BEST SCENE SCREENPLAY READINGS
The "best scene" take from features and TV pilots of winning screenplays.
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ANIMATION Festival BEST Scene: ANIMARIA, by Michael Van Patten
Miss Mona takes her students on a great adventure to Animaria so they can learn the value of teamwork, but she learns as much about herself along the way
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Federico (M): Geoff Mays -
FEMALE Festival BEST Scene Reading TV: EXPIRED, by Wendy Braff
Five female friends over 50 have had enough of being dismissed and ignored by a society that thinks of them as "expired." When they decide they're no longer going to give a fuck, their lives truly begin.
www.wendybraff.com
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballatyne
Courtney (F): Elizabeth Rose Morr... -
FEMALE Festival BEST SCENE: GOLD MOUNTAIN EXPRESS, by Gene Lassers
The Nazis conquer Warsaw at the beginning of World War II and take-over the infamous Jewish Ghetto. The last shipment of valuables leaves Berlin for
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballatyne
Lisal: Elizabeth Rose Morriss -
Hans: Geoff Mays -
THRILLER Festival BEST Scene: THE COVENTRY DECEPTION, by Michael Thomas Holliday
Following the President's suicide, a reluctant Vice President discovers a covert operation that compromises national security.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Jordan: Sean Ballatyne
Gorley: Geoff Mays
Sarah/Secret Service Agent: Hannah Ehman -
FEMALE Festival Best Scene: MOTHER SUPERIOR, by James W Gould (interview)
In 1350s Florence, an insecure nun unwillingly becomes the Mother Superior after the Plague kills the leaders of her nearly bankrupt convent. To save her convent, she must find the strength to confront the male dominated Church, Guilds and civil authorities, and her own demons.
CAST LIST:
Narra...
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DIVERSITY Festival Best Scene: NO ADDRESS, by Julia Verdin, James Papa
A group of homeless people bond together as a family, struggling to survive the streets while fending off a harassing gang, an unforgiving community and the local authorities in hopes of finding their humanity again.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Jimmy: Steve Rizzo
Liz: Kyana Teresa...
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COMEDY Festival BEST Scene Script: FEELING JUNG, by Lauren Kettler (interview)
Tara and Glen can't afford a divorce so they take week's vacation, with 10-year-old son Ned in tow, to find new, better-heeled spouses.
http://laurenkettler.com/
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Tatiana: Kyana Teresa
Glen: Steve RizzoGet to know the screenwriter:
1. What is your screen...
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COMEDY Festival Best Scene Reading: DRAG ME TO CHRISTMAS, by Tennessee Martin
When Scrooge-like tech-whiz, Chip Webber, finds out that her mother has passed away a few days before Christmas, she begrudgingly returns to her small hometown after a decade away to pay her respects. Upon learning she has inherited her mother’s pride and joy, a dilapidated community recreation c...
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LGBTQ+ Festival BEST Scene: ALL THE COOL KIDS, by Jennifer C Clark (interview)
A closeted teen football star, Harley Harris, discovers his friends and fellow townsfolk are being replaced by demonic shapeshifters, and he is next! Together with, out and proud friend, Tessa, Harley must break the demon's curse before his identity and life are lost forever.
CAST LIST:
Narrat...
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ROMANCE Festival BEST Scene: The Highwayman, by Patrick Norman (interview)
A deep and all-consuming romance set in eighteenth-century England between a highwayman and a landlord’s daughter tests their love, loyalty, and willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Logline: He met her on life’s darkest road, and her soul became his moon.
CAST LIST::
Narrator: Hannah ...
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SCI-FI/FANTASY Festival Best Scene Reading: Simulation, by Peter Jang
In the near future, a man practices for a date with his dream girl by running simulations indistinguishable from reality.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Grayson: Steve Rizzo
Frank: Sean Ballantyne
NPC CHEVELLE: Kyana Teresa -
SCI-FI/FANTASY Festival Best Scene Reading: Saviours, by Guy Ducker
An alien force, having occupied Earth to save us from corrupt governments and fix our broken climate, appoints Claire Burgess—an honest but inexperienced Green Party MP—as interim Prime Minister of the UK. Meanwhile, Trevor Daunt—a disgraced minister on the run—founds a resistance movement aiming...
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FEMALE Festival Best Scene: The Electric Eye by Kimberly Butler, Marissa Lessman
A middle aged woman finds herself convicted of murder in the 1930’s. She is sent to an all male prison in deep Southern Illinois to await her fate for a crime she may not have committed. Based on true events.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Marie: Kyana Teresa
Young Roberta: Hannah EhmanGet...
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FEMALE Festival Best Scene Reading: Ready to Mingle, by Olivia Belluck
Ready to Mingle follows Dr. Millie Ward, a defensive self-help columnist for the clickbait-dependent news site Nova Press. Millie thrives on applying her analytical mind to patients she cannot see, snuggled in sweaters that ensure that no one can ever see her. After a lifetime of being told she w...
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ASIAN Festival Best Scene Reading: The Pear Tree, by Hong Zhou
Dong Sheng and Mei Ning’s cherished family pear tree bursts out in buds and blossoms, only to be wrecked by their friendly new neighbors. Heartbroken, they strive to help the tree heal and thrive, while at the same time feeling through a season of recovering from the incident themselves.
CAST LI...
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DRAMA Festival Best Scene Reading: TERROR AND VIRTUE, by Ernest Pysher
A young, ambitious idealist returns home from war to find his king and country on the brink of ruin - and ripe for positive reform - until a bankrupt alcoholic becomes the unlikely leader of the movement instead and all hell breaks loose. The incredible true story of the French Revolution.
CAST ...
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CRIME/MYSTERY Best Scene Reading: LENA'S RULES, by Ken Comer
WHEN A DETECTIVE'S YOUNG PARTNER IS BRUTALLY MURDERED IN AN AMBUSH. HER CAMPAIGN OF REVENGE TURNS INTO AN ACT OF REDEMPTION.
CAST :LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Paz: Kyana Teresa
Lena: Hannah Ehman
Deputy Chief Man: Steve Rizzo
Lt. Mann: Sean Ballantyne -
Toronto Comedy Festival Script Reading: SUPERLATIVE PICKLEBALLS!, by Dan Beeman
When disgraced former tennis champion loses his job, home, and mother on the same day, he must reinvent himself by reuniting with his former rival to compete in Pickleball tournaments for money as teammates to pay off debts. Living in an old RV while traveling across the country, they discover th...
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DIVERSITY Best Scene Reading: Esperanza, by David Christopher Loya
In 1973 L.A., a spirited Chicano family rock band is discovered by an ambitious record exec. Catapulted on a rollercoaster journey from the barrios to pop stardom, they must rely upon their heart, talent, and street smarts if they’re to survive the prevalent racism, intolerance, sexual predation,...
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Toronto Comedy Festival Script Reading: SUPERLATIVE PICKLEBALLS!, by Dan Beeman
When disgraced former tennis champion loses his job, home, and mother on the same day, he must reinvent himself by reuniting with his former rival to compete in Pickleball tournaments for money as teammates to pay off debts. Living in an old RV while traveling across the country, they discover th...
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THRILLER/SUSPENSE Festival Script Reading: MAKWA, by Johnny Cole
A free-spirited indigenous bounty hunter teams up with her ‘by the book’ detective father and their robot sidekick to catch a killer and heal: themselves, each other, and the planet.
In a near-dystopian future, Alaska Rainmaker, a Native American bounty hunter still troubled by her mother's murd...
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Female Festival Script Reading: TEN TO MIDNIGHT, by M Mantero De las Casas
Dead set on her environmental mission, a quixotic civil servant assembles a ragtag team of multinational oddballs to fight the system from within
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Luiza: Hannah Ehman
Mara: Kyana Teresa -
POLITICAL Festival Best Scene Reading: HAMMER AND NAILS, by Lowell Williams
What if someone when into the seminary to bury his own anger? Jonathan Daniels stumbles into the Civil Rights movement and finds himself face to face with moments that viciously try and pierce his peaceful personality. Based on a true story, he joins Stokely Carmichael and other Black activists d...
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LGBTQ+ Best Scene Reading: OFFSIDERS, by Kate Holland, Marlowe Mitchell
Get to know the writers:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Playing with the old-as-time concept of the genderbending sports romcom (She's The Man, Ladybugs), Offsiders sees Max dressing up as a boy in order to take her gay best friend's place on the boys' soccer team. The story then takes a dis...