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August 2009:

Julie Umbreit Bliss' The Youngest Convict advanced to the second round of the Austin Film Festival (top 10% of 4,000 submissions.)

Jeffrey Marks advanced to semi-finalist in the 2009 Scriptapalooza Contest with his script, Avatar.

July 2009:

Bill Schreiber's Chasing Echoes has advanced to the quarter-final round of the Nicholl competition.

Michael Stucky's short script, In The Bag was recently awarded a runner up at the Great American Short Screenplay Contest sponsored by TheFilmSchool.

June 2009:

PAGE International:
Quarter-finalist (top 10%): Vlada Knowlton's Love Business, Bill Schreiber's Switchback.
Second Rounders (top 25% of 4,394 entries):  Maid of Dishonor by Aadip Desai, Skyliner by Mark Martino, and No Playground For Little Kids by Dave Larson.

BlueCat quarter-finalists from NWSG (top 20% out of 3,200+ submissions):
Closer to the Field by Sue Berg, The Disciple by Kim Cunningham, Maid of Dishonor by Aadip Desai, Eden by Thomas Zmiarovich, and So Guys, Why Are We Naked? by David McRae.

Eden by Thomas Zmiarovich made the top 20 finalists (out of 2,500+ entries) in the ScriptPimp competition.

April 2009:

Bryan Tranel, had his script, Newton's Cradle,  reviewed by G10 Writers.

David Larson got 2nd place in the Slamdance Short Competition for No Playground For Little Kids.

James Canfield Wolf was just hired to pen an adaptation of Pol McShane's novel Blue Moon for LA-based Walla Films. This is his third writing assignment in less than a year.

March 2009

Great news from NWSG Member, Royce Buckingham.  Sam Fell, director of the animated films The Tale of Despereaux and Flushed Away, is attached to direct Demonkeeper, a live-action adaptation of the Royce Buckingham novel and screenplay for Fox 2000. The rewrite of the script is being written by Laeta Kalogridis, who scripted the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed Shutter Island for Paramount and Battle Angel, which James Cameron will direct for Fox.

AEI's Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong are producing Demonkeeper. The story follows a Seattle teen who inherits responsibility for a house filled with demons. When the youth finally breaks free of his charges to go on a date, he returns to discover that kids have broken into the house, unleashing its most vicious demon, the Beast, Killer of Lost Children. Studio bought rights to the book before it was published by Penguin. Royce says he is delighted with the choice of director and the fact that the book has hit the bestseller list in Germany and sold in seven foreign territories.

David Larson's short scripts Malled and No Playground for Little Kids made the top 25 at the Slamdance Short Screenplay Competition, and are still in the running.

David Larson was a finalist in the fourth submission period of the Cowrite competition, sponsored by Benderspink.

Joe Hawkins had his script, Community Murder, requested by Spitfire Films.

January 2009

James Canfield Wolf has been hired for his second writing assignment in the past seven months. He's writing a thriller for LA-based Americana Films.

Sonya Lea wrote an adaptation of a Sandra Brown novel for a Hollywood prodco and had a TV series concept and pilot picked up by two producers, now under consideration by several cable subscription networks.

 

Members: Please email us any achievements, big or small. We'd love to hear from you. Publicity@nwsg.org

OCTOBER 2011

Congratulations to Pat White (NWSG President2011 Page International Screenplay Contest Emeritus) for winning the Grand Prize in the Page International Screenplay Competition with her young adult thriller, Escape.

SEPTEMBER 2011

Congrats to NWSG members who made the second round in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition: William Schreiber, Kate Wharton, Alex Pederson, Keith Dussell and Matt Terry.

AUGUST 2011

Congrats to Page Screenwriting Award semi-finalists, Vincent Noto for Ark and Pat White for Escape. Pat's script also made the semi-finals in the Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition.

April 2011

Guild and former board member James Canfield Wolf's thriller film Good Day For It won the audience award for Best Feature Film at the 2011 Sonoma International Film Festival. James penned the script for NY-based Nazz Productions. The film stars Robert Patrick, Hal Holbrook, Mika Boorem and Lance Henriksen.

The UWTV series Backstory: The Filmmaker’s Vision featured NWSG member Steve Edmiston’s 2005 indie feature A Relative Thing, as well as a 16 minute interview with Steve. Catch the interview and more about the film at http://www.uwtv.org/backstory/. Additionally, Crimes of the Past, written and co-produced by Steve, had its cable broadcast debut on Lifetime in February. The locally produced film, directed by Garrett Bennett, was picked up for all international distribution by MarVista Entertainment immediately following its world premier at the SIFF.

October 2010

Growing the Big One, a romantic comedy, set in the Northwest, and written by NWSG member Diane Mettler, aired in October on the Hallmark Channel.

Judy Williamson's one-hour TV pilot teleplay, Escape to America, Inc. placed in the top ten in the Going Green Film Festival Contest, and was a quarter-finalist in the Original TV Drama category of the Creative World Awards.

Jason Groce's Transit placed fourth in the Final Draft Big Break Contest and won the Creative Screenwriting Expo Contest's Suzanne's Prize for best love story. Transit is a romantic comedy about a young bus driver who struggles to keep his life on track and on schedule after making the biggest mistake a bus driver can make: falling in love with a passenger.

Robin Brooks's latest screenplay A Romp Through Hell was a semi-finalist (top 7% out of 3,500+) in the Final Draft, Inc. 2010 Big Break Contest and a second round pick (top 10% of 4,400+) in the 2010 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition.

September 2010

Memphis member Julie Bliss (Umbreit) and 11-year-old Catherine Carr, of Seattle, are a grandmother/ granddaughter screenwriting team. They entered the script Dragon Flute in the Moondance International Film Festival and won in the feature screenplay for kids category. Both are attending the festival September 24-26 in Boulder, CO. Their first opportunity to pitch Dragon Flute was at NWSG.
Julie’s screenplay The Youngest Convict was a finalist at Moondance and also in the Tennessee Screenwriting Competition, June, 2010.

August 2010

Steve Edmiston's 2009 short film, The Day My Parents Became Cool, which he wrote, directed, and co-produced, continues to thrive on the festival circuit and in new media distribution channels. The film was released in August by IndieFlix as part of the distributor’s new Film Festival in a Box program. The film continues to delight audiences on the festival circuit coast to coast. It is currently scheduled to play in Brooklyn, New York at WilliFest (September 24-26, 2010) and locally at both the Gig Harbor Film Festival and Gig Harbor Children’s Film Festival in October.

 

July 2010

Congratulations to NWSG finalists in The Great American Short Screenplay Contest 2010, sponsored by The Film School: Jim Endecott, No Such Things and Michael Stuckey, Addie's Gift

Congratulations to Richard Nagle whose second screenplay Proclamation 2526 made the quarter-finals in the Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Contest. It is one of 377 out of 3541 entries to make it this far.

Kristin Kirby was one of five Finalists in the NPA/SAG Screenplay Competition with her screenplay, Maze. 

May 2010

Mark Ramquest wrote and directed a short film for the Seattle Times and SIFF-sponsored 3 Minute Masterpiece contest. His film Dangerous Game was one of the top 10 finalists.

NSWG member David Rothmiller's award-winning documentary film "For my wife..." has secured world-wide distribution through Cinema Libre Studio. The DVD is set to release September 21, 2010. The film charts the making of an activist as Seattle local Charlene Strong fought discrimination and exclusion from her partner's deathbed after a tragic flooding of their Madison Valley home. The film has been featured in festivals around the globe, garnering press attention and six festival awards. It is Rothmiller's directorial debut.

March 2010

Wolf's Movie is a Wrap. Nazz Productions (NWSG guest in late 2005) has wrapped filming on a thriller feature Good Day For It starring Robert Patrick, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker, Samantha Mathis and Emmy winner/Oscar Nominee Hal Holbrook. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1565063/

You may be asking, Who was the writer? It was our own James Wolf!

Way to go James!

Steve Edmiston's sixteen minute short, The Day My Parents Became Cool, which he wrote and directed, completed its 2009 festival run with a Best Short Comedy award from the LA International Family Film Festival, and was an official selection at the Sedona International Film Festival, Big Island Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and KidsFirst! 2010 Film Festival, among others. The film has two distributors lined up for a 2010 release in all formats.
Congratulations, Steve!

www.thedaymyparentsbecamecool.com/

Congratulations to Alex Pedersen! His script, Escaping aka The Bombardier is a finalist in the 2010 Charleston International Film Festival Screenplay Competition and a quarter-finalist in Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope competition.

Congratulations to Beth Szyperski whose script, Now You See Me won the Expo Contest's Writers Book Camp Fellowship Award (chosen from 1500 scripts entered).

NWSG Vice President, Kim Cunningham, recently signed with the Brant Rose Agency in Hollywood, California.

October 2009:

Peter Ong Lim has been accepted into the 2009 American Film Institute's Catalyst Workshop in which each screenwriter is paired with an AFI screenwriting alumnus to collaborate on the screenwriter's script.

September 2009:

Bill Schreiber's two scripts, Chasing Echoes and Switchback advanced to the second round at Austin.

Dave Larson's two screenplays, Snakefighter and Z-Rex both made the semi-finals of the 2009 Shriekfest Screenplay Competition.