#NFF2020 Showtime's Tony Cox Film Screenplay FINALISTS Announced!
/Read more below about our short and feature screenplay finalists AND their scripts!
Minor Modifications by Shia LaBeouf
Based on the life of rapper Kevin Abstract; this biographical fiction follows a Texas teen as he struggles with identity, finding meaningful relationships, sexual fluidity, and his direction in life.
Shia LaBeouf is an American actor, artist, filmmaker, and writer. He most recently wrote and starred in HONEY BOY (2019), which Amazon Prime released to rave reviews. He also co-starred in the NFF2019 Spotlight film THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (2019), which was the highest-grossing independent film of 2019.
Previous honors/recognition for screenwriting:
MINOR MODIFICATIONS won the 2020 Sun Valley Festival's High Scribe Award.
Hollywood Film Awards 2019 - Screenwriter of the Year for HONEY BOY (2019)
Misekakeru (Pretend) by Diana Ly
A Japanese rental wife, along with her best friend, searches for true connection after her long-time fake husband “breaks up” with her.
Diana Ly is a Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright based in Los Angeles. Born in Oklahoma, where her parents settled as refugees, she grew up as an ex-pat in the Philippines. Ly moved to Silicon Valley to study at Stanford University, and after earning BS and MS degrees in Computer Science, worked at Google for eight years, including a stint at the YouTube Space LA. A drama and theatre student for much of her life, she attended UCLA’s Professional Programs in Screenwriting and TV Writing. She was a 2017 Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent, a writer on Season 2 of GodComplX, a web series funded by Google’s CS in Media initiative, and she’ll be a 2020 Ragdale Artist Resident. She recently worked as a features assistant to showrunner Karin Gist. Diana writes stories about immigrants, nerds, and women who defy stereotypes.
Previous honors/recognition screenwriting:
2020 Ragdale Artist Resident
2019 SeriesFest's Women Writing Competition - Finalist
2019 Innovasian's Screenplay Contest - Finalist
2019 Sundance Development Track - Misekakeru (Pretend) advanced to the second round
2017 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow
2017 SeriesFest's Featuring Women Initiative - Semi-Finalist
2016 CBS Writers Mentoring Program - Finalist
Sunny Los Angeles by Steve Young
In 1911, an enforcer, sent on a mission by Thomas Edison to stop his filmmaking competitors in Los Angeles, discovers a knack for directing.
For 25 years, Steve Young wrote for David Letterman's Late Night and Late Show programs. He has also written for The Simpsons and wrote the Matt Groening-produced animated Christmas special, Olive the Other Reindeer. Most recent credits: NBC's Maya & Marty variety show, Harry Connick Jr.'s show Harry, and HBO’s Night of Too Many Stars. He is the co-author of "Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals,” and is the main subject of the award-winning comedy music feature documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway.
Previous honors/recognition screenwriting:
2017 Writers Guild of America Award (TV) Comedy/Variety Sketch Series for Maya & Marty - Nominated
2009 - 1991 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series for Late Show with David Letterman - Nominated
2009, 2002, 2001, 2000 Writers Guild of America Award (TV) Comedy/Variety - (Including Talk) Series for Late Show with David Letterman - Nominated
2000 Annie Award Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production for Olive, the Other Reindeer - Won
1990 Writers Guild of America Award (TV) Variety - Musical for Not Necessarily the News - Won
‘Night, Dad by Fausto Barrionuevo
Late at night, while driving through the streets of Miami, a father and son finally move past small talk.
Fausto Barrionuevo is a filmmaker and poet with MFA’s in both concentrations and is currently a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A native to Miami, Florida with over ten years of experience as a video editor and story consultant, his most recent collaboration was on a feature film documentary entitled Union Time: Fighting for Workers’ Rights. His creative work ranges from poems published in several journals, such as Off the Coast: Maine’s International Poetry Journal and decomP magazine, where he was nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2011 for his poem “Ground,” to his short film Weight, which premiered at RiverRun International Film Film Festival and was awarded the honor of being part of the top ten selected films for Carnegie Mellon International “Faces” Film Festival.
SLOTS: A Commuter's Fantasy by Anthony Povah
Two middle-aged, middle managers dreaming of teenage glories plot to escape their humdrum lives for a day.
Anthony Povah was born in Liverpool and is based in the North West of England, he describes his passion for writing as a ‘hobby that got out of control’ after he was selected for the New Writing North Significant Ink development programme, and reached the finals of the BBC Drama Room scheme in 2017. Anthony’s work has been selected by numerous screenwriting contests and film festivals across the globe. He made his playwriting debut at The Dukes theatre in Lancaster, the UK in February 2019. Anthony writes for TV, radio, and film, and co-produced his debut short film last year. He is currently script consulting on a film project and has a radio play and short film waiting to restart production once the world reopens. An economics graduate with twenty years of experience in aerospace manufacturing, he is currently working on a high concept conspiracy thriller.
MARTHA by Sarah Smith
The true story of the week Martha Mitchell (wife of Nixon’s former Attorney General John Mitchell) was held captive in a Southern California hotel room in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in.
Sarah Smith is an award-winning filmmaker and television producer. Her latest short film, Black Hat, was an official selection of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and won the 2019 Iris prize. She is the co-creator and director of the web series Tender Touches, which won 1st place at the 2018 AT&T create-a-thon. In 2015, Sarah debuted her short film, D.Asian, which went on to screen at over 35 festivals across the globe and was awarded the 2017 AT&T Underrepresented Filmmaker Award. She also won a WGA award as part of The Young & The Restless writing team. Sarah is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
