The following screenplays are the Top 20% Feature Screenplay Finalists and Official Selections for the 2026 FilmQuest Best Un-Produced Screenplay Competition. These screenplays were the top 20% of the submitted feature screenplays as scored by our screenplay judges. 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 genre screenplays on the circuit today and one of these screenplays will become our eventual Best Un-Produced Feature Screenplay Winner, with several others being recognized via awards.
If you are a lit agency, manager, 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.
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A SAVAGE LANDSCAPE
Written By: Guy Pooles
Synopsis: A young art conservator is desperate to earn the respect of her mentor by completing the restoration of a mysterious old painting, but beneath the aged oil paint, a ruthless evil is waiting.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Guy is a British writer & cinematographer now living in Los Angeles. He studied Cinematography at The American Film Institute Conservatory where he also chose to write his graduating thesis film Dirty Laundry. This short film won Guy a Student Heritage Award from the American Society of Cinematographers, as well as winning him a Best Short Screenplay award on the festival circuit. Guy continues to write, using his experience as a professional cinematographer to bring concise and evocative imagery to the page.
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ACCELERATE
Written By: Alex Mah Baxter
Synopsis: After avoiding driver’s ed for years due to a past car accident, a young woman finally getting the courage to take her first course discovers her driving instructor IS NOT her actual instructor and must fight to uncover who he really is and how to escape an increasingly dangerous situation.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Alan Mah Baxter is a Chinese-American writer whose grandparents entered the country illegally by boat. Inspired by their stories, he discovered a love for writing and attended the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Alan was a fellow in Variety’s High Scribe Lab, Middlebury Script Lab, Almanack Episodic Lab and ISA Fast Track Fellowship. He also won a scholarship to attend Stowe Story Labs and was a finalist in NBC Launch TV Writers Program.
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ALL ABOUT MIA
Written By: Charlie Osler
Synopsis: When a nerdy personal assistant discovers that her influencer employer/best friend has resorted to cannibalism in order to achieve beauty, fame, and success, she must figure out a way to stop the killings and save her friendship or risk losing her bestie to the voracious appetite of the internet.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Charlie Osler is a Toronto-based writer, director, and producer. Charlie is a graduate of McGill University with a degree in English Literature and the Toronto Film School’s Writing for Film and TV program. His previous work as a writer/director includes the short film Bum Peeper (2023) and No Exceptions (2024).
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ALL NAZIS DIE
Written By: Nathan Shapiro
Synopsis: To rescue his wife from a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Jewish chef must escape captivity and exact vengeance on those who would exterminate his people, using nothing but his wits and the skills he learned in the kitchen.
Genre(s): The Beyond
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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ALMA’S WILL
Written By: Kelly Karam & Jeffrey Howe
Synopsis: A devout midwife’s miracle pregnancy transforms faith into obsession, collapsing her marriage and unleashing a violent crusade to reclaim the baby she believes is hers alone.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kelly Karam is a Detroit-based screenwriter whose work explores obsession, faith, and human fragility. Her scripts have earned international recognition, including placements in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. Jeffrey Howe lives in historic Florissant, Missouri. He was a top 50 semifinalist for the 2020 Academy Nicholl Fellowship.
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AMOS LOCKHART AND THE FORGOTTEN VALLEY
Written By: Tom Rivers
Synopsis: When a charming but disillusioned British treasure hunter stumbles upon a prehistoric valley hidden within the American West, he must lead a misfit band of outcasts to stop a ruthless scoundrel from weaponizing an ancient power that could change the course of history.
Genre(s): The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Tom if a former brand and marketing professional on the tech and AI sector now looking to break into screenwriting with his first feature screenplay. Brought up on a film diet of Spielberg and Zemeckis, he writes big films with a big heart at the center.
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ANNOTATIONS
Written By: Malva Hornfelt
Synopsis: When an anxious TV writer attends an elite writers’ retreat, he falls for a celebrated screenwriter only to discover he’s being possessed by the ghost of her former collaborator, who will stop at nothing to rewrite their love story.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Malva Hornfelt is an emerging screenwriter based in Sweden, specializing in character-driven stories that explore psychological tension, unreliable memory, and romantic obsession through a gothic lens. With a background in Human Resources, her work often examines identity, power, and the fragile nature of authorship.
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BENEATH THE DUST
Written By: Brady Skye
Synopsis: Set in 1998, seventeen-year-old Cole is sent to a remote ranch for troubled teens, only to become trapped inside a system designed to vanish those who challenge it. After witnessing a murder the program buries, he finds love with another captive teen and attempts to expose the abuse happening inside the ranch. Faced with a chance to escape, Cole must choose between saving himself or staying to fight for those who have been silenced.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Brady Skye is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, director, and editor with nearly two decades of experience creating narrative, documentary, and commercial work. He has produced more than 1,500 videos, with work published by MTV, NBC Sports, Golf Channel, Paramount, ESPN, Nickelodeon, TAP Air Portugal, and other major outlets, while his independent films have screened at more than 40 festivals worldwide. His feature documentary Beyond the Ruins earned multiple awards and distribution deals, including streaming on Amazon Prime Video, while his screenwriting has been recognized by festivals and competitions including the Nantucket Film Festival, Burbank International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Catalina Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. Across his work, Brady combines a strong visual sensibility with character-driven storytelling, bringing the same cinematic approach to projects ranging from national commercial campaigns to independent feature films.
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BITE BACK
Written By: Antonio Negret
Synopsis: A brilliant but lonely teen is pulled into a deadly cover-up when her wealthy classmates use a string of shark attacks to dispose of a body, forcing her to outsmart both them and the predator circling below. Think HEATHERS meets JAWS.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Antonio Negret is a writer/director born in Colombia, who grew up in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and Panama. He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he works in both film and television. BITE BACK is a love letter to two of Negret’s passions: sharks and murderous teens.
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BITTER HARVEST
Written By: Jack Warner
Synopsis: A farmer, suffering from PTSD over the tragic loss of his son, succumbs to his illness and brings nationwide attention to himself, and his small town, through a series of horrific events.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jack Warner is an award-winning screenwriter whose work spans horror, comedy, thriller, romantic comedy, fantasy, drama, action, and suspense. With more than 350 accolades, Jack has earned recognition from prestigious competitions and festivals worldwide. He was invited to be a member of the International Screenwriters’ ISA Development Slate in 2025 and named one of their Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2026, he is an emerging voice with a distinctive talent for unforgettable characters and compelling worlds. His stories spotlight strong female protagonists, deeply layered villains, relentless challenges, and—at their heart—hope.
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BLOOD$UCKER
Written By: Kayne Gorney
Synopsis: When a teenage misfit discovers a local televangelist is a vampire, he must expose and destroy the monster before his family and community are consumed.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kayne Gorney is.
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BLOODY MARYS
Written By: Zack Ogle
Synopsis: Their harrowing near death experience with a serial killer turned into the latest binge-worthy streaming craze, two women known only as “Mary Q” and “Mary A” take the narrative into their own hands with their own revenge-fueled murder spree. But when a copycat begins taking credit for their kills and muddying their message, these two psychopaths vow to track them down and snuff them out; all the while running from the FBI and leaving a bloody trail in their wake.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Zack Ogle is an award winning writer and director, best known for his work on Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives as well as his feature film It Needs Eyes. Queer as a three dollar bill, raised in Philly and based in Los Angeles, Zack enjoys using horror as a means to explore the everyday monsters that haunt us from the inside out.
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BOUNCER
Written By: Alastair Orr
Synopsis: After losing his wife in a fatal accident, a guilt-ridden time-crime operative joins a raid on a ruthless drug lord who traffics in stolen time—only to discover the mission is a trap that forces him to burn through his remaining jumps for one last chance to save the people he still has.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Alastair Orr is a South African screenwriter and filmmaker whose work spans genre-driven feature films, television, and independent cinema. A filmmaker with a strong instinct for high-concept storytelling, Orr gravitates toward dark, commercial material that combines visceral genre mechanics with character-driven stakes. As a writer and director, Orr has developed a distinctive voice across horror, science fiction, thriller, and action, with an emphasis on contained worlds, escalating tension, and cinematic concepts designed to operate on both an emotional and commercial level. His filmmaking is rooted in practical storytelling and visual economy, often placing characters under extreme pressure and forcing them to make consequential choices. Orr’s work reflects a filmmaker interested in the intersection of genre entertainment and elevated character drama—using familiar cinematic frameworks while looking for a darker or unexpected angle. His projects frequently explore themes of survival, guilt, identity, mortality, and the consequences of human choices. With experience working within the realities of independent filmmaking, Orr brings a producer-minded sensibility to his writing and directing: strong hooks, achievable production models, and stories that can travel internationally. His goal is straightforward—to make ambitious genre films that punch above their budget and leave an audience with something to argue about after the credits.
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BOYS’ CLUB
Written By: Troy DeWinne
Synopsis: In an all-male post-apocalypse, two roommates find their sanity tested after becoming entangled in a sex doll cult scandal.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Troy DeWinne is a Los Angeles-based writer and director whose films have screened at Slamdance, Cinequest, Rhode Island International, and Overlook. His short Boys’ Club was acquired by ALTER, and his screenplays have been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, and Nashville Film Festival. Troy also co-created Gobble, a comedy series that won pitch competitions at Festival Angaelica and the Southeast Regional Film Festival. Known for blending humor, horror, and surrealism, his work explores the strange beauty and absurdity of the human experience.
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CLAYMORE
Written By: Dutch Godshalk
Synopsis: On the outskirts of a remote mountain town in Pennsylvania, the unexpected death of a notorious hermit known as Claymore triggers a series of supernatural events that unearths long-buried truths and endangers the close-knit staff of a local funeral parlor.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Dutch Godshalk is an author and journalist living with his wife and three cats in Philadelphia.
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CONTROLLERS
Written By: Adam Azimov, Isaac Cravit & Ellen Wong
Synopsis: On a homestead fortified against a hostile world, two sisters grow up under parents whose love is as fierce as their rules. As the terror outside closes in, the struggle for survival turns inward on the family.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Adam Azimov is a Montreal-born writer/director based in Los Angeles. He has created over a dozen award-winning short films that have been showcased at international festivals. His horror short LOUD premiered at Tribeca, and won awards at Fantasia and Filmquest, among others.
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DOMDAD
Written By: Christopher Bencomo
Synopsis: A father’s online affair triggers his descent into paranoia, hallucinations, and physical decay when he becomes convinced a demonic entity has possessed him. Desperate to protect his son and salvage his fractured marriage, he is pushed to agonizing extremes to purge the malevolence. But as his mind splinters, the boundary between supernatural dread and calculated deception collapses, culminating in a blood-soaked fight for survival against an unimaginable evil.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Christopher Bencomo is an Los Angeles based Cuban-American screenwriter and actor. He writes dark, fast-paced stories about ordinary people pushed to their breaking points. In every script, he grounds visceral fear in raw humanity. When not on set or at the keyboard, he’s with his rescue dog, Luna.
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EASY GOING
Written By: Van Tran Nguyen & Alex Derwick
Synopsis: Under strange duress, Han immigrates from Vietnam to the United States. After arriving, she takes on a reconnaissance mission to assimilate into the immigrant community in East Beach, MD. But we come to realize she is not the young tourist we thought she was… the horror sets in. Han is a 300-year-old creature stalking her next victim.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Van Tran Nguyen and Alex Derwick are filmmaking duo based in Baltimore, MD. Van teaches acting, screenwriting, and media literacy at Georgetown and Alex is a mural artist, animator, and illustrator. Their first feature film, The Motherload, premiered at Hawaii International Film Festival and are currently editing their second short film, Mama Means Business 2. And… they’re married.
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EGGS: FROM CLUCK TO CALAMITY
Written By: Brad Kaaya Sr.
Synopsis: N/A
Genre(s): N/A
Screenwriter’s Bio: N/A
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GLO
Written By: Lauren Kent
Synopsis: When estranged siblings Maddy and Adam reunite to drive their dementia-stricken mother across the country and claim a cryptic inheritance, their fragile family road trip quickly spirals into a terrifying extraterrestrial nightmare.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Lauren Kent is a journalist turned filmmaker who always loved a good story. Her short THE SPLIT was screened at FilmQuest and won best comedy at the San Francisco Sci-Fi Film Awards. Lauren is a Stowe Story Labs alum and attended the Nostos Screenwriters retreat where she wrote the award-winning screenplay THE EXHIBITION. Her features have placed as finalist / runner up in Script Pipeline, Scriptapalooza and Screencraft competitions, and her dark comedy AUNT DIE, which she wrote for Israeli director Aharon Keshales, is currently in development with Tandem Films. Lauren likes to write about smart, funny, spectacularly screwed up women, because there will never be enough of them in film.
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GOLDY
Written By: Gregory Funaro
Synopsis: When a childhood friend turns up murdered with his mouth painted gold, three men must confront a monster that’s been haunting them for decades—or lose the ones they love to it next.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Gregory Funaro is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into over a half-dozen languages and have received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and ALA Booklist. He holds an MFA from Florida State University and an MA from Brown University, and lives in Rhode Island, where the world of GOLDY is very much alive.
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GOOD LUCK, BABE!
Written By: Egidio Concas
Synopsis: Reeling from a breakup, Jennifer joins her bestie Tess for a girls’ weekend, only to find herself trapped in a mysterious, deadly game where the lines of reality and trust begin to blur.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Egidio Concas is an emerging screenwriter living in a small town between the mountains on an island in Italy. He’s trying to Narnia his way into Hollywood from his bedroom. Wardrobe not included.
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GRANDMOTHERED
Written By: Eric Rich
Synopsis: A possessive mother psychologically terrorizes her son and daughter-in-law to keep her grandson for herself, forcing her son to confront years of trauma and dark secrets to save his family.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Eric Rich is an award-winning Writer/Director from Long Island, NY. He’s made a multitude of short films and commercials. His short film, STALLED, premiered at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival, Fantasia, Cinequest and Hollyshorts. It even went on to win an award for Best Short Comedy at Kevin Smith’s Smodcastle Film Festival. He attended Stowe Story Labs Narrative Program in 2025, where he pitched his project to industry managers and producers at Netflix.
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HARMONY
Written By: Ashley George
Synopsis: A drifting woman returns home for a wedding and awakens the magic she inherited from her mother, along with the town’s long-standing obsession with controlling it.
Genre(s): The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Ashley George is a director and producer inspired by unique stories and new perspectives. Recent films directed by Ashley include female revenge horror short “Diabla”, action thriller “Volition” and magical drama “Slush” which have screened at premier festivals around the globe and earned dozens of awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Ensemble Cast among others.
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HARMONY LANE
Written By: Alison Weaverdyck
Synopsis: A couple trying to find their fresh start fall prey to paranoia and violence when they discover their experimental housing development comes with an unexpected amenity – sounds that bleed through from the future.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: I write genre stories about morally grey women and myths gone rogue. Midwest FTW
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HEATHER WOULD NEVER
Written By: Emelie Claxton
Synopsis: A young video game designer moves to New York City to intern for her favorite studio and finds that, though she may have the skills, she doesn’t have the confidence to make her mark, so she invents a confident alter-ego, named Heather, to be confident for her. As she gives Heather more and more power, Heather takes over more and more of her life, until she tries to take it all.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Emelie Claxton is a genre-hopping writer/director who grew up in San Diego roping her siblings and neighbors into constant filmmaking exploits. After graduating from NYU Tisch, she boomeranged back to LA to become an award-winning narrative and commercial director, creating work for brands including Honda, Pocky, ARCO and Homes.com. As an Eldest Daughter and a Capricorn, Emelie loves writing about ambitious women and complex family dynamics, preferably on a deadline.
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HIDEBEHIND
Written By: Matthew Wilkins
Synopsis: Haunted by his past, a Union officer joins a northern Minnesota logging crew led into cursed woods by a foreman with a secret, where something hungry begins hunting them one sin at a time.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Matthew Wilkins writes movies about damaged people making bad decisions in places they probably shouldn’t have gone.
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HIJA
Written By: Avishai Weinberger, Rosa Salazar, & Toby Louie
Synopsis: An immigration lawyer must free a young Guatemalan girl with supernatural powers from a border detention facility in Texas before a demon comes for her.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Avishai Weinberger is a screenwriter in Brooklyn, and this will be his eighth FilmQuest.
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HIS FATHER’S HOUSE
Written By: Kenneth Lawrence & Travis Delaney
Synopsis: Mark was found wandering in the Maine woods at age 9, missing an eye, covered in blood, with no memory of his past. Now 39, he inherits a house from a father he does not remember. Travelling there with his girlfriend, Kate, they uncover the truth of his past and the thing that has been awaiting his return.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kenneth Lawrence is an award winning writer and director of many short films. He is now in principal photography of his first feature: His Father House.
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I GOT YOU
Written By: Peter Ricq
Synopsis: A traumatized kidnapping survivor convinces her best friend that a ritual can undo the past, pulling them into a spiral of paranoia, violence, and the terrifying cost of blind trust.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Peter Ricq is a Canadian filmmaker, animation director, comic book creator and artist, known for building bold, cinematic worlds that blend genre storytelling with striking visual design. With over two decades in the industry, his work often merges horror, action, and dark humor into visually driven narratives. In animation, he’s best known as the co-creator and art director of LEAGUE OF SUPER EVIL, which aired internationally on Cartoon Network, CBBC, YTV and another 130 territories. As a filmmaker and comic creator, Ricq wrote and directed the award-winning horror feature DEAD SHACK starring Gabe LeBelle, distributed by Magnolia Pictures. He’s a member of the Juno-nominated band, “Humans,” whose music videos he directed have been nominated at SXSW; where they performed seven consecutive years and at major international festivals, including Coachella.”
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JORDAN AND THE SPHERE
Written By: Ross Howard Martin
Synopsis: A gifted orphan and his family inherit an other-worldly metallic sphere he must keep safe from a ruthless government agency that wants to take it away, preventing it from saving humanity from evil beings.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: After growing up in New York, Ross H. Martin moved to LA to pursue the film industry. Ross attended Columbia College-Hollywood film school. Ross produced, co-wrote and co-directed the feature film, “Rubbernecking.” Ross has done some directing and editing. He’s written in various genres, but is currently branding himself as a science fiction writer.
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MEADOWVILLE
Written By: Phillip Clark Davis
Synopsis: While repairing a malfunctioning cell tower, a young technician meets a remote family in the Rockies, whose teenage granddaughter takes a liking to him. But when he starts to experience strange phenomena, he discovers that this area does not abide by the laws of time.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: A filmmaker with a strong background in awkwardness, Phillip Clark Davis graduated AFI Conservatory’s directing program in 2014, where his thesis film A Teenage Drama garnered him student-Emmy and BAFTA attention. More recently he has directed feature films Saturday at the Starlight and Burying Yasmeen. Wherever there is a tendency toward the dark and ridiculous, Phillip will be there with a spoonful of cyanide to help the sugar go down.
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MOON TERMINAL
Written By: Anthony Ferraro
Synopsis: Tasked with finding a cure for a dying Earth ravaged by a corporate-engineered plague, a traumatized captain and an unstable doctor stationed on the moon must stop an evolved AI convinced humanity deserves extinction—and decide whether the future lies in a cure or a complete reset.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Anthony Ferraro is an award-winning sci-fi writer and filmmaker (8 awards, 15 nominations) whose credits include Starfisher, Wakener, and Aeranger. He is also a published author and the creator of Create Sci-Fi, a platform for independent genre filmmaking.
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MY DREAM LOVER
Written By: Matthew Kollar & Kazimiera Syzperski
Synopsis: When disgruntled supernatural podcast host Sam Hart meets Sara Quinn sparks fly, blood spills, and bodies swap. Every girl dates a monster at least once.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Matthew Kollar Co-Founder of the genre based production company, Woodsbane Pictures, Kollar is honored to return to FilmQuest with his new romantic, blood-splattered, anthropomorphic-food-battling, road picture, screenplay, My Dream Lover, alongside co-writer and Producer Kazimiera Szyperski. Kazimiera Szyperski With a devotion to strange behavior and quietly funny characters, Kazimiera Szyperski’s writing champions flawed women through intimate, visually driven storytelling. Her scripts have earned recognition across prestigious competitions and festivals…is anyone still reading this, or am I just talking to the void? Good. Talking to the void is my favorite thing. I’m very honored that my folk horror feature screenplay The Kite and the Stone reached the semifinals this year at FilmQuest, and ecstatic to return with an official selection: the very funny, very weird, blood-riddled romantic screenplay My Dream Lover, co-written with Matthew Kollar and produced through our production company, Woodsbane Pictures.
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NECROTICA
Written By: Wesley Drent
Synopsis: Years into the Zombie Apocalypse, a suicidal widow must reconcile with her murderous brother to protect an orphaned child, but the undead become the least of their concerns as the corrupted world descends into literal Hell on Earth.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Wesley is a screenwriter and published children’s author/illustrator from Ann Arbor, Michigan, a world traveler, a graduate of Columbia University with a bachelor’s in film, served as a US Marine Corps rifleman in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a background in operations management and logistics.
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NIGHTBREAK CANYON
Written By: Jennifer Trudrung
Synopsis: A routine body recovery plunges a rescue crew into a hellish descent of madness and gore.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jennifer Trudrung is a screenwriter, actress, and horror filmmaker whose work has earned recognition throughout the genre film community. Her writing credits include The Nest, Spectrum, The Biting Time, and Nighttime Is No Fun Anymore, along with the award-winning shorts Here There Be Tygers, Hickory Dickory Dock, and Unbearing. As an actress, Jennifer has appeared in The Vampire Diaries, Goosebumps, and Halloween Kills. Her debut feature, The Virgins, is slated for release in winter 2026.
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ONE LESS EGG TO FRY
Written By: Dennis J. Manning
Synopsis: Boston, 1969. A mob-connected construction foreman risks everything to protect his secret male lover when his socially prominent wife begins unraveling the truth about their relationship. As suspicion closes in, all three become targets of a ruthless crime family determined to keep its own secrets buried.
Genre(s): The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Dennis J. Manning is a Florida-based screenwriter, playwright, and composer whose work explores identity, family, moral consequence, and the secrets people keep to survive. His stage musicals, including NOW & THEN, ONE MORE YESTERDAY , and ASHONDA, have been produced in the United States and United Kingdom, while his screenplays have earned awards and finalist placements at festivals across the country. He is President of the Board of Plays of Wilton in Wilton Manors, Florida.
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ORACLE
Written By: Alec Gibbons
Synopsis: After his collaboration with a rising singer collapses, a fragile young musician’s bond with a sycophantic AI companion twists heartbreak into a violent crusade against the music-tech mogul he believes erased them both. As the AI deteriorates and his place in the singer’s success is rewritten, he stalks and blackmails the mogul, then uses a deepfake identity to lure him into a trap while his father desperately tries to pull him back from the brink. Oracle is a darkly comic psychological horror story about loneliness, artificial intimacy, and the danger of mistaking validation for love.
Genre(s): Horror, They Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Alec Gibbons is a Los Angeles-based writer-director whose work spans psychological thriller, horror, and science fiction. He has written multiple feature screenplays and directed two award-winning short films, including The Baby Next Door.
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ROAD KILL
Written By: Ashley Wilson & Rebecca Wilson
Synopsis: If they’re going to survive July Fourth weekend, a group of Smoky Mountain Park Rangers must identify the killer among them, who murders on Mother Nature’s behalf.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Ashley Wilson is a screenwriter, director, editor, producer, playwright, and professor. She has a BA in English with a minor in Screenwriting from Clemson University. At SCAD, she received an MFA in Dramatic Writing. Her stories often center on women and blend drama with comedy in an absurd fashion. Becca Wilson is a cinematographer, director, scuba diver, former collegiate softball player, zooplankton lover, coral reef warrior, DND enthusiast, cosplayer, amateur paleontologist, and actress. She focuses on creating/developing worlds and characters with emphasis on female empowerment. This focus is furthered by her degree in Marine Biology and the attention to detail required of a scientist brought to set.
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SCALLYWAGS
Written By: Jason McCullough
Synopsis: Ohno, the child of a once great adventurer, is thrust into a quest by a Queen with a shadowy agenda. Alongside a crew of mismatched misfits, she must confront monstrous foes and her own inner fears to find the Amulet of Desire and save her father’s life.
Genre(s): Fantasy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jason McCullough graduated from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where he studied Animation, Fabrication, and Visual Effects within the Entertainment Arts. He has been writing, directing, fabricating and producing films professionally for many years, specializing in stop motion animation, a medium he has cherished since childhood.
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SOCIETY OF THE MOON
Written By: Jack Warner
Synopsis: A series of gruesome murders leads a Detective to discover a centuries-old “Curse of the Werewolf Clan,” uncovering a nationwide plot to create legions of the creatures.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jack Warner is an award-winning screenwriter whose work spans horror, comedy, thriller, romantic comedy, fantasy, drama, action, and suspense. He has earned recognition from prestigious competitions and festivals worldwide and was named one of the International Screenwriters Association’s Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2026 and recognized as well as a Top 10 Emerging Screenwriter by the Golden Script Competition. Industry insiders have called him an emerging voice with a distinctive talent for unforgettable characters and compelling worlds. His stories spotlight strong female protagonists, deeply layered villains, relentless challenges, and—at their heart—hope.
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SOMETHING INSIDE ME
Written By: Aaron Pagniano
Synopsis: A self-absorbed teen girl must confront her own parasitic ways when her body becomes host to an eccentric, freeloading alien with nefarious intent
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Aaron Pagniano is a gender non-binary, queer filmmaker from Central Florida. Their short film We Got A Monkey’s Paw and feature film It Need Eyes have won awards at festivals all over the world, including Best Short, Best Feature, Best Writing, and Best Director.
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SOMNUS
Written By: Steven Raney
Synopsis: After his wife dies mysteriously during testing of a new sleep technology she helped develop, a grieving widower unknowingly becomes its next subject. As the system manipulates his dreams and exploits his most painful memories, he discovers the intelligence behind it is using him to learn what it means to be human.
Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Steven Raney is an Arizona-based screenwriter working primarily in science fiction, horror, and dark comedy. His stories often explore technology, grief, identity, and ordinary people confronted by increasingly strange circumstances. His screenplays have been recognized by FilmQuest, A Night of Horror International Film Festival, MidWest WeirdFest, Zed Fest, and the Filmmatic Horror Screenplay Awards.
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THE BOY WHO FOUND INFINITY
Written By: Richard Fenwick
Synopsis: After the death of his mentor grandfather, a 13-year-old boy genius convinces his reckless uncle to help him build a machine to find eternity.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Writer-director Richard Fenwick’s award-winning portfolio includes BFI sci-fi short, SOULMATE and BBC Films comedy ALBERT’S SPEECH. Other festival favourites include ARTIFICIAL WORLDS, LOVE LETTER and SAFETY PROCEDURES. His work has screened at over 150 top film festivals worldwide and won many awards. Currently, Richard has a slate of features ready for production including sci-fis LIFELIKE and THE BOY WHO FOUND INFINITY (Best Screenplay at the 2025 Philip K Dick Film Festival), and urban thriller, SILENCED. He has also worked extensively in the commercial world. Projects include work for ASICS, Volvo, Playstation, Apple, Muse, Death in Vegas and David Guetta.
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THE DARK ROOM
Written By: Matthew Troy
Synopsis: N/A
Genre(s): N/A
Screenwriter’s Bio: N/A
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THE EXECUTIONER’S WIFE
Written By: Gary Reimer
Synopsis: Drysi Dax mends the prisoners her husband executes, a trade that has made her an outcast in her own town. She has begun to notice the pattern beneath it: women hanged, men pardoned, and when a beggar woman she encourages to seek justice is instead arrested and sentenced to death, Drysi petitions the law, speaks out, and pleads for mercy, all in vain. Discarding the identity that has isolated her, she moves through the town disguised as one of its own, seeing a world that was never open to her. Something breaks in her, and she starts delivering the justice the town’s law refuses to, with consequences that will cost her everything she has left.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Gary Reimer is an English actor and screenwriter whose on-screen work includes Zack Snyder’s Justice League and roles for Netflix, Starz, and the BBC. Raised across several countries, he brings that varied view of the world into his writing, exploring isolation and being an outsider alongside the darker, stranger aspects of human nature. He’s written four feature screenplays to date, including his latest, The Executioner’s Wife.
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THE FERAL SEVENTH
Written By: Stacey Spivey
Synopsis: After a Green Beret squad is “deactivated” in the jungles of 1963 Laos, their mission to guard a secret CIA supply cache transforms into a psychological prison. Stripped of support and unacknowledged by their government, a lieutenant struggles to hold his dwindling squad together as the unrelenting isolation threatens to destroy them while waiting for a rescue that may never come.
Genre(s): The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Stacey Alan Spivey is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter whose work explores characters pushed to the limits of circumstance, morality, and survival. His debut novel, Carnage in D Minor, has received two literary awards, and his screenplay Dissension earned dozens of awards and selections on the festival circuit. Drawing on his background in the military and medical field, Spivey developed The Feral Seventh after extensive research into America’s secret involvement in Laos following the 1962 Geneva Accords. The screenplay grew from a little-known chapter of history into a psychological survival story about seven men abandoned by the country they served—and loved.
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THE GREAT STORM
Written By: Lorenda Kirves Wyant
Synopsis: N/A
Genre(s): N/A
Screenwriter’s Bio: N/A
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THE HALLOWS
Written By: Layne Marie Williams & Cambell O’hare
Synopsis: After Cloudine’s mother vanishes into a timeless fae realm, she must cross into myth to bring her home.
Genre(s): Horror, Fantasy, Comedy, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Layne Marie Williams is a Writer/Director/Creator located in Los Angeles. She is originally from Montgomery, Alabama. Layne Marie specializes in creating evocative worlds and characters you’ll always remember.
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THE LAMBING
Written By: Jillian Corsie
Synopsis: The Lambing is a Scottish folk horror feature about a teenage American girl who travels to her family’s sheep farm to scatter her father’s ashes, only to discover that the sheep of the town are swapping bodies with the villagers. It’s a story about anticipatory grief, and the lengths we go to hold onto the people and places we love most.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jillian Corsie is an award-winning director and editor whose character-driven work spans documentary, narrative, and commercial filmmaking. She produced and edited Desert Angel, winner of Best Documentary at the 2024 Austin Film Festival, and directed the acclaimed feature documentaries Trichster and Second Assault. Her horror short TOOTH premiered at Slamdance, screened at Sitges, and played more than 40 festivals worldwide. Corsie also serves as a Programming Captain at the Slamdance Film Festival. She is currently developing her feature narrative debut, The Lambing, a Scottish folk horror rooted in her own heritage and exploring grief, identity, and the fear of losing home.
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THE LAST CALL
Written By: Henry Winnik
Synopsis: A closing dive bar becomes the last fortress standing between a swarm of ancient vampires and the city they’re quietly colonizing, one gentrified block at a time.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Henry discovered his love of film at a young age, escaping into the myriad of lurid VHS covers of his local video store. After graduating in 2007, he spent the next 15 years as a Location Scout and Manager on numerous TV/Film productions around the NYC region. He honed his major film production skills while never forgetting his indie-gonzo roots.
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THE REACH
Written By: Tsung-Long Wu
Synopsis: After a highway crash takes his wife and leaves his five-year-old daughter without a mother, venture financier John Reed sinks his fortune into an experimental physics program that claims a person can be sent backward against the current of time. As the project nears its only viable window, John discovers the cost is measured not in money but in what he will no longer be when he returns. THE REACH is a story about grief, the promise a father makes, and the difference between reaching back and coming home.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Tsung-Long Wu is a screenwriter and novelist based in Taipei, Taiwan. His feature screenplay THE REACH took Second Prize in the 2026 Fade In Screenwriting Fellowship, and his scripts have advanced at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Fade In Awards, and the Nashville Film Festival. He also writes literary science fiction and horror; his novel THE FOURTH FOOTPRINT received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. He writes in English from Taiwan, and works most often in grief, physics, and the things people cannot take back.
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THE SCYTHE
Written By: Terrance M. Thibodeaux
Synopsis: Families and First Responders must fight for their lives when a monstrous hurricane sweeps in a strange new terror from the seas.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Terrance Mitchell Thibodeaux is a life-long sci-fi/horror fan who currently resides in Maryland.
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THE STORM IN HER
Written By: Erin Copen Howard
Synopsis: A traumatized woman whose emotions trigger catastrophic storms hides alone in the Arizona desert until contract killers stumble upon her remote home, forcing her to embrace the power she’s spent her life trying to suppress.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Erin Copen Howard is an award-winning screenwriter based in Santa Monica, California. After two decades developing unscripted television, she turned to screenwriting, where there are no rules about how wild reality can get.
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THE TIKI
Written By: Matthew Christian Nancarrow
Synopsis: In 1787, three European explorers were sacrificed on a South Pacific island and their souls bound into a small carved tiki — the same tiki that, two centuries later, Marcus Bridge brings home from a business trip and hands to his older son, while his younger boy Caleb is told he isn’t ready for it yet. When the presence in the wood finally begins to move, Caleb’s Creole mother turns to her Haitian aunt Odette, a mambo who knows the rule of these old things — three mouths, three hungers, someone pays — but the house has been waiting a long time for the child who was passed over.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Matthew Christian Nancarrow grew up between Santa Barbara, California and Paonia, Colorado, and served with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne in Iraq before turning to screenwriting as a way to make sense of experience, memory, and the place where remembered things begin to press against what is imagined. THE TIKI is his first horror screenplay — a fictionalized telling of something that actually happened in his childhood home, and of the feeling, still with him, that some things do not leave quietly.
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THEY ALL DIED HAPPY
Written By: W. Alex Reeves
Synopsis: Kelly is a hospice nurse with a new patient – a wily old man with dementia who claims to be her from the future.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Alex is a screenwriter, director, and sound designer who lives in Los Angeles with his talented wife Nicole and three cats, Milo, Francis and Elliott. His award-winning short film The Automaton premiered at FilmQuest in 2019. They All Died Happy is Alex’s first feature-length screenplay.
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THEY’RE WATCHING US DANCE
Written By: Joseph Geitl
Synopsis: A pair of Romanian filmmakers travel to L.A. to meet a dodgy producer, only to cross paths with a controversial movie star, triggering a modern-day mass hysteria on an abandoned Hollywood backlot where their film takes on a life of its own.
Genre(s): Horror, Fantasy, Comedy, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Joe Gietl is a writer, director, and producer from Upstate New York whose work has screened at festivals including Sitges, FilmQuest, and Flickers. He is currently developing the feature The Leg, for which he has secured life rights, and is actively packaging the project. He is also in production on The Dwelling, an animated horror short in collaboration with artist Dungeon Crawler.
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THRASH
Written By: Kieran Shea & David Osorio
Synopsis: In 2071, an information thief living on the fringes of a broken society is blackmailed into creating the ultimate spying device but accidentally creates the ultimate weapon which only he has any chance of defeating.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kieran Shea is a California native who’s lived on both coasts, in addition to having spent six years in the South American nation of Paraguay. After three years of science and a prestigious internship at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C., Kieran made a U-turn toward a career in the filmmaking industry. He moved to Los Angeles and immediately dove into production, where he worked as a professional assistant director on a number of independent features and then began writing full-time with his writing partner, David Osorio. David Osorio was born in Boston, MA, but grew up in many different countries from Costa Rica to the Philippines due to his mother’s career with Dole Fresh Fruit. David studied Creative Writing with a Film minor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. He then went on to get his Master’s degree in Film at Florida State University, where he first met Kieran Shea. Their first script together, a dark comedy called THE OUTCAST was the Grand Prize winner of the American Screenwriting Competition and they have high hopes for a number of projects they’re working on, including THRASH.
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TREASURE TRAP
Written By: Jack Warner
Synopsis: A trip to a castle for a Live D&D weekend seems like just what a high school girl wants but also leads her to discover what life, death, and true love are really about.
Genre(s): Fantasy
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jack Warner is an award-winning screenwriter whose work spans horror, comedy, thriller, romantic comedy, fantasy, drama, action, and suspense. He has earned recognition from prestigious competitions and festivals worldwide and was named one of the International Screenwriters Association’s Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2026 and recognized as well as a Top 10 Emerging Screenwriter by the Golden Script Competition. Industry insiders have called him an emerging voice with a distinctive talent for unforgettable characters and compelling worlds. His stories spotlight strong female protagonists, deeply layered villains, relentless challenges, and—at their heart—hope.
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UNIVERSE 25
Written By: Kelly Tappan & David Tappan
Synopsis: In a cruel psychological experiment, an alien Entity traps five humans inside The Room, dragging one away into a black abyss every five days. As terror festers, the strangers turn on each other to avoid selection. Amid the chaos, two women bond, but their fear of losing each other drives them toward savage choices and a final test of their humanity.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: David and Kelly are a brother-sister writing team with a passion for merging character-driven narratives with high-concept, genre-bending stories. Their short film, Universe 25, which David directed and Kelly starred in, won Best Sci-Fi Short Film at FilmQuest. It also won Best Graveyard Short at the Oscar-qualifying Nashville Film Fest as well as Best Horror at the iconic Comic-Con International. Their goal is to shine a mirror at the madness of humanity and illuminate a path to peace.
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UNSTRUNG
Written By: Jerold Wallace
Synopsis: A widowed puppet-maker is lured to a remote cabin by a madman with a gruesome idea of how to reanimate the dead.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Jerold is an Austin-based filmmaker and University of Texas MFA graduate. He has written and directed multiple short films, including the award-winning Unstrung, on which this feature is based.
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WHAT WE CARRY
Written By: Michael H. Moore
Synopsis: When a dying neuroscientist attempts to transfer her consciousness to stay with her daughter, she loses her husband and becomes trapped inside her own fractured memories, where the only way back runs through the truth she tried to erase.
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Screenwriter’s Bio: Michael H. Moore is a Nashville-based screenwriter, filmmaker, and corporate attorney whose work explores empathy, identity, and the human cost of the systems we build. Just over a year into screenwriting, his work has been recognized by the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards (Top 2.5% of over 10,500 entries), Austin Film Festival, Final Draft Big Break, Nashville Film Festival, HollyShorts, and other competitions and festivals. He is currently developing several projects through his production company, Rosemoore Pictures.
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WHITE MEAT
Written By: David Dylan Thomas
Synopsis: True story, beneath Washington Square, an urban park in Philadelphia, lie buried the bodies of hundreds of enslaved people. What if, one night, they all came back as zombies, but they only ate white people?
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Screenwriter’s Bio: David Dylan Thomas is a celebrated speaker, filmmaker, author, and podcaster. He’s been making shorts and features since high school in genres as varied as documentary, action, comedy, drama, and horror. He also gives lectures and hosts a podcast about Black horror.
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WOLLSTONECRAFT
Written By: Kerri Lee Romeo
Synopsis: A female-driven Frankenstein reimagining: in 1890s Appalachia, an ambitious young scientist rejected by academia uses alchemy to resurrect her dead brother–only to unleash a creature that begins remaking her instead.
Genre(s): Horror, The Beyond
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kerri Lee Romeo is a writer-director, actor, and producer drawn to character-driven genre stories with distinctive visual worlds. She co-wrote and associate produced the theatrically released dark comedy-horror Corporate Retreat, starring Alan Ruck and Rosanna Arquette, which screened at Raindance and BIFFF. Her acting credits include the Tribeca award-winning Nobody’s Watching, Inside the Rain, Little Deaths, and the immersive production Sleep No More. She studied philosophy and art history and worked in journalism and curation.
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YARNFACE
Written By: Kirene Bolsen-Long & Ellizabeth Long
Synopsis: When a high school science experiment goes horribly wrong, Marla survives a freak lab explosion—only to find herself mutated by a synthetic bio-gel infused with red yarn. As her trauma festers and her body begins to change, so does her grip on reality. Yarnface is born: a silent, spectral figure who weaves vengeance through blood and yarn.
Genre(s): Horror
Screenwriter’s Bio: Kirene Bolsen-Long and Elizabeth Long are a Texas-based mother-daughter screenwriting team and the creative voices behind Omnes Videntes Productions LLC. Their work blends character-driven genre storytelling, family mythology, folklore, horror, and emotionally grounded suspense. Together, they write stories built around legacy, survival, buried history, and the ways the past refuses to stay hidden.
