The following screenplays are the Top 15 Long Form Pilots and Top 10 Short Form Pilots and Official Selections for the 2026 FilmQuest Best Un-Produced Pilot Screenplay Competition. These screenplays represent the Top 25% of their respective categories of all pilot screenplays submitted. If you are a producer or filmmaker, collaborating with these writers may produce your next film, so feel free to explore these great projects waiting to be made. Featured here are some of the best un-produced pilot genre screenplays on the circuit today and one of these screenplays will become our eventual Best Un-Produced Short Form and Long Form Screenplay Winners.
If you are a lit agency, manager, or and/or producer and would like to find out more about the screenplays or to read them for consideration, please feel free to reach out to the festival director at jmartin@filmquestfest.com and he will put you in contact with the writers and help curate your needs.
LONG FORM PILOTS – TOP 15
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ALGORITHM
Written By: Zac Taylor
Synopsis: When an AI tasked with saving humanity relocates the world’s most “useful” people to a utopian planet, those deemed worthless are left behind in a powerless Los Angeles. Unaware they’re being watched as entertainment, the survivors struggle to rebuild society using ego, performance and delusion.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: I’ve spent nearly two decades working as an actor and model while writing screenplays across horror, science fiction and dark comedy. I write character-driven stories grounded from first hand experiences and real human behavior.
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AN UNFOUND DOOR
Written By: Michael Mortimer
Synopsis: In a dystopian near-future, a man whose only act of empathy was donating to save ducks finds himself fired from his job, branded a terrorist, chased by reptilian aliens, and the pawn of revolutionaries—all because a magical book chose a passive data analyst to rewrite the universe’s memory.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Fantasy, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Michael Mortimer is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. He lives with his wife and son in Phoenix, where he recently self-published his fantasy/horror novel THE TOWN CRIER.
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CULTIVATION
Written By: Stevie Nelson
Synopsis: When a mother-daughter duo moves to a seemingly idyllic town, they become the target of a desperate cult with a dying leader. In this contemporary limited series, small town life collides with horror as GILMORE GIRLS becomes HEREDITARY.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Stevie writes scripts about women who break the mold. As a film scholar and contributor to the AFI Catalog, Stevie’s screenplays are inspired by the constraints and horrors of real people and events throughout history. She lives in Los Angeles and holds a master’s degree in screenwriting from Stephens College.
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DANCE AROUND THE DYING
Written By: Jeffrey Howe
Synopsis: In an alternate, high-tech 1930, Thomas Jefferson’s immortal daughter seeks to prove her equally ageless mother was murdered.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jeffrey Howe lives and works in historic Florissant, Missouri. This is his eighth time at FilmQuest and the seventh as a selected screenwriter.
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ED & VALENTINE
Written By: Melanie Civetta
Synopsis: After questioning a beloved movie star’s connection to her friend’s suspicious death, a struggling filmmaker finds herself blacklisted and desperate for answers. While caring for her terminally ill mother, she falls for a mysterious hospice technician harboring a terrifying secret, drawing them both toward an unsettling form of justice.
Genre(s): The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Melanie Civetta is a screenwriter who creates stylized worlds rooted in intimate wounds and the tension between the powerful and the powerless. Ed & Valentine explores grief, devotion, revenge, and the pursuit of justice.
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FIRST ECHO
Written By: C.S. Luis
Synopsis: Ten-year-old psychic Claudia Belle begins projecting into a secret research facility run by her family’s powerful biotech empire, drawing the attention of scientists determined to understand her abilities. As her connection to the facility’s imprisoned subjects deepens, Claudia begins uncovering a terrifying truth about her own creation.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: C.S. Luis is an author, screenwriter, and visual artist whose work blends science fiction, psychological suspense, and deeply human stories. Creator of the interconnected Mindbender Universe, Luis explores identity, family, power, and the consequences of science through character-driven storytelling.
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MEDUSA
Written By: Nathan Shapiro
Synopsis: After being failed by the system in the wake of a horrific assault, a brilliant biochemical engineering student takes matters into her own hands, unaware that her actions will lead to global catastrophe.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Nathan Shapiro is a Blacklist recommended screenwriter, an award winning sound designer/composer, and a proud member of SAG-AFTRA based in Los Angeles. When he’s not working, Nathan enjoys spending an irresponsible amount of money on obsolete 80’s audio gear.
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MYTHS OF LUMDARIA: THE CATALYST
Written By: Stephonika W. Kaye
Synopsis: N/A
Genre(s): N/A
Screenwriter’s Bio: N/A
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PRECURSOR
Written By: Steve Brown
Synopsis: When a wave of global disasters coincides with a mysterious neurological outbreak, a burned-out neurosurgeon risks everything to expose a terrifying truth: The end of the world is being deliberately engineered.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Steve Brown is a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting and holds dual degrees in Journalism and English from the University of Arizona. After a successful career in corporate copywriting for brands including Nintendo and Kaplan Test Prep, he transitioned to screenwriting full-time in 2023. His work focuses on cerebral science fiction that blends mystery, philosophical inquiry, and thought-provoking social commentary while exploring themes of consciousness, quantum theory, mysticism, and the boundaries between science and the unexplained. Steve’s screenplays and teleplays have earned more than 300 awards and honors, including wins at the Richmond International Film Festival, NexTV Writing & Pitch Competition, and the 58th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, along with recognition from the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, Slamdance, BlueCat, Launch Pad, ScreenCraft, Cinequest, and others.
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SAVAGE
Written By: David Schlow
Synopsis: An exiled super-soldier, suffering from degenerative brain damage, must train his estranged twin children to use their newfound abilities and resist becoming tools of the dystopian government that created him.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: David Schlow is an award-winning writer and narrative designer whose work spans film, television, comics, and games. He is the creator and writer of the sci-fi graphic novel JACKRABBIT, adapted from his award-winning television pilot, and a narrative designer for the MMORPG Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. His work focuses on high-concept genre stories grounded in character, family, and a healthy dose of the strange.
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SOUL MASTERS
Written By: Jonathan Maryles
Synopsis: Kavi is an eighteen-year-old street orphan from Varanasi who enters Soul Masters — a globally televised competition where contestants’ souls are swapped into difficult bodies and must master them through willpower alone. He rises against all odds. But the competition is a front, and humanity’s consciousness is the real prize.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jonathan Maryles is a writer based in Oregon. Soul Masters is his first television series. He can usually be found outdoors with his wife and kids — kayaking, biking, hiking, or skiing through the Pacific Northwest. He writes stories that wrestle with what makes us human, in the hope of leaving the world a little better for the people in it.
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STRANDED
Written By: Amy Kay DuBoff
Synopsis: After their colony ship mysteriously explodes above an untamed alien world, a guarded ex-soldier and an inquisitive xenobiologist team up to survive the planet’s wondrous yet perilous wilds—only to unravel the first threads of an insidious interstellar conspiracy.
Genre(s): Sci0Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Amy Kay (A.K.) DuBoff is an award-winning and USA Today bestselling indie author and screenwriter. Bringing her lifelong love of science fiction and fantasy to the page, she is most known for her internationally bestselling Starship of the Ancients book series and her acclaimed Cadicle Universe. Amy co-wrote and executive produced the feature film Crypto Shadows (2024).
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THE LEAGUE OF SECRET INVENTORS
Written By: Patience Ray
Synopsis: After the death of their father, 14-year-old Charlie and his older sister Callie relocate with their mother Tess to a crumbling New England town. But when Charlie discovers a puzzle box and a hidden lab linked to a dangerous secret society called the League of Inventors, he and his mysterious new friend Olivia must unravel the truth in order to save themselves and their families.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Patience Ray is a Provo, Utah-based screenwriter and director. She wrote and directed the short film Secondhand Miracles, currently streaming on Angel Studios, and is writer-director on Vampires Suck I.T., a workplace comedy series premiering at FilmQuest.
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THE MONSTERS WE SEE IN THE DARK
Written By: Steven K Jackley
Synopsis: When Heather is captured by a Serial Killer and fights back, She stumbles upon a group of Final Girls who are in the Killing Killers business.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Steven K. Jackley has always been a writer since he could remember. From one page narration that turned to short stories and eventually he started writing screenplays. It was a hobby until moving to Portland Oregon, where he synced up with the right people and crew to help his films come to life.
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UNBURY ME
Written By: Alyssa Katalyna
Synopsis: When Elena awakens freshly dead, she must solve her own murder while learning how to be a Ghost of Color.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: A child grave cleaner turned writer/director/producer, Alyssa Katalyna has haunted the streets of Los Angeles since her graduation from the USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a MFA in Film & Television Production. A lover of mythology, maternal horror, and haunting nature, Alyssa is most at peace with a genre script in hand. In 2024, Alyssa was a Season Three Starz Writers’ Intensive Fellow and a Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today Fellow at the Hola Mexico Film Festival. In 2025, her scripts received finalist placements from the Humanitas Awards and Sundance Cultural Impact Residency. As a director, Alyssa has directed for Google and her podcast Jack and Lou: A Gangster Love Story, starring Lisa Kudrow, won Best Audio Fiction Series and Best Ensemble at the 2022 Indie Series Awards. Alyssa was also a 2022 NALIP Emerging Content Creator and multiyear National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts Scholar. The projects she has produced have been the recipients of multiple grants and accolades including the Rideback Rise Fellowship, winner of the American Pavilion’s Best Emerging Filmmaker Documentary at Cannes 2024, Jury Award at the 28th DGA Student Film Awards, Epic Unreal Mega Grant, and several more. Alyssa most recently produced the animated short ChikaBOOM! starring Natasha Lyonne, Daveed Digs, and yara Shahidi which premiered at Tribeca 2026 and won the Grand Prize: Best Children’s Animation at Flickers RIIFF 2026. When she isn’t directing, writing, or producing, Alyssa can be found exploring the wilderness, rock climbing, or catching up on the latest horror series.
SHORT PILOTS – TOP 10
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CHUBBIES
Written By: Jeremy Ray Buchard
Synopsis: A disgraced rock star returns home to work the only other job he’s had: America’s 11th-favorite fast food chain, Chubbies. He’ll do anything he can to regain the spotlight — except apologize to anybody he’s wronged or grow in any way.
Genre(s): Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jeremy Ray Burchard is a writer, director, actor, and musician based in Nashville, TN. Burchard spent more than 10 years as a music journalist and magazine associate editor while running the low-budget production company Jeremy Burchard Creative and touring as one-half of the pop rock duo Moonlight Social. In 2026, Jeremy founded Happy Unicorn Productions in order to foster creative development of narrative projects in the greater Nashville area and beyond.
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GREG’S DOJO
Written By: Jeremy Ray Buchard
Synopsis: A small town martial arts dojo owner with a heart of gold must unwillingly team up with his former childhood bully to save the business.
Genre(s): Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jeremy Ray Burchard is a writer, director, actor, and musician based in Nashville, TN. He graduated from UT-Austin with degrees in film and writing and is currently earning his Masters in Media Producing from NYU. His first TV pilot screenplay Greg’s Dojo has garnered numerous accolades and recognition from festivals and competitions across the globe, including in the UCLA Professional Programs screenwriting competition, Austin Film Fest, and Nashville Film Festival.
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HUNTED
Written By: Craig Urquhart
Synopsis: Iris Veilleux has spent thirty years tracking an ancient, unreal predator that feeds on human wounds and stages its kills as suicides. Her partner Vesper is a fugitive AI fighting for the right to be real. Together they hunt the darkness we carry inside.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Craig Urquhart left the corporate world to work with refugees, and is currently finishing his PhD in Humanities. He has studied with Collab at the Sundance Institute in directing and screenwriting. He has three short films about AI.
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IN THE YEAR 3000
Written By: JJ Pollack
Synopsis: After cheating death by getting cryogenically frozen, an elderly woman revived 1000 years in the future must investigate the mysterious disappearance of the man who was supposed to accompany her…her husband!
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: JJ was born near Boston, MA, where he spent his childhood watching waaaaay too many movies. Seriously, his parents had to break their Back to the Future VHS just so he’d stop rewatching it. He studied film at Northwestern University, and is currently working as a freelance editor and director in Austin, TX. His work has been featured on ESPN+, Gunpowder & Sky’s DUST channel, Film Shortage and Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture. In 2017, the Other Worlds Film Festival awarded him their O’Bannon Grant to make his latest short, Jettison, which premiered at the 2021 Austin Film Festival and made its LA debut at HollyShorts. His pilot In the Year 3000 was a finalist in the 2025 Final Draft Big Break contest.
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MAW OF AMERICA
Written By: Liz Anderson
Synopsis: A horror mockumentary about the day-to-day operation of a dying mall…that just happens to sit atop an extradimensional hellmouth.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Liz Anderson is a Chicago-based comedy writer and game developer. She has worked with Jackbox Games as a writer and editorial lead for the past five years, and has been writing professionally for over a decade. Liz’s other writing credits include “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me – The NPR News Quiz,” and The Onion, where she has been a writing fellow and contributor since 2019. Her work has been showcased on Polygon, Vulture, CBC Radio, and The Toast.
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MEAT CUTE
Written By: Kate Bridal
Synopsis: A cannibalistic serial killer navigates his first honest relationship after meeting a woman who is unfazed by his murder habit.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kate Bridal is an actress, writer, and attorney who loves to explore feminist themes through dark humor.
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NEW PORK
Written By: Sebastian Kennedy & Zach Dulmage
Synopsis: New Pork City is what happens when animals are let free from cages and left to build a society of their own. Is it any wonder that it so closely resembles the world we live in? The characters are anthropomorphic animals whose species reflects their personalities and character types to both devious and comedic purpose. The series centers on a few key characters and their absurd schemes and tactics, with new characters continuously being introduced. New Pork City blends the multi-layered workings of a city in the vein of The Wire while engaging in the raucous satire of South Park.
Genre(s): Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Toronto Film School classmates, Zach Dulmage and Sebastian Kennedy, joined forces in 2005. They produced a short film “Oh Shit” and a feature film “The Film Student”. Since then Sebastian has gone on to produce an award winning short film “Platform”, as well as the upcoming climate change documentary “Holding Hope”.
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NINA
Written By: Ryan Jafri & Heather McDonald
Synopsis: An accident was all it took for one woman to uncover a shocking truth about herself. Now, with her life turned upside down, she must grapple with this revelation and the danger it poses.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Ryan Jafri was born in New York and has lived and studied there ever since. He is a filmmaker whose work thus far has been geared towards the darker side of the world we live in. His films are thought-provoking pieces designed to give viewers insight into the possible ramifications of real-world scenarios. Whether he’s writing or directing, Ryan strives for the unforeseen while remaining true to the story being told. Heather McDonald is a first-generation Asian-American woman who always knew she was born to be a storyteller. She recently graduated from SUNY Purchase College, where she studied Screenwriting and Playwriting. McDonald has also been accepted into a variety of screenwriting competitions. Most recently, she was selected as a quarter-finalist for Screencraft’s Screenplay Fellowship.
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RAZOR: THE ROCK AND ROLL WEREWOLF
Written By: John Connor Cook
Synopsis: A rag-tag group of teenage monsters lead by a raucous werewolf, defend their corn-fed, middle of no-where town from the forces of evil, all while keeping their true identities secret.
Genre(s): Fantasy, Comedy, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: I’m Connor! I’m a writer with a specialty in writing for animation.
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SANTIAGO
Written By: Kerri L. Hill
Synopsis: When her family inherits a haunted pub in a sleepy Queensland coastal town, fifteen-year-old Addy bonds with a mysterious white horse bearing the same heart-shaped mark as her own, awakening a buried legend — and drawing the attention of a drowned pirate captain who has been waiting for her.
Genre(s): Fantasy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kerri Hill is an Australian screenwriter and creator of Santiago. With more than 30 years of experience across film, television and the creative industries, she brings a lifelong love of horses, fantasy and visual storytelling to her work.
