Screenplay Throwdown Summer ’21 // Semi-Finalists, Finalists, & WINNER

SUBMIT TO LATEST SCREENPLAY THROWDOWN!

Thank you to all of the amazing writers who submitted to the WD 48-Hour Screenplay Throwdown: Summer ’21 contest!

Over 900 writers from around the world submitted their scripts to the contest, making the selection process for our Ten Finalist spots difficult, but also a blast! The WD Community is full of some incredible screenwriters!

We are honored to announce the Semi-Finalists and Ten Finalists of Screenplay Throwdown Summer ’21:

SEMI-FINALISTS

(Top 5% of Scripts Submitted)

The Un-Terminatable Turner – Mario Gonzalez
Pencing – Jimwell Camilon
AMOUR – Gentian Gjikopulli
Yolanda’s Story – Gianna Ragogna
FOR I HAVE SINNED – Priyansh Lamba & Rishabh Bhagat
High School Sweetheart – Yoran Praet
Did You Get My Text? – Julien Perez & Mike Rowland
Agent Cherry: Case 36, The Lizard in the Diner – Theodora “Teddy” Udsholt-Clayton
The Undertakers – Lucy Gibb-Smith
The Man of Graphite – Divyansh Kulshrestha
The Alley Cats – Jameson P. Murray
Gone Rogue – Ted & Aidan Parkes
OSIRIS – Steve Duenes
THE SOCK – Nick Nordstrom
Faulkner’s Mantis – Philip Lemon
ANYTHING TO DECLARE – Aaron Ducker
R.S.M – Samantha Moody
Safety Measures – Jen Diamond
Aftermath – Malcolm Gari Love Owens
The Pencil Case – Naomi Clarke
GNAW – Natasha Williamson
Star-Crossed Lovers – Janine Zaruski
I Am Enough – Trusha Navalkar
Hysterics – Allison Slice
The Tortured Toreador – TJ Jaeger
Creola Park Drive – Reuben Smart
Just A Contractor – Grace Jiang
MOMMY DEAREST – Cody James & Mark Gonzales
The Local Lead Dealer – Ryan Chiu
Off The Record – Lukas Santus
Nine to Five – Quinn Hansen
ANACHRONISM – Amy Bauer
The Target – Amy Csaki
The Last Line – Dylan Patrick Morley
Lucky’s – Jerry Marchenkowsky
The Prodigious Pair – Fennell Harris
INOCULATION – Himmler Lorissaint
No.2 – A. Mercer
The Sales Lead – Dylan Gonzalez
They’ll Never Know – Stephen Yu
Wednesday – Honey Goudard & Anthony J. Lenzo
2B or Not 2B – Curtis Mutter
Mr. Goodbar’s Secret – Brian P. Gross
Identification Please – Siddhartha Verma

THE TEN FINALISTS (+1)

THE 1ST PLACE WINNER

Junior High Stakes – Lewis Mackie

“Junior High Stakes gets high marks for not only embracing the theme of secret identities but also using the pencil as the linchpin of the whole cat-and-mouse game. The use of grizzled male voice-overs as the inner monologues for 7th-grade girls was absolutely inspired. Great fun scene that tickled me throughout.” 

Andy Bobrow
Featured Judge

Which Finalist script was your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!

Wrote a script for the Screenplay Throwdown? Post your script’s publish link in the comments!

WHY 11 FINALISTS?

It has been brought to our attention that one of our Finalist scripts did not follow the Submission Guidelines fully, using more than 2 speaking characters. 

We apologize for this oversight and really appreciate our writers’ patience!

As a very small team reading a large number of scripts, we worked hard to avoid making mistakes but missed the mark on this one.

In response to this, the WD Team has decided to include an additional Finalist to the list!

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30 Comments

    • Hi Keijuan. I entered a script as well; didn’t make the semis. What you’ve written is more of a scene than an actual story. Plus, I don’t think there was enough of a twist. you have good characters and good dialogue (something I have trouble with) so I urge you to keep writing.

  3. Wow! These are just too good. My favorite is “I Know Where the Bodies are Buried”, closely followed by “Junior High Stakes”. I also find the dialogue in Alexandra’s story to be really good, especially the line, “You’re so average, Eugene, and you have no idea. The luxury to be so.”

    I also liked “My Name isn’t Grandpa”. I think it stands out from the rest in that there is no violence.

    Overall, good stories, very good, with unanticipated plot twists and interesting characters. While I have my favorites, I wouldn’t want to have to choose the “winning story”.

  4. How do the other participants get feedback on their scripts?

  6. MY NAME ISN’T GRANDPA – Amanda V. Cabral and Blind Date – Annie Sudler so far!! all the writing is great. Director in Tokyo. Ron

  7. Congrats to all the Finalists!

  8. Aha! At this rate, Don’t think I’ll ever be a great writer.
    “EXAM” was dope.

    • Don’t lose hope. I’ve learned that every story doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone. Doesn’t mean it’s not good it means the person reading it didn’t catch your vision.
      Because I read a lot of stories on Reddit and they didn’t make it on the list here.

  11. The Tutor.pdf
    
    There is no way my script was passed over. It was TOO brilliant (humbly I admit it). So it somehow got lost in the shuffle. If you read it, you will agree! I should be the winner!! Teehee.
    Enjoy it!

      • Mr. Stringham! That was quite the rollercoaster. I’m sitting here in my living room laughing about a deceptive baby, femme fatale, and talking chipmunk trio! Gosh, you might just be a mastermind.

        Since you’re quite the writer yourself, I challenge you to read my submission. One might be so brazen to say that it’s as fantastic as yours…
        https://read.writerduet.com/1yJoVDlvRkaFL4SYXmkLLn0QtOm2/8b4f363d-30a9-4b28-984e-7a247d361a2d

        I’m very interested in knowing what you have to say!

      • @JuliaModestino
        Insanity is a good word here. I like your writing style.
        A couple of notes:
        If you have ellipses with a space after them
        (… ), you don’t need to write (beat).

        It ended too soon for me. What was Mr Boshnick’s motivation for taunting his employee?

        And then, why was he sorry that he stabbed him if he and his wife were having an affair?

        More details please.

        In my mind, because he showed up at first as an entity, I thought that maybe they were both the same person (think Fight Club). But I didn’t get that closure.

        Thank you for reading my script. That means a lot to me. And if you would like to collaborate more in the future, let me know.

        This was a fun competition, though, I still don’t believe that everyone was given a fair shake (me me me meeeeee).

        Plus I noticed that some of the finalists did NOT have scripts that fit into the parameters (one of them had THREE characters with dialogue though the max was supposed to be two). Sorry, don’t get me going…I’m not a big believer in the fairness of competitions!!

        Anyway, tell me more about your script…I’m “dying” to know!

  18. I’m kind of partial to “Exam” by Jay Wright! (Of course, he is my co-writer on our crime feature “Kings of Mississippi”!). But admit it…you laughed out loud, didn’t you?

  19. I really enjoy the ones with unexpected plot twists like “Makeup,” “Junior High,” and “Polygraph.” Here’s my script if you’re interested. It’s called “Viral Video.”

  20. Not sure if I pasted the link correctly for “Viral Video.” Here it is again…

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