BOPA & THE BALTIMORE FILM OFFICE ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL BALTIMORE SCREENRITERS COMPETITION
The winners were revealed during the Maryland Film Festival, in person for the first time since 2019
The Baltimore Film Office at the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) announces the winners of the 17th annual Baltimore Screenwriters Competition. In the features category, first place goes to Teddy Duvall and Casey Pence for “Horror Fans,” second place to C.P. Englander for “Mobius Hoops,” and third place to Jeffrey Brady for “Sanctuary.” In the shorts category, first place went to Dimitri Callwood-Jackson for “Love Culture,” Warren Greenberg won second place with “The Whole Point,” and Elena Moscatt took third with “Crafty Lane.” The winners, who will receive cash prizes, were selected by the competition judges, film industry professionals MK Asante, Nina K. Noble, Ken LaZebnik, and Annette Porter. The winners were announced on Saturday, April 30, at 12:00 p.m. in the Lazarus Auditorium in the Fred Lazarus Building on the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) campus as part of the 24th annual Maryland Film Festival.
The Baltimore Screenwriters Competition is a project of the Baltimore Film Office in conjunction with film programs at Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University. Funding is provided by Morgan State University Additional support is courtesy of the Maryland Film Festival and Write Brothers. Submitted scripts receive coverage from students in the Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University screenwriting programs and by local screenwriters and producers. The final screenplays are judged by industry professionals in film and television, including producers and writers working on projects for HBO, NBC, and others.
About the Winners
FIRST PLACE — FEATURES CATEGORY Teddy Duvall & Casey Pentz Horror Fans
Teddy Duvall is the Vice President of Branding and Sponsorships at Utopia Media. After enduring over 100 days of total isolation when New York City was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, Teddy returned to his hometown of Baltimore in September 2020, where he reunited with longtime childhood friend, Casey Pentz. Casey works at Sheppard Pratt helping people who have struggled with psychosis. While in the thick of the global pandemic, Teddy and Casey decided to take their 35 years of shared movie-watching and collaborate on writing screenplays for films they’d love to see on screen. Horror Fans is the second script that Teddy and Casey have written together. In fact, it is the second
script that either of them has written period — capturing the two’s shared interest in horror movies, Baltimore history, and the many forms of fanaticism.
SECOND PLACE — FEATURES CATEGORY C.P. Englander Mobius Hoops
C. P. Englander, an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and author, lives and works in Baltimore City. She has eight published novels to her credit under her Rita Boucher pseudonym and is a past winner of Romantic Times’ award for best Regency novel. A top 10 winner in the nationwide Jewish Plays Project competition for The Hebrew Ladies Burial Society, she is also a two-time winner of Baltimore New Media Festival’s short screenplay contest. A screenplay based on her historical fantasy, The WouldBe Witch, was a winner in Final Draft’s Big Break Contest. Englander's most recent novel, The Compromised Lady, was released in February 2022.
THIRD PLACE — FEATURES CATEGORY Jeffrey Brady Sanctuary
Ever since Jeffrey was a kid, he has loved movies. He has always felt they are one of the best ways to tell stories, but he did not get into filmmaking until high school. He saw his classmates making funny home videos with their friends and decided to follow suit. From there, he developed a taste for filmmaking and decided to pursue it as a college study. In college, Jeffrey double majored in Film Production and Digital Design, since his first passion has always been art. This allowed Jeffrey to expand his options as a filmmaker. He worked with many talented people while at Penn State University to tell all kinds of stories. In 2020, he graduated from Penn State with bachelor’s degrees in both Film Production and Digital Design. After graduation, Jeffrey worked on an independent film called, “A Deer in the Woods.” It is the first feature length film on which Jeffrey has worked and it will premiere at State College on April 28, 2022.
FIRST PLACE — SHORTS CATEGORY Dimitri Callwood-Jackson Love Culture
Dimitri Callwood-Jackson is an emerging screenwriter and director based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. He attended Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he graduated with a BFA in Screenwriting and Animation in 2016. As a writer, Dimitri believes that his purpose is to inspire and uplift the marginalized. More recently, Dimitri has found purpose in writing from the voice and experience of the Black and Queer. His mission is to tell stories that start the right conversions in black and brown spaces, ultimately effecting change.
SECOND PLACE — SHORTS CATEGORY Warren Greenberg The Whole Point
A graduate of University of Maryland, Warren Greenberg is new to the screenwriting world. A songwriter, musician, writer, and poet, one of Warren's first passions was movies. He remembers standing in lines stretching around city blocks to see such movies as, The Sting, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. At home, he would watch old VHS tapes of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Hustler, with
his father reciting lines, on cue, like an understudy or an assistant director. In 2019, when his fiancé enrolled them in an Odyssey screenwriting night class, Warren decided to rework an old poem he had written some 30 years prior. The result is Warren's first penned screenplay — an animated short titled The Whole Point. His fiancé further gifted Warren entry of The Whole Point in several screenwriting competitions, where it has reached the semi-finals twice [2021 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and 2021 ScreenCraft Animation Screenplay Competition]. Warren is grateful to his fiancé, Marigo, for encouraging him to pursue his passion and is thrilled to be considered for this honor among so many talented writers. Warren wishes to thank the Baltimore Screenwriting Competition for the honor of reviewing his work and placing it in such esteemed regard.
THIRD PLACE — SHORTS CATEGORY Elena Moscatt Crafty Lane
Elena has been working in the film industry since the late 1980s. In 1992 Elena joined I.A.T.S.E. Local 487 and started working in the craft services department. She created one of the very first scripted online web series in 1998, a teen drama called Jamie's Way, which was filmed in Charles Village. Her lifestyle interview web series, “Click On This Show,” currently has over 600 episodes on YouTube and has won many awards and nominations within the webfest circuit. Elena created the Baltimore Next Media WebFest, a festival dedicated to discovering and supporting the very best of international New Media, including VR projects, Web Series, Short Films, YouTube Channels, Podcasts, Screenplays, and Social Media. She also created and still runs the Baltimore Screenwriter's Coffee Club. Elena is honored and humbled to place within the top three of the 2022 Baltimore Film Office Screenwriters competition. The competition is so important for Maryland screenwriters — it helps writers to place their plots and stories within the boundaries of Baltimore, encouraging more films to be filmed here in Baltimore.
About the Judges
MK Asante is a best-selling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor who the Los Angeles Times calls “One of America’s best storytellers.” He is the author of four books including Buck: A Memoir, a multi-year Washington Post Bestseller and the recipient of numerous literary awards. Buck is currently being adapted into a major motion picture. Asante studied at the University of London, earned a B.A. from Lafayette College, and an M.F.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. He is the founder/CEO of Wonderful Sound Studios and the Executive Producer and Host of the Snapchat original shows While Black with MK Asante and Free Tuition with MK Asante. Asante is a Distinguished Professor at the MICA Business School in India and a tenured professor in the Department of English at Morgan State University.
Nina K. Noble is a freelance producer and producing partner of David Simon’s Blown Deadline Productions. With Simon, she has produced three long-running series and three miniseries for HBO: The Wire, for which she won a DGA and Peabody award as well as a BAFTA nomination, the Peabody award-winning Treme, The Deuce, and most recently We Own This City. Miniseries include The Corner, which won the 2000 Emmy for best miniseries, Generation Kill, and Show Me a Hero.
Ken LaZebink writes for television, film, and theatre. He shares story credit with Garrison Keillor for director Robert Altman’s film, A Prairie Home Companion. LaZebnik wrote the Lionsgate film Thomas Kinkaid’s Christmas Cottage, released in 2008, starring Peter O’Toole and Marcia Gay Harden. His television writing ranges from over twenty scripts for Touched by An Angel, to writing for Army Wives, Providence, Star Trek: Enterprise, and the new series When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel. He is Director of Long Island University’s MFA in Writing and Producing for Television.
Annette Porter is a Producer at Nylon Films, an independent film company based in Baltimore and CoDirector of the JHU MICA Film Centre. She is also the Director of the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund at Johns Hopkins University, whose mission is to support new and emerging voices in filmmaking. Recognized for building and managing creative production teams internationally, Annette has directed and/or produced short and long form factual films on topics ranging from contemporary arts and culture to environmental and social issues for clients including Avon, Campaign for Female Education, Rambert Dance Company, UNESCO, Victoria & Albert Museum, Warner Brothers, Women's Aid, BBC, NBC, ITV, Discovery (Fr), and NHK (Japan).
About the Baltimore Film Office
The Baltimore Film Office serves as the designated liaison between production companies and city agencies, providing one-stop shop access to city services and expedited permits for the purpose of economic development. The Baltimore Film Office also serves as liaison between production companies and businesses, crew and communities, and markets Baltimore as a first-class location for the film industry.
For more information on the Baltimore Screenwriters Competition and the Baltimore Film Office, call 443- 263-4313 or visit www.baltimorefilm.com. And be sure to follow BOPA on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter: @promoandarts
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which serves as Baltimore City’s arts council, events center, and film office. By providing funding and support to artists, arts programs, and organizations across the city, and by producing large-scale events such as Artscape, Baltimore Book Festival, and Light City, BOPA’s goal is to make Baltimore a more vibrant and creative city.
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