DRAMA WINS INTERNATIONAL SCRIPT COMPETITION
Jamie Crichton's Bogland Captures Prestigious Screenwriting Honor

July 27, 2009

Andre Becker, President of Gotham Writers' Workshop, announced today that Jamie Crichton of London, England won the Grand Prize of the American Screenwriters Association's 12th Annual International Screenwriting Competition, cosponsored by Gotham Writers' Workshop. The winning screenplay was selected from among 1,200 entries in five rounds of judging.

Crichton's winning script, Bogland, takes place during The Troubles in Belfast, 1979. The screenwriter explains, "I wanted to write about an era that introduced us to the lingering fear of a random terrorist strike long before 9/11 and 7/7, an era when the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland was becoming an intelligence war. Bogland is about the blurring of the boundaries of morality, an examination into the choices people make in turbulent times, and the repercussions of those choices."

Crichton will receive a cash prize of ten-thousand dollars; a script development trip to Hollywood; a full script consultation with script consultant, screenwriter and author Michael Hauge; promotion of his script to more than 6,500 film industry professionals, and additional screenwriting resources including Final Draft software, a listing on Ink Tip, and more.

Congratulations also go to the other winners for their scripts:

Second place - Allan Durand of Lafayette, LA 
Willie Francis Must Die Again;
Third place - John Orlock of Cleveland Heights, OH
The End of Summer Guest;
Fourth place - Timothy Jay Smith of Paris, France 
Final Status;
Fifth place - Percy Angress and Livia Linden, both of San Francisco
Sky Baby.
Honorable mention - Percy Angress
Lys Estrada.

Read on to learn more about their winning screenplays and writing experience.

Grand Prize: BOGLAND
by Jamie Crichton (London, England)

Jamie writes:
I’ve worked in the film industry for 10 years after graduating from Warwick University with a BA and MA in English Literature, Film and Creative Writing. Bogland is my second full-length screenplay and my first original script, following The Butterfly Lion, an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s best-selling children’s book. I’m currently working on new material for both television and film.

I wrote Bogland primarily because The Troubles is a subject about which I’m extremely passionate. I hadn’t seen a Troubles film which attempted to portray several different perspectives using interweaving narrative strands and I felt that – though ambitious – it was the most interesting approach for me and the most stimulating approach for an audience.

I wanted to write about an era that introduced us to the lingering fear of a random terrorist strike long before 9/11 and 7/7, an era when the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland was becoming an intelligence war. Bogland is about the blurring of the boundaries of morality, an examination into the choices people make in turbulent times, and the repercussions of those choices.

I know how easy it is for readers to be put off by the complex subject matter and dense, multi-character structure, so I’m particularly grateful to ASA, Gotham Writers' Workshop, and the team of judges for their patience and fearlessness. It truly is an enormous honour to receive this prestigious award, and to be only its second international winner. 

Second Place: WILLIE FRANCIS MUST DIE AGAIN
by Alan Durand (Lafayette, LA)

Logline: In 1946, sixteen-year-old Willie Francis was in the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit…and in 1947, they wanted to electrocute him again.

Allan Durand produced (along with Cajun film maker, Glen Pitre) the feature length film Belizaire the Cajun (with Armand Assante and Robert Duvall) in 1985.  The film was a Sundance Institute June Film Lab project in 1983, and was an Official Selection of both the Sundance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival (Certain Regard) in 1986.

Allan Durand had previously written and produced the short film, Weekend at Rambouillet, the winner of the Short Film competition at the 1983 Houston International Film Festival, and has since written and produced The Texas Rangers, a 90-minute documentary for Houston public television.

His most recent film is a documentary entitled Willie Francis Must Die Again about a sixteen year old African American teenager from his home town who was electrocuted in the Louisiana electric chair in 1946…and again in 1947. The film was awarded best documentary at the Memphis International Film Festival, Santa Monica International Film Festival, Charlotte International Film Festival, and New York Independent International Film Festival.

Third Place: THE END OF SUMMER GUEST
by John Orlock (Cleveland Heights, OH)

Logline: On the brink of WWII, the world's second most famous aviator -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -- struggles with the world's most famous aviator -- Charles Lindbergh – and his wife Anne -- to save the Lindbergh marriage devastated by the kidnapping murder of their infant son. By visit’s end, Antoine irrevocably transforms the lives of his hosts – and his own – as he discovers the emotional spark which leads him to create his international classic book, The Little Prince.

John Orlock's works have been produced at such major regional theaters as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Cleveland Play House; Alley Theatre, Houston; Cricket Theatre, Minneapolis; Arizona Repertory Theatre; the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival; and the Remains Theater, Chicago.  He’s a recipient of writing fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Sewanee Writers Conference.  His play Indulgences in the Louisville Harem was co-winner (along with The Gin Game) of the Actors Theater of Louisville’s Great American Play Contest, and had its Eastern European premiere at the Hungarian National Theatre

Recent honors include Artist-in-Residence at the Blue Mountain Lake Colony, and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.

His play The Specificity of Paradise has been selected for development at the PlayPenn 2009 New Play Conference, in Philadelphia.

Mr. Orlock is currently on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University where he holds the Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Chair in Humanities, and conducts a popular seminar, The Literature of Fly Fishing.”

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Fourth Place:  FINAL STATUS
by Timothy Jay Smith  (Paris, France)

Logline: A Mossad agent, troubled by his assassination of a Palestinian politician falsely-accused of terrorist ties, risks his marriage, career, and ultimately his life to help the man’s widow and break the cycle of hatred that he’s perpetuated.

Timothy writes: "Before becoming a full-time writer in 1997, I had a career in development that literally spanned the globe and took me on assignment to some of the world’s hotspots: Greece under a military coup, Poland at the changeover from communism to capitalism, Israel/Palestine at the start of the peace process. I arrived in Tel Aviv in October, 1994, on the day of the first suicide bus attack in a bombing campaign that would continue for the three years that I lived there. It’s no wonder that I became passionate about the Mideast conflict and felt the need to write about it. Since I worked with Israelis and Palestinians alike, I try to bring a balanced, outsider’s viewpoint to my stories, and hopefully Final Status achieves that.

I’ve always been interested in politics, but my writing isn’t message-driven. If there is a message in my work, it’s how political conditions and events affect people’s lives, but not about politics per se. In Final Status, my protagonist, a Mossad agent, changes because he sees the harm he’s done to his and his victim’s families, not because he has a political change of heart. In similar fashion, my stories have touched upon human trafficking, blood diamonds, hate crimes – issues of our times to which I’ve been exposed through the lives of people with whom I’ve worked around the world.

I wrote my first stageplay in fourth grade and started my first novel in high school, but I was discouraged from becoming an ‘artist’ and spent the first half of my working life wearing a coat and tie. As it turns out, it wasn’t a bad choice. I had extraordinary opportunities and experiences which I now draw upon for my stories.

I write screenplays, stageplays and novels, and have had modest success with each. My first play, which had a successful New York City production, won the Stanley Drama Award, and my first novel won the 2008 Paris Prize for Fiction. My screenplays have won competitions sponsored by Houston WorldFest, Hollywood Screenwriting Institute, and the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Nothing, however, compares with winning the prestigious ASA competition and the exposure it gives, and for that I am very grateful."

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Fifth Place: SKY BABY
by Percy Angress and Livia Linden (Miami, FL)

Logline: A childless couple adopt a baby left on their doorstep…only to discover he's an alien.

"The idea for Sky Baby came to us while watching Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. The image of the abandoned baby, and Chaplin's desperate, comic efforts to care for him, inspired us to think of this situation at its most extreme.  What if the infant on the doorstep were an alien? All the exhaustion and exhilaration of new parenthood…multiplied a hundred fold."

Linden and Angress write scripts both separately and as partners. They have won several screenwriting contests, and have had scripts optioned, sold and produced. They have also made a prize-winning short, and wrote, produced and directed an indie feature shot in Costa Rica.

"We're honored and delighted that ASA shares our enthusiasm for this family sci-fi comedy.  We wrote it to entertain both kids and their parents, and hope that, like its protagonist, Sky Baby finds it's way to the right doorstep."