2026 Winners

Emerging Screenwriters Thriller Screenplay Competition

Quarter-Finalists

(Alphabetical Order by Title)

2045 by Nick Marciano
2-Faced by Samantha Brennan
5Alive by Delaina M Waldron
A Cold War Reckoning by Adrian C Catarzi
A Danger : To Themselves by Ron Neustrom
A Demon on the Page by Melissa Behrend
A Loving Mother by Stephen Leach
A Sharp Mind by Jeff Kongs
A Thief, a Few Electric Souls, and the Spontaneous by Kurt Anbarci
All My Friends Are Freaks by John Marrows
All Nazis Die by Nathan Shapiro
All She Is by Mariia Rudenko
Allemansrätt by David Jenkins
An Idiot’s Tale by Michael Mortimer
Angel Hair by Jack Vandagriff and Elaine Liu
Astral Crisis by Thomas Thorpe
Auntie Grace by Chris Gerard
Baby Blues by Sheila Erdmann
Bad Agnes by Kate McMahon
Bad Medicine by Leon Masters
Bait and Switch by Ray Keller and Richard Schmidt
Bardo Highway by Stephen Blackburn
Between These Walls by George Johnson
Beyond the Trail by Elizabeth Casanova
Black Salt by Brian Vodinh
Black Sun by Itziar Varas
Blood Oil by Neringa Bryant and Maureen Sheehan
Blowback by Eric Murphy
Bomb on an Elevator by Terence Brody
Branding Season by Pony Wilson
Bravura by Andrew Dobbin
Breach by James Roberts and David Roberts
Breakneck Ridge by Mike Bencivenga
Brodhead Society by Christopher Scott
Brush Creek Charlie by Dewey B. Reynolds
Bullies by Michael Grebb
Cambridge Takes Down America by JD Wallace and Jennifer Donohue
Cavity by Pierce Whitney
Charm Offensive by Jason Collin
Colt by Allen Sircy
Confidant by Marni Sullivan
Cougar by Robert Rossetti
CTRL + Alt + Delete by Dee Shiver and Keyaunte Mayfield
Curfew by Rodolfo Pereira
Dangerous Misconception by Donna Hoke
Das Über by Mercury Gustaveson
Dead Cold by Ben Del Fuoco
Dead Mall by Andrew Carden
Deepening the Divide by Jeff Rosenberg
Discover Moab by Kyle Quesnoy
Disposable by Michael Hood
Diving Blind by Franck Benayoun
Dogs of Fallowfeld by Dante Desmond
East Jesus by Duane Graves
Eastfield by Svitlana Kochman
Empath by Steven Michael
End of the Night by Ken Klein and Irwin Hahn
Escape Your Life by I. J. Miller
Exhumed by David Van Hooser
Eye of the Mistral by Kathryn Boettcher
Father’s Land by Damien D’Soul
Fear of God by Mark Lindberg
Fear Play by Robert Rhyne
Fin by Richard Garry
Finding Eden by Brad Dude
Fire, Dreams and Fears by Eshref Alemdar
Forgive Those Who Trespass by Demian Cuthbertson
Forsaken by Tye Nelson
Foule Blood by Lynette Willoughby
Free Loader by Colton Walter
Geocaching by Benjamin Lorenzo
Ghost Posse by Mark Burzenski
Ghosting by Nathaniel Anglin
Girl and a Gun by Jared Bratt
Godforsaken by Caleb Hermann
Goldilocks by Michael Buhlman
Gone Dark by Charlie Ricottone
Greed by Nick Quinn
Hacked by Jonathan Ruppert
hal.error_404: Glow-Phoria by Jeffrey Hingst
Hana by James Sutherland
Haunted Grounds by Johan Svensson
Heartbeat by Jan Westbrook
Hell Hath No Fury by Michael Graf
Hellfire and Brimstone by Xavier Burgin
High Seas Honeymoon by Stan Usherenko
Hindsight by Braeson Herold
Hitting Tullados by Bryan Oliver
Holly Woods by Jeff Markowitz
House for Sale by Jim Hendricks
How I Unleashed Mayhem and Saved the Free World by Lynn Esta Goldman
Hunted by Mark Chambers
Hunter’s Moon by Tim Brennan
Hydra by Adam Stone
I Don’t Want to Fight Anymore by James Tison
Illegal Circumstances by Selma Karayalcin
Impending Doom by Matthew Cole Levine
Imperfect Crime by Jeffrey Brust
In Witness Protection by Brandon Vega
Intercept, Southern Cross by Randall Stanton
Invalid by Robbie Robertson
It Burns Beneath by Dee Mick
Jacob’s Experiment by Philip Sassi
Jane by Kristina Castillo
Joker Joker Deuce by Michael Allen
Killer Fiesta by Miguel Gervais
Killing Time by Jack Warner
Knitters by Stephen Settimi
Korrupter by Chrys Kozak and Jim Kozak
L.A. Hunter by Ryan Dingus
Last Best Place by Matthew Gregory Sawczyn
Last Shopper Standing by Steffany Sommers
Locked in by Kevin Koljack
Lost Treasure by John McCarney
Love Loss by Kelly Cochran Yzquierdo
Magliocco by Jim Wurst
Mama Bear by Jennifer Andis
Meat Wagon by Stephen Elwain Barber
Mimicked by Cody Mobley
Motel Kalifornia by Matt O’Connor
Mr. Bear by Dark Mind
Murder Tour by Ryan Stack
My Brother’s Keeper by Fran Tabor
Negative Space by Ryan Michael Clarke
Nokosee: Rise of the New Seminole by DC Copeland
North Brother Island by Kimberly McLeod
Off the Strip by Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn
Offshore Redemption by Marie Etzler
Once Bitten by Alison Weaverdyck
One Piece of Silver by Carol Hoffman
Ophelia’s Scars by Usman Khan and Darren Andrew
Outlaw by Andy Yang
Over My Dead Body by Michael Melanson
Overwhelming Darkness by S A Hart
Paint Stroke by Giovanni Basso
Perfectly Normal by Christopher Maring
Permissible by Ranjith R Menon
Picture Man by Broderick Fox
Pine Belt 17 by Christine Makepeace
Poisonville by Gary Parker
Porch Pirates by JJ Brent
Portsmouth by Pablo Torroella
Prayer of the Headless Mantis by Jose Villanueva
Precursor by Steve Brown
Prostitution Street by Nathan Proczak
Proxy by Brooke Solomon
Psych/o by Solomon Osayande Jr.
Rattle by Sean Mick
Recompense by Samuel Shindel Spencer
Reflections From the Echo Side by Grassy Knoll
Respawn by D. Hunter Fein
Retreat by Peter Macaluso
Reunification by Jimmy Prosser
Rig’d by Derrick Edmond
Roadside Motel by Thomas Shipley
Rot by Ray Petrolino
Runnin’ With the Pack by Greg Richards and Madeline Richards
S.H.I.F.T. by Leslie Rivera Ramos
Serial by Pierre Brown
Serving Faith by Paul Thornhill
Shackles by Richard Beszhak
Shadow Wings by Joren Blair
Sharks by Glenn Millican
She Cries Your Name by Gil Luna
Sherman the Last Dragon by Mary Munsie and Steven Munsie
Shiny Little Things by Jillian Winters
Shuttle Driver by Joel Cousins
Sigrid Mortis by Kelly Blackard
Silenced by Sandy Snow
Sinkhole by George Mano
Slayhaus by Casie Cook
So Spineless by Erin Copen Howard
Soft Boiled by Jarad Kopciak
Sons of the Valley by Steven Henderson
Stairs by Barry Brock
Stateless by Andy Yang
Stolen Shadows by Yas Kolathayil
Sturgeon General by Molly Bandt and Celia Ramsey
Swiss Clean by Jim Wurst
Temporal Rift by Andy Warin
The Aviary by Haley Beasley
The Baron by Aaron R Astillero
The Black Hatchet by Michael Trachiotis
The Body Builder by Art Fox
The Butterfly Club by Peter Vicaire
The Cobalt Curse by Joey O’Connor
The Codex by Laura Lyte
The Concierge by Kevin W Donovan
The Decoy by Derricke Camack
The Delinquent by Jay Hannah
The Devil on a Dirt Road by John Kiefer Radzniak
The Devil’s Snow by Erik Wolter and Lawrence Hoffman
The Devils’ Cradle by Naomi Lamont
The Doll Keeper by Diane Sismour
The Dungeon by Mark D Clark
The Duplicate by Victor Orel
The Face of Janus by David Clark
The Fail Son by Francis Rose
The Forever Winter by Vandon Gibbs
The Games by John Perry and James Perry
The Happiness Lottery by Robert Hirsch
The Judge by Christine O’Donnell
The Language of Wolves by Nan Schmid
The Late Bakovic by Greg Zymet
The Legend of Yakatutch by Sean Francis Ellis
The Linguist by Maggie Tsavaris
The Many Lives of Water by Katie Gibbons
The Market by Andre M Zucker
The Menagerie by Kyle Rizor
The Mrs. by Mitch Ward
The Multiple by Christopher Carlson
The Nautilus Conspiracy by Rachel Morgan
The Order of Days by Russell Silva
The Painter by Ben Blaine and Christopher Blaine
The Prophesied Script by Roxanne May
The Prowl by Cassandra Betancourt
The Red Zone by Terry Podnar
The Release by Michelle Lange
The Right Kind of Wrong by Eric Murphy
The Shimmers by Brendan Vogel and Ruth Sabin
The Silence of the Mountains by Hans Sluijter
The Straw: That Broke America’s Back by Tracy Streeter
The Tall Man by Robert Tekavec
The Taste of Your Ink by Jay Oellrich
The Tortoise and the Heir by Russ Meyer
The Town With No Name by Richard Garry
The Troubles: Choices by Peter Jones
The Unfavored by Charlie T Savage
The Unraveling by Laura Harbin
The Witch of Belle Fleur by Isabelle Hardesty
The Wooden Man by Rupert Britton
The World Turned Upside Down by Dennis OFlyng
‘Til She Comes Home by Sharon Curcio and Diana Saenz
Tomcat by Tim Young
Torment by Joseph Hooten
Totem by Rob Samborn and Laura Kemp
Tradition by Cam Min Tran
Transistor by Devin O’Rourke
True Enemy by Nia Robinson
Turnover Rate by Terrance Henry
Valley of Bones by Craig Cosgray
Vanishing Place by Dan Olds
Vessel 01 by Anthony Martinez
Violet’s Eyes by Ervin Anderson
Waikiki by Patricia K Meyer
What You Wish For by Josh Brody
White Camel by Benjamin Sehat
Without Consent by Bev Irwin
Wounds by Amir Khan
X9 by Sam Speron