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WINNERS '99
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WINNERS '03
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THS 2005

OVERVIEW
WGA
JUDGING
DIRECTOR
RULES
APPLY
TIPS
IN TOUCH
FORUM
THE SAGE
WINNERS '99
WINNERS '00
WINNERS '01
WINNERS '02
HERE'S WHY
WINNERS '03
WINNERS '04
THS 2005

OVERVIEW
WGA
JUDGING
DIRECTOR
RULES
APPLY
TIPS
IN TOUCH
FORUM
THE SAGE
WINNERS '99
WINNERS '00
WINNERS '01
WINNERS '02
HERE'S WHY
WINNERS '03
WINNERS '04
THS 2005

OVERVIEW
WGA
JUDGING
DIRECTOR
RULES
APPLY
TIPS
IN TOUCH
FORUM
THE SAGE
WINNERS '99
WINNERS '00
WINNERS '01
WINNERS '02
HERE'S WHY
WINNERS '03
WINNERS '04
THS 2005

THE HOLLYWOOD SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCES ITS
2004 CONTEST WINNERS

The Hollywood Symposium takes great pleasure in announcing the
winners of its 2004 contest.  Our heartfelt congratulations to our
three winning screenwriters, five honorable mentions, finalists,
and to all our entrants on their screenwriting achievements.

In addition to THS cash awards, Final Draft software, and Symposium
promotion, our co-sponsor InkTip.com will place the three winning
scripts on their password protected website and include the winners'
loglines in the InkTip.com print magazine Players Marketplace that
goes out to some 5,000 industry professionals.  130 production
companies and representatives a week search for scripts on
InkTip.com.  Our three top winners will also receive a free
subscription to MovieBytes’s “Who’s Buying What.”  

So far, nineteen former Hollywood Symposium Screenplay Contest
finalists and winners have either sold or optioned screenplays, or
found representation, or been hired to write scripts.  Please let us
know about professional queries made on your scripts, and any
writing representation, options, sales, or assignment writing
work achieved.  

The Hollywood Symposium went looking for good stories well told. 
This is where we found them.

FIRST PLACE:       “Citations,” by Peter Walsh, peter@guillotineeditorial.com
               When an overzealous male metermaid loyal to the ideals of
              70’s TV cop culture gets demoted to the lowliest cop job, citation
              sorter, he stumbles onto a big time conspiracy and goes
              undercover in pursuit of justice and his very own, honest to
              goodness cop’s badge.
                                                                                                $3,000 PRIZE
SECOND PLACE:  “3 Stories About Joan,” by Christopher Alexander
                                           & Sam Applebaum, calexander@slc.edu
           In parallel tales--on the night she loses her virginity, on the day
              she accepts a proposal, and on the day of her wedding--Joan
              Ryland finds herself haunted by visions of something she
              witnessed when she was a child, something she’s repressed
              for a lifetime.
                                                                                   $500 PRIZE
THIRD PLACE:     “Born to Darkness,” by Jonathan Chappell
                                           & Christian Raymond, jonchappellnow@yahoo.com 
           During World War II, a brilliant American research scientist is
              blackmailed by the Nazis into helping unlock the secrets of an
              unusual prisoner of war, a vampire.
                                                                                   $200 PRIZE
HONORABLE MENTION (alphabetical by title):    
          “Django,” by George Gellert, georgegellert@comcast.net
             A gypsy boy with a crippled hand survives prejudice, Hitler’s
                advancing armies, and the Nazi occupation of Paris, obsessed
                with perfecting his talent for playing the guitar.  In this true
                story, Jazz legend Django Reinhardt overcomes incredible
                obstacles to achieve a haunted stardom.
          “Rational Panic,” by Robert Rhyne, randprhyne@aol.com
                A college professor believes a student in his playwriting class
               might be involved in the disappearance of his wife after the
               student writes an eerily similar character.  When the writing
               student kills off her play’s heroine—who’s the spitting image
               of the professor’s wife—the mind games really begin.
         “Ride the Wind,” by James Gregory Jackson, SAJ5@aol.com
            When a Brooklyn teenager wins a horse in a carnival lottery,
               he takes his prize home to the ‘hood where a gang leader
               sets out to destroy the young man and his animal.  Gaining
               friends and enemies, and determined to protect his horse
               with his life, this teenager teaches everyone in the
               neighborhood a lesson in true courage.
          “Rodriguez,” by Ellen Maguire, em218@columbia.edu
             When a blocked young artist pursues an older woman, she
               first inspires him, then breaks his heart by falling in love with
               the artist’s sister.  The young man discovers that rekindled
               artistic vision can create unusual families as well as beautiful
               paintings.
          “The Devil Protects His Own,” by Kris Hall, KrisHall@aol.com
               In 1943 a team of refugee soldiers bent on revenge parachute
               back into Nazi Germany with a plan to kill Hitler.  But when
               their scheme is uncovered, these commandos must fight to
               salvage victory from a mission betrayed.

Our most sincere thanks to everyone who participated.   

THE HOLLYWOOD SYMPOSIUM
SIXTH ANNUAL SCREENPLAY CONTEST
FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

The Hollywood Symposium takes great pleasure in announcing the
finalists for its 2004 screenplay contest. 

We're delighted that so many screenwriters continue to grow as they pursue
the critical rewriting necessary to raise their level of craft.  The cross section
of scripts we receive continues to become more sophisticated and that of
course makes judging choices ever more difficult.

Every entrant receives a copy of the numerical master judging sheet for
their own screenplay as a summary of the Symposium's reaction to the
relative strengths and weaknesses our judges felt they found in the script. 
It's hoped that these numerical indicators will be useful in the ongoing
process of development.  Winners will be announced around the end of
October.

If your script did not become a finalist, please understand that this does
not necessarily reflect on the value of your story concept, or even on its
current state of execution.  It simply means that in our estimation some
screenplays are further along toward a presentation draft than others. 
Writing a screenplay is an ongoing process of refinement.  Read extensively
about screenwriting, take college extension classes and attend events like
the Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles this October.  As THS Executive Director
Eric Edson tells his university screenwriting students, "There's no such thing
as a bad screenplay, only an unfinished one."  Keep studying this complex
craft, and don't get discouraged.  The personal character trait that most
consistently defines successful screenwriters is perseverance.

Congratulations to our finalists for 2004.