Baltimore Screenwriters Competition Winners Step Into the Spotlight

Elena Moscatt is one of the Baltimore Screenwriters Competition winners. She was third in the Shorts category

Baltimore screenwriters competition winners step into the spotlight at the Maryland Institute College of Art to receive awards and accolades.

BY KAZAD

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -The Baltimore Film Office at BOPA has announced the winners of the annual Baltimore Screenwriters Competition. The announcement was made Saturday as part of the 24th annual Maryland Film Festival at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

In the 17th year, the annual Baltimore Screenwriters Competition attracts entries from writers across Baltimore and the DMV. The competition categories are Features and Shorts.

The first place in the Features category went to Teddy Duvall and Casey Pentz for Horror Fans, while the second place went to C.P. Englander for Mobius Hoops. The third-place winner is Jeffrey Brady for Sanctuary.

In the Shorts category, first place went to Dimitri Callwood-Jackson for Love Culture, while Warren Greenberg won second place with The Whole Point. Third place went to Elena Moscatt for Crafty Lane.

Judges for this year’s competition were film industry professionals, including MK Asante, Nina K. Noble, Ken LaZebnik, and Annette Porter.

Winners will receive cash prizes for their work.

Baltimore Screenwriters Competition Winners

The annual Baltimore Screenwriters Competition is a project of the Baltimore Film Office in conjunction with film programs at Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University. Morgan State University funds the competition with additional support from the Maryland Film Festival and Write Brothers

Features Category Winners

First Place — Teddy Duvall & Casey Pentz, Horror Fans

Horror Fans reflects 35 years of shared love and appreciation of movies by Teddy Duvall and Casey Pentz. After more than 100 torturous days of total isolation at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, Teddy, the Vice President of Branding and Sponsorships at Utopia Media, returned to Baltimore in September 2020. He soon reconnected with his childhood friend, Casey Pentz, who works at Sheppard Pratt, helping people struggling with psychosis.  The result of that reunion is Horror Fans. The feature reveals the duo’s shared interest in horror movies, Baltimore history, and the many forms of fanaticism. This is their second script as a team.

Second Place — C.P. Englander, Mobius Hoops

C. P. Englander is a versatile, award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and author. She has written eight novels under her Rita Boucher pseudonym. Englander, who lives and works in Baltimore City, has won numerous awards. She is the past winner of the Romantic Times’ award for best Regency novel. Englander is also a two-time winner of the Baltimore New Media Festival’s short screenplay contest. The Would-Be Witch, a screenplay based on her historical fantasy, was a winner in Final Draft’s Big Break Contest. A top 10 winner in the nationwide Jewish Plays Project competition for The Hebrew Ladies Burial Society, Englander’s most recent novel is The Compromised Lady. It was released in February 2022.

Third Place — Jeffrey Brady, Sanctuary

For Jeffrey Brady, the best way to tell stories is through films. His passion for movie-making began as a kid, but it was not until he got to high school that he began to move toward his goal of movie-making. Jeffrey attended Penn State, where he graduated in 2020, with bachelor’s degrees in both Film Production and Digital Design. After graduation, he worked on an independent film called A Deer in the Woods. This is the first feature-length film on which Jeffrey has worked. It premiered at State College on April 28, 2022.

Shorts Category Winners

First Place — Dimitri Callwood-Jackson, Love Culture

Dimitri Callwood-Jackson holds a BFA in Screenwriting and Animation from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. An emerging screenwriter and director based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Dimitri has been honing his craft since graduating in 2016. As a writer, Dimitri believes that his purpose is to inspire and uplift the marginalized.  This belief continues to guide his work. Recently, he has focused on writing from the voice and experience of the Black and Queer.  According to him, his “mission is to tell stories that start the right conversions in black and brown spaces.” His ultimate desire is to effect change.

Dimitri has been honing his craft since graduating in 2016. As a writer, Dimitri believes that his purpose is to inspire and uplift the marginalized.

Second Place — Warren Greenberg, The Whole Point

The Whole Point is Warren’s first penned screenplay.  The animated short emerged from a reworking of a poem Warren wrote around 1989. The Whole Point has been in several screenwriting competitions, where it made some impression.  It reached the semi-finals twice at the 2021 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and the 2021 Screen Craft Animation Screenplay Competition. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Warren Greenberg is new to the screenwriting world but is quickly making great impressions. He is thankful to his fiancé, Marigo, for encouraging him to pursue his passion.

Third Place — Elena Moscatt, Crafty Lane

Jamie’s Way, a teen drama filmed in Charles Village, is one of the very first scripted online web series by Elena. She created it in1998. Since then, she has worked on several other web series that are generating many fans. One of them is Click On This Show, which has over 600 episodes on YouTube and has received numerous awards and nominations from the webfest circuit. Elena has been working in the film industry since the late 1980s. She joined I.A.T.S.E. Local 487 in 1992 and started working in the craft services department. Some of her projects include the Baltimore Next Media WebFest and VR projects. She also created and still runs the Baltimore Screenwriter’s Coffee Club.

Baltimore screenwriters competition winners celebrate under the spotlight. What do you think about this year’s winners? Share your thoughts. Leave a comment.

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