Stage 32 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Screenwriting Contest

Winner Announced!

(click the "winners" tab) 

The Stage 32 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Screenwriting Contest is searching for the best original Fantasy & Sci-Fi feature screenplays. Super powers. Outer space. Mystical Creatures. Bring it!

Taking our stories out of this world is nothing new, but it’s definitely generated some of the most prolific and biggest blockbuster films to date, and let’s not forget have brought some of the most iconic film lines ever. Stage 32 is happy to provide a brand new opportunity for our Fantasy and Sci-Fi screenwriters to get their stories out there and read by some of the top industry players. Show us what new fantastical worlds and outer depths of science fiction you've created, because we want to read it!

WHAT YOU’LL WIN

• The Grand Prize Winner will meet one-on-one meetings with producer Jon Shestack, The Illusionarium and The Baker Entertainment Group! Plus with Award Winning Writer Marc Zicree (STAR TREK– THE NEXT GENERATION, DEEP SPACE NINE, THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE)
• 2nd Place Winner will receive two Skype meetings with a top executive, producer, manager, or agent and two Stage 32 Happy Writers online pitch sessions, and a logline review from the “The Logline Whisperer”, Emmy-Award winner Lane Shefter Bishop
• All finalists will receive a Free On-Demand Stage 32 Next Level Webinar and loglines exposed to over 500 executives on Stage 32

OUR TRACK RECORD

Our contest winners have either been signed, projects put into development and/or optioned!

• Benji Smith - signed with Meridian Artists.
• Brittni Brown and Jenna Palermo - signed with Infinity Management International.
• Trish MacEnulty - attached producer Gavin Dorman to her script.
• Scott Waldvogel and Matt DeMartini - signed with Gotham Group and APA.
• Frank Ponce - signed with 3 Arts Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment.
• Glenn Forbes - signed with Infinity Management International and optioned by Glider Films.
• Richard Hobley - signed with Paradigm and Goldcrest Films International.
• Michael Madden - signed with BenderSpink (Good Fear Film + Management) and ICM and writing on ABC series BLACKBOX.

FEEDBACK OPTION

For an additional fee of only $49 (50% savings!) you can receive full coverage from our industry readers on your screenplay or teleplay. Just check "coverage" upon checkout.

*If you have ordered coverage you will receive it when the winners are announced.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

One-on-one meeting with Award Winner Fantasy & Sci-Fi writer Marc Zicree (STAR TREK– THE NEXT GENERATION, DEEP SPACE NINE, THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE)

Meetings with Jon Shestack Productions (Girls of Girlfriends Past), The Illusionarium (Cooties) & The Baker Entertainment Group

A logline review from the “The Logline Whisperer”, Emmy-Award winner Lane Shefter Bishop

Logline posted on Stage 32 and sent to over 500 industry executives

Free On-Demand Stage 32 Next Level Webinar

2ND PLACE WINNER

Two Skype meetings with a top executive, producer, manager, or agent

Two Stage 32 Happy Writers online pitch sessions

A logline review from the “The Logline Whisperer”, Emmy-Award winner Lane Shefter Bishop

Logline posted on Stage 32 and sent to over 500 industry executives

Free On-Demand Stage 32 Next Level Webinar

ALL FINALISTS

All finalists loglines will be posted in a special section of Stage 32 where any of the 500 industry executives we work with will be able to view them. If there is interest beyond the logline, we will facilitate the communication between the exec and the writer. Finalists will also receive a special Free On-Demand Stage 32 Next Level Webinar.

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENTS

June 16th: Quarter-Finalists Announced on Stage 32

June 30th: Semi-Finalists Announced on Stage 32

July 18th: Finalists Announced on Stage 32

August 11: Winners Announced on Stage 32

Announcement dates subject to change.

We’re extremely excited to announce this year’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Screenwriting Contest Winner & 2nd Place Runner Up! Our industry judges were completely blown away by the imagination and talent of these scribes. So much so that our Grand Prize Winner has already had a meeting with Daniel Vang from Good Fear Film + Management! It's about to be a whirlwind as these scripts get heat on them around the executive community. Join us as we congratulate these writers!

Grand Prize Winner

Ben Gross - THE LADIES' GUIDE TO HACKING

Logline: A talented and abrasive hacker launders stolen money through a Wild West themed virtual reality game after she and her brothers are abducted by a mob boss.

2nd Place

Ryan Lee - TOWER 9

Logline: Sent to evict the lingering residents of a long defunct housing project building, two men discover the tower is being terrorized by a sadistic extraterrestrial creature, and now they're trapped along with everyone else.

Congratulations to the 2017 Stage 32 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Screenwriting Contest Finalists! 

Congratulations to the 2017 Stage 32 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Screenwriting Contest Semi-finalists!  

Congratulations to the 2017 Stage 32 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Screenwriting Contest Quarter-finalists!

Jon Klane (Fantasy/Sci-Fi Contest Judge) - Manager, The Jon Klane Company

Jon Klane began his career in the CAA mailroom in 1985. After serving as founding partner Martin Baum’s assistant, he left in 1989 to co-found Circle Talent Associates, quickly establishing himself as a capable and promising young motion picture literary agent with a reputation for selling spec screenplays and launching new talent.

In 1994 Jon established his own shop, The Jon Klane Agency, in Beverly Hills and continued to build his roster and his reputation as a packaging agent. In 2004 Jon began producing film and television projects while still managing a select list of writers and directors. He lives on a horse ranch in Malibu, California with his wife and three sons.

Jon Shestack (Fantasy/Sci-Fi Contest Judge) - Producer, Jon Shestack Productions

Movie Producer and Autism advocate

Producing Credits: The Last Seduction, Air Force One, Disturbing Behavior, Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas, Waiting..., Firewall, Dan In Real Life, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

 

Daniel Herther (Fantasy & Sci-Fi Contest Judge) - VP of Film & TV Development, Baker Entertainment Group

Daniel Herther is a feature film executive formerly at Relativity Studios, where he helped supervise the studio’s slate of projects, reporting to Robbie Brenner and Tucker Tooley.

At Relativity, Herther served as the on-set creative executive for D.J. Caruso’s The Disappointments Room, starring Kate Beckinsale, helping guide it from early development through post. He helped oversee development of the espionage thriller Hunter Killer and set up and developed both director Ric Waugh’s sci-fi thriller Tipping Point and Wentworth Miller’s adaptation of the female driven serial killer novel, Scare Me. Other projects Herther set up include Damsel: The Untold Story of Rapunzel and Smoke, an early 80’s drug trafficking/speedboat racing thriller, based on true events, as well as Replay, a quantum-physics experiment thriller, with David Twohy attached to direct. Herther also served as the creative liaison between Relativity and SilverDream, one of its Chinese partners. Currently, Herther is the VP of Film & TV development BEG, a Paramount Pictures based production company headed by financier and director filmmaker Jonathan Baker.

Herther joined Relativity in 2006, where he managed RelativityCEO Ryan Kavanaugh’s office. He was promoted to feature film executive in 2010 after successfully securing Greg Russo’s first script for the studio. Before joining Relativity, Herther worked in the story department at DreamWorks and held positions at Paramount Pictures/Scott Rudin Productions and 20th Century Fox. Herther earned his BA in Comparative Literature and his MA in English Literature at Loyola Marymount’s Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. He recently served on LMU’s School of Film and Television’s 2015 Film Outside the Frame Awards and Festival Jury where he judged scripts and shorts submitted by students.

Daniel Vang (Fantasy & Sci-Fi Contest Judge) - Manager, Good Fear Film + Management

Daniel Vang started at William Morris as a feature film literary assistant where he worked for two years before landing at Benderspink as a literary manager in both film and TV. After BenderSpink's recent split, Chris Bender formed Good Fear Film + Management in May 2016.

Good Fear's clients include Jennifer Weiner (In Her Shoes), Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures), Billy Brown (How to Get Away With Murder), Eddie Jemison (Oceans 11, Hung), Matt Gerald (Netflix’s Daredevil), Adam Busch (Colony), Tiffany Dupont (Murder in the First), Jordan Ross (Cruel Intentions), Ashleigh Powell (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms), Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen), Evan Daugherty (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Tripper Clancy (Stuber), Joe Greenberg (Man Alive) and Barnett Brettler (Monolith).

Daniel Vang represents feature writers working at all the major studios as well as writers that are staffed on shows such as Gotham, The Vampire Diaries, Chicago Fire, and Agent Carter.

Jason Loughridge (Fantasy & Sci-Fi Contest Judge) - CEO, Project 8 Films

The Jason Loughridge-led Company co-finances and produces several films per year with distribution deals in addition to developing their own projects, which also includes “The Beatles” and “Michael Jackson” television specials this year.

The company plans to raise private equity and bank finance against a slate of films with distribution in place this year and also continue to grow the theatrical releasing arm of Project 8 Films which was headed up by the late Vice President AMC theatre chain of 20 years Greg Rutkowski. Project 8 Films is very open to co-productions and can provide full post-production services down to full deliverables including DCP.

Prior to establishing Project 8 Films, Jason served as Vice-President of Hip Films, which produced films, TV shows, and music videos and housed two soundstages, postproduction facility and two 5-ton grip and electric trucks. He was also actively involved in raising financing.

Jason is a film producer who has built a solid reputation for consistently completing movies on time and on budget. Over the course of his career he has developed trusted relationships with agents, lenders, distributors and buyers. His professionalism and expert knowledge of preproduction, production, postproduction and distribution makes him an indispensable asset to any film production.

Spencer Medof (Fantasy & Sci-Fi Contest Judge) - Producer, The Illusionarium