2022 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Winners

/

Please help us in congratulating the 5 scripts chosen from 2,135 total submissions which have won the 2022 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition! These six incredible authors have already begun meeting with their mentors and will be further celebrated during the Opening Night Ceremony of the 46th Annual Atlanta Film Festival, on April 23rd. 

The 3 Feature Screenplays (which includes one screenwriting team), 1 Pilot Screenplay Winner, and 1 Short Winner as well as their respective mentors follow:

Feature Screenplay Winners

GORDITO by Miguel Castillo
RUBY SAFEWAY by Amanda Biggs
ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN by Jon Alston & Ron McCants

Pilot Screenplay Winner

SPESH by Jeff Locker

Short Screenplay Winner

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Tamara S. Hall

ATLFF22 Screenplay Mentors

MILAN CHAKRABORTY, Head of Film at Marginal MediaWorks, oversees all of the company's efforts in independent, studio, and streaming film. He is a 17-year veteran of the film industry. Milan worked at Warner Bros and New Line Cinema in production finance and accounting on projects such as Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and V for Vendetta. Milan began independently producing in 2008 and has produced, and executive produced 20 features. Including, My Friend Dahmer, Assassination Nation, Plus One, and Gotham Award-winning and Spirit Award nominee, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. Marginal MediaWorks is a cross-platform content studio with projects across film, series, animation, interactive and audio. The company was founded in 2018 by Sanjay M Sharma, focusing on genre and popular storytelling from under-represented voices or outsider perspectives.

CHERI STEINKELLNER - ​​4 Emmys, 2 Golden Globes, WGA, People's Choice, BAFTA: CHEERS, and TEACHER'S PET. Tony-nominated SISTER ACT. Ovation + Indy Award: HELLO! MY BABY. TV: JEFFERSONS, WHO'S THE BOSS, BOB, etc. Stage: PRINCESSES, PRIMA MATERIA, INSTAPLAY, etc. Award-winning UCSB professor, international lecturer, MomX3, NanaX1

BRANDON HARRIS is the President of I'd Watch That. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Harris has worked in the world of American Cinema as a studio executive and producer, critic and programmer, screenwriter, and director. Formerly a Development Executive for Amazon Studios, where he oversaw productions such as The Burial (2023), Master (2022), and The Voyeurs (2021). Harris's lauded writings about cinema, politics, culture and the intersections between them have appeared in: The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Guardian, VICE, The Daily Beast, Variety, N+1, The New Inquiry, Brooklyn Rail, In These Times, Hammer to Nail, and Filmmaker Magazine -- where he remains a contributing editor. Harris, formerly the festival director at the Indie Memphis Film Festival, is the co-writer and director of Redlegs (2012), a New York Times Critics Pick. His genre-bending mix of memoir and history Making Rent in Bed-Stuy, released in 2017 by Amistad Books, is a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and was named a Vogue Magazine book of the year.

JOHN GRIFFIN created and executive produces the EPIX series FROM, a supernatural horror show about a nightmarish town that traps everyone who enters. Midnight Radio and the Russo Brothers/Agbo produce the series, which premiered in February 2022. His original feature CRATER, a coming-of-age saga set on the moon, will be released on Disney+ later this year. Kyle Patrick Alvarez directed with 21 Laps producing. He previously wrote BROOKLYN FAMILY ROBINSON for Disney and Mandeville Films, with Steve Carrell attached to star, and ROMEO + JULIET: THE WAR for Lionsgate based on the Stan Lee graphic novel. On the TV front, he wrote an episode of Jordan Peele and Simon Kinberg's TWILIGHT ZONE reboot for CBS All Access and staffed on Agbo's Netflix animation series MAGIC: THE GATHERING. John is a past winner of the Academy Nicholl Fellowship.

ROCHÉE JEFFREY is a graduate of Howard University and a writer/director/performer who hails originally from Jamaica. As a television writer, her credits include the Golden Globe-nominated comedy series SMILF (Showtime), Woke (Hulu), Bigger (BET+), Santa Inc. (HBO Max), and co-executive producer of Grown-ish (Freeform). On the film side, her award-winning, Oscar-qualifying short film Suitable was a finalist in the American Black Film Festival HBO Competition and premiered on HBO in February 2019. Rochée also wrote and directed Mr. Talented, a short film that premiered as a part of the 2018 Project Involve Showcase at the Directors Guild of America. She was one of 7 directors selected for the 2018/2019 Viacom Emerging Directors Program. She was a 2019 IFP-Blackhouse Multicultural Producers Lab Fellow, sponsored by HBO, and one of Moviemaker Magazine's 2019 Screenwriters To Watch. Her feature directorial debut, Not Your Average Queen, was selected for the 2021 Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and the 2021 WIF/Sundance Financing Intensive. She serves as a producer and writer on the feature film Throw it Back and Make it Clap For Trudy Jones, starring Tiffany Haddish (produced by Paul Feig/Feigco). She has an adult animated series executive produced by Lizzo set up at Tomorrow Studios and Apple TV+. She also has a narrative comedy podcast greenlit by Audible and produced by Broadway Video. Rochée recently directed an independent television pilot starring David Arquette. UTA and Rain Management Group represent her.