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ScreenCraft Names Pilot Launch Contest Winners

Culled from over 1,900 submissions, Mount Pleasant by Cat Dale has been named the Drama winner of the 2017 Screencraft Pilot Launch Script Competition. Special, by Jay Cundiff and Kyle Jorgensen, has been named the Comedy winner, and Westinghouse by Dorian Keyes has been named the Web Series winner.

In Mount Pleasant, when a 16-year-old Comanche girl's older brother doesn't return home to the reservation from the Christian boarding school for Native American children where he's been for the last ten years, she sets out to find him — only to be placed into the school herself, forced to forsake her culture alongside her classmates. It's a vital and unflinching pilot that looks to the past to tell a story packed with timely sociopolitical relevance.

Special centers on a group of adolescent special needs students who must sell the most magazine subscriptions for a fundraiser in order to win a bet against bullies and enjoy a pizza party with the local weatherman. It's a darkly hilarious pilot with a distinct and endearing ensemble cast, sharp dialogue, and believable conflicts.

In Westinghouse, a small, regional theater-owner on the brink of bankruptcy and eviction and her lovable, misfit employees must scramble to put up one last play and save the company. Relatable, energetic, briskly-paced and consistently entertaining, it skillfully embraces the strengths of the web series format.

The following pilots were selected as the competition finalists:

DRAMA
The Outer Rim by J. Scott Worthington
Portia's Law by Chad Callaghan & Hana Callaghan
The Argyle by Chris Squadrito
Lavender Panthers by L.M. Harter
Panthers by Eric Glover
The Indian Line by Lori Rowton
Graves' Consequences by Edward Hamel
The Life – Another Day In The Life by George Perez
The Village by Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn

COMEDY
Infinite Gary by Joey Siara
Time Suck by David Crosman
Scrambled Eggs by Brad Klipfel
The Miserable Failures of Deef A'Dran by Arthur Iula & Matt Jeakle
Not The Hero by Jordan Tandowsky
Still Practicing by Samuel Loeb & Ryan W. Smith
The Future Is Cancelled by Jack Rodgers
The Resident by Mike Gerbino & Zahra Alzubaidi
Honkies and Homies by Ondine Rarey

In addition to the ScreenCraft team, the judges included: Ari Lubet, Manager at 3 Arts, the company behind such shows as ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, SILICON VALLEY, PARKS AND RECREATION, 30 ROCK, THE MINDY PROJECT, IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, SAINT GEORGE and more; Jen Grisanti, former studio executive, acclaimed story consultant and writing instructor for NBC's Writers on the Verge whose students have sold 40 pilots (5 have gone to series) and who has helped to staff over 75 writers on TV shows; Cathryn Humphris, producer and WGA Award-winning writer known for her work on MAD MEN, ELEMENTARY, NCIS: NEW ORLEANS, UNDER THE DOME, and SUPERNATURAL; and Lindsay Golder, screenwriter represented by manager Jamie Wager at Capital Creations, represented at CAA, and currently staffed on the hit Fox sitcom THE MICK! She is also the 2014 ScreenCraft Comedy Contest finalist, a 2nd Annual ScreenCraft Fellowship finalist, a 2014 ScreenCraft Pilot Launch Contest semifinalist, and a 2015 Pilot Launch grand prize winner for her web series pilot Celebration.

Grand prize winners Dale, Cundiff & Jorgensen and Keyes will receive cash prizes, consultations with the ScreenCraft team, and personal introductions via phone to top managers, agents and producers who specialize in drama and comedy TV development and production.

Updated: 12/29/2017

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