#NFF2020 Showtime's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition Winners Announced!
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Feature Screenplay Winner :
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.
Short Screenplay Winner :
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.
60 MIN Episodic Screenplay Winner :
BEING SEEN by Andi Delott
When a marketing exec ages out of the industry and becomes invisible in society, she reclaims her strength by starting a high-end male escort service.
Andi Delott writes grounded dramas with female leads. Much of her inspiration comes from her career in entertainment advertising. As ABC’s agency of record for almost two decades, she led that account and helped successfully brand, launch and sustain multi year marketing campaigns for classics including Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, and Modern Family to name a few. Now, in addition to ABC, her clients also include Apple, Netflix, Amazon and Disney Academy. Andi recently completed a fellowship with the 2019-2020 NBC Writers On The Verge program. Her writing accomplishments also include a 2018 PAGE Awards Fellowship/Stowe Story Labs; 2017 New York Women in Film and Television Writers Lab; 2019 Finalist in The Blacklist/Women in Film Episodic Lab and 2019 Semifinalist at the Austin Film Festival, among other contest placements. She graduated in 2019 from UCLA’s Professional Program for TV Screenwriting.
30 MIN Episodic Screenplay Winner:
DRYWALL by Rob Eckard
A deeply-closeted family man inherits his father’s construction company, only to discover that the business served as a cover for his father’s true passion: murder.
Rob Eckard is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and educator, originally from the sweet tea-coated suburbs of Dallas, Texas. He holds degrees in theatre education and screenwriting from NYU and Emerson College, where he now teaches screenwriting as an affiliated faculty member. As a graduate student, he was selected for the Television Academy’s internship program and worked on the 20th Century Fox lot, including time at Modern Family and Fresh Off the Boat. His writing is heavily influenced by his Southern roots, queer identity, and unresolved daddy issues.
