October 18, 2015 at 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Meet, celebrate and listen to a reading from this year’s screenplay competition winner Kenny Stevenson and Grand Prize Judge David Dastmalchian.
2015 was another great year for the NHFF Screenplay Competition, which continues to grow in both quantity and quality each year. Our semi finalists and finalists featured some especially competitive material, making the process difficult for our committee as well as this year’s Grand Prize Industry Judge, David Dastmalchian.
Star Island will once again host our Grand Prize winner for a two-week residency at the Star Island Family Retreat and Conference Center. The prize package includes room, board, lobster dinner and more — for two guests.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GRAND PRIZE SCREENPLAY WRITERS
Kenny Stevenson
How To Be A Canadian
A loudmouth New York comedian makes a bet that he will move to Canada if a certain candidate wins the presidency. When that bet goes viral, and that candidate wins, loudmouth has no choice, he’s moving to Canada. Now this brash comedian has to try to fit into a whole new country that doesn’t really fit with his personality.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FINALIST SCREENPLAY WRITERS
Kaitlin Puccio
Elle
A grieving scientist creates an A.I. in his dead wife’s image, but his grip on reality and ethics deteriorates when he is left with an insatiable desire to preserve her essential identity.
Alessandra Bautze
Saving Shenandoah
After a tragedy, a teenager in foster care goes on the run with her late foster mother’s daughter in order to try and save her from an uncertain fate.
OUR THANKS TO THIS YEAR’S GRAND PRIZE INDUSTRY JUDGE
David Dastmalchian
Actor, Screenwriter
Selecting this year’s Grand Prize Screenplay is David Dastmalchian, actor and screenwriter.
Originally from Kansas, David Dastmalchian studied acting at The Theatre School at DePaul University. While in Chicago, he received acclaim for leading performances in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Sam Shepard’s Buried Child (Shattered Globe). David received the Special Jury Prize for Courage in Storytelling for his feature film screenwriting debut, Animals, at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. He wrote, produced and starred in the film. The film was distributed by Oscilloscope Labs in May 2015 in 20 cities and VOD. He is the writer and producer of the feature film All Creatures Here Below, which is being filmed in 2015 with an award-winning team including Animals director Collin Schiffli. His plays That’s What They Say and Myself of My State have been produced in Chicago (WNEP, Caffeine Theatre) and his short film, KEEN, was awarded Best Screenplay at the New York Independent Film Festival. He writes and produces the web series Premature in NYC. As an actor, David has recently appeared as the Russian hacker, Kurt, in Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man, directed by Peyton Reed. His feature film debut was as the Joker’s deranged henchman, Thomas Schiff, in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. He gained critical attention portraying the troubled Bob Taylor in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. Upcoming film appearances include principal roles in Michel Franco’s Chronic (winner Best Screenplay Cannes ’15) opposite Tim Roth, Axel Petersen’s Under the Pyramid and The Belko Experiment. Other recent acting appearances include principal roles on Intruders (BBC), CSI: Cyber, Almost Human (Fox), CSI (CBS), The League (FX) and the Showtime series, Ray Donovan. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son, dog and a very dramatic cat.
THANKS TO OUR SCREENPLAY COMPETITION CO-DIRECTORS
Jeff Somerville
Director
Angela Marsh
Assistant Director
NHFF Screenplay Competition Director Jeff Somerville studied film and screenwriting at UNH Manchester and is currently the operations manager of Red River Theatres in Concord, New Hampshire. Before taking over director duties from Dana Biscotti-Myskowski, Jeff served as a member of the Screenplay Competition Committee for three years. When not reading screenplays or watching a film, Jeff spends his time enjoying the company of his wife Amy and their two young daughters.
Assistant Director of Judging Angela Marsh is a television producer and member of the Producers Guild of America. She has worked on shows for various networks including Discovery, National Geographic and Travel Channel. She has recently relocated to the Los Angeles area to pursue her love of scripted television. When not in a dark room editing screenplays and footage, Angela enjoys hiking, beach days and visiting her native Granite State.
THANKS TO OUR OUTSTANDING 2015 SCREENPLAY COMPETITION COMMITTEE
Amanda Amato, Barry Steelman, Rebecca Howland, Bryce Boucher, Christina Minervini, Cole Rei, Cyrus Leddy, Julia Moreira, Kenny Cahoon, Nick King, Nick Maddox, Wayne Charrett, Alexander Azzi, Ben Robertson, Dahv Daniels, Jim White, Paula Bird, Shawn LaPlante, Tim Remp and Pauline Hawkins.