawn Devlin -
FANTASY/SCI-FI Best Scene Script: Biological Imperative, by Kari Kennon
A pregnant woman travels over a thousand years into the future to find a more hospitable world for her baby only to find that the future is plagued by similar forces of repression.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Director; Geoff Mays
Freya: Elizabeth Rose Morris
Assistant: Sean Ballantyne -
ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE, Darryl Mansel & Joshua Bishop (interview)
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Broadcaster: Shawn Devlin
Old Gemini: Sean BallantyneGet to know writer Darryl Mansel:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Once Upon a Time in Space is about perseverance and struggle. It asks the question 'how far are you willing to go to obtain... -
Action/Adventure Scene SITUATIONAL AWARENESS, by Dara Sanandaji, Jeffrey Mulrain
Jay and Dollar seems like regular guys who hang out in hookah bars, however, these guys possess a special set of skills that will help the government get to the bottom of a terrorist threat.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Jay: Shawn Devlin
Dollar: Sean Ballantyne -
COMEDY Best Scene Reading: THE BIG DATE, by Paul Edward Huenemann (interview)
https://youtu.be/z9NwiNizbSU
Harry loves Sandy and has planned “the big date” to propose, but between his twin, her twin, the guys from the Bobcat rugby team, Roxie, Linda, and One Eye'd Jacks, the world seems against it. Comedy.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Harry: Shawn Devlin
Sand... -
FEMALE Festival Best Scene: BITTER, by Jesse Speer (interview)
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Willow: Val Cole
Gert: Hannah EhmanGet to know the screenwriter:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Bitter is a belated coming of age story for anyone that feels like the paradigm of success has shifted. It takes the traditional geek vs bully high sch...