Category: Contests

Screenwriters Workshop is pleased to announce the guidelines for the 2008 Screenlabs Challenge! This years theme is “Agony and bliss: Unrequited love.” This should be an integral theme that runs through each submitted film/video. As with last years ScreenLabs Challenge, we require a particular location be included in all completed films/videos. For 2008 filmmakers must include the “Witch’s Hat” water tower in Prospect Park, Minneapolis, as a location.

Download the 2008 ScreenLabs Challenge application here.

Join the ScreenLabs Challenge 2008 mailing list to be the first to hear Challenge news.

Screenwriters Workshop designed ScreenLabs as a filmmaking development program, intended to foster collaboration among writers, directors, producers, talent and crew through bringing original scripts to the screen. The Challenge was started in 2007 as a contest to empower screenwriters to produce their own scripts.

Submitted works will be judged by a panel of jurors who are film/video artists and professionals. Winners will be awarded the following cash prizes:

First Place – $1,000
Second Place – $500
Best Screenplay – $250
Audience Award – $250

Completed films/videos must be received at the IFP Minnesota Center for Media Arts no later than 4:00pm on Friday, August 15, 2008,

Click here for detailed information about the 2008 ScreenLabs Challenge. Good luck!

The jury at the Screenwriters Workshop’s 2007 ScreenLabs Challenge awarded the top prize for Best Film to “Forgotten,” by Minneapolis director Christopher Gegax. Written by Richfield screenwriter Julie Meyer, the dramatic film revolves around a nun’s chance encounter with a troubled young woman, and focuses on themes of judgment, understanding, mercy and compassion. “Forgotten” is the fourth short film by 36-year-old Gegax, after “A Specialist in His Field” which was shown in festivals across the nation. “It feels great to be recognized by leaders from Minnesota’s film community. This wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for Julie Meyer writing a great script,” said Gegax. Meyer took home the Best Screenplay award for “Forgotten.”

ScreenLabs awarded the Runner-up prize to Minneapolis writing team and co-director’s Garth Berquist and Mark Lyon for “Blind Fate,” a comedy about a blind date with a twist. The Audience award also went to Garth Berquist and Mark Lyon for “Blind Fate.”

The 2007 Screenlabs Challenge asked screenwriters to write and produce a short film with the theme “A Simple Twist of Fate,” and required Minneapolis’ Stone Arch Bridge be used as one of the locations. Minnesota film professionals making up the jury included Minneapolis Community and Technical College Cinema Department chair Hafed Bouassida, Director Craig Rice, Producer Christine Walker, and Cinematographer Greg Winter. ScreenLabs is a program of the Screenwriters Workshop.