Sponsored by Backstage
Craft a written scene/sequence where an unexpected guest arrives at a family dinner for Thanksgiving or another significant holiday in your cultural practices.
Craft a scene or sequence (written or filmed) where an unexpected guest arrives at a family dinner for Thanksgiving or another significant holiday in your cultural practices for a chance to win a trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival and other prizes. Sponsored by Backstage
Submit a written scene/sequence (maximum 10 pages) or a video (maximum 8 mins) by December 16, 2019. This is an opportunity to create a turning point for your main character, introduce a new character, and reveal the family/group dynamic before and after it's disrupted by this guest.
SUBMISSION LIMITS
Your written work cannot exceed 10 pages and short films should be under 8 minutes.
Deadline to submit: December 16, 2019 at 12PM/Noon PST.
CHALLENGE RULES
Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the Sundance Co//ab community. One entry per person, per challenge. All submissions will be viewable to the community. All submissions will be given equal consideration and the final winner will be determined by the consensus of the designated jurors.
Only those submissions that meet the criteria outlined in the submission guidelines can be selected as the winner.
The challenge closes on December 16, 2019 at 12PM/Noon PST.
PRIZES
Winner will receive:
- Trip for two to attend Sundance Co//ab event at Sundance Film Festival from January 30 to February 1, 2020. Prize includes roundtrip airfare within US and accommodation for two nights. (See rules for complete details)
- A one-on-one mentoring session with a Sundance Advisor
- All Access Membership (12 months) which includes:
- Online Master Classes - One free registration to every monthly online Master Class ($900 value)
- Online Courses * - Save 50% on first multi-week, live Online Course and 25% on each subsequent course (* Fees apply)
- Member-only Events - Access to online Member-only events
- Live Events - Priority access to select live Sundance learning events
- Winning entry featured prominently on Sundance Co//ab
- A Featured Casting Notice on Backstage.com and in Backstage’s print magazine. ($500 value)
Runner ups (two will be selected) - Sundance Co//ab Annual Membership (12 months)
Jurors
Jack Smart
Juror
Jack Smart is the awards editor at Backstage, where he covers all things Emmy, SAG, Oscar and Tony Awards. He also produces and hosts Backstage’s awards podcast “In the Envelope” and has interviewed some of the biggest stars of stage and screen. A graduate of Vassar College, where he studied theater, dramaturgy, and criticism, Jack was originally born in Hawai‘i and is now based in Los Angeles. He is a passionate advocate for working artists and representation in media.
Todd Louiso
Juror
A graduate of New York University’s film school, Todd held a wide variety of jobs from working for Academy Award winning writer and director Robert Benton (BONNIE & CLYDE, PLACES IN THE HEART, KRAMER VS. KRAMER) to interning on Saturday Night Live’s film unit, before landing a lead acting role on James L. Brooks’ short-lived television series, PHENOM, which brought him to Los Angeles.
Todd’s third directorial feature, HELLO I MUST BE GOING was in competition and selected as the Opening Night Film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film, released by Oscilloscope, was named one of the Top Ten Independent films of that year by the National Board of Review and also garnered a Best Screenplay award for screenwriter Sarah Koskoff at the Nantucket Film Festival.
This past year he and Koskoff teamed up again on her independent pilot called, THE SUMMER PEOPLE - centered on the prestigious (yet fictitious) Effing Massachusetts Summer Theatre Festival that has been forced to take on corporate sponsorship from Amazon, throwing its high-minded actors and directors into a tailspin.
Other directing and writing credits include: the Cannes Film Festival competition film, MACBETH starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, Sundance Grand Jury nominee and Waldo Salt Best Screenplay Award winning film LOVE, LIZA (Sony Classics) with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates, THE MARC PEASE EXPERIENCE (Paramount Vantage) with Jason Schwartzman, Anna Kendrick and Ben Stiller and his short film adaptation of Tom Stoppard’s THE FIFTEEN MINUTE HAMLET starring Austin Pendleton, which screened at Sundance and won Best Short at The New York Comedy Film Festival. He is a recipient of an Annenberg Grant, as well as being a Sundance Fellow and Advisor.
As an actor, he has appeared in many films and television series including SCENT OF A WOMAN, JERRY MAGUIRE and HIGH FIDELITY.
Alicia Ortega
Juror
Alicia D. Ortega holds a BA from Stanford and an MFA in fiction from Louisiana State, where her novel THE GHOST YOU DESERVE won the Robert Penn Warren Award for best MFA thesis in prose. A participant in both the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive, she was awarded a 2019 SFFILM Westridge Grant to work on her debut feature film script, RIGHTEOUS ACTS.