SEMI-FINALISTS CONGRATULATED FOR THE OHIO INDEPENDENT SCREENPLAY
AWARDS
For Immediate Release: September 21, 2002

Contact: Annetta Marion or Bernadette Gillota, Co-Artistic and
Executive Directors, (216) 651-7315

CLEVELAND, OHIO – The longest running screenplay competition in
Ohio keeps growing with every year. Our pool of submissions has been
slowly whittled down to 25 semi-finalists; the finalists will be
announced next week.

Sponsored by Independent Pictures (IP) as part of the Ohio
Independent Film Festival, over 70 readers across three states took
part in reading and judging the preliminary round of entries. New to
the Ohio Independent Screenplay Awards last year, entrants may
receive feedback from reader evaluations as a way to improve their
work.

The next step is screenplay scrutiny of the finalists (which will be
announced next week) from our panel of industry professionals; film
producers Jane Alsobrook, TC Rice, Dawn Wolfrom, and Sandra Birnhak.

In addition to her producing work, Ms. Alsobrook has been a senior VP
at Columbia Pictures and the president of Australia's largest
independent film production and distribution company. Mr. Rice is VP
Distribution for Manhattan Pictures Intl., a distribution and
production company founded by Paul E. Cohen; he has also worked with
Stephen Baldwin's Next Millennium Entertainment and Stratosphere
Entertainment. In addition to her work producing films (recently
NEVER AGAIN released by USA Films this past July), Ms. Wolfrom has
also moved into television, having sold shows to Paramount with
Kelsey Grammer's company Gramnet. Ms. Birnhak is CEO of Worldview
Entertainment in addition to her award-winning work as a film and
television producer.

As part of the 2002 Ohio Independent Film Festival this November 2-
10, a winning screenwriter's work will feature at Script Mill,
IP's professionally directed and acted unstaged screenplay
reading
program.

True to Independent Pictures' form as supporters of local film
and video artists, there is also a category for best screenplay for a
story set mainly in the Northeastern Ohio region.

The list of the finalists is as follows:

Bullet with Butterfly Wings Bill Balas
Norikaeru Tom Slattery
Running for you, David Chris Bunsey
Her Majesty's Magician David Pinzino
Lifted Elizabeth Nelson
Coach Mom Sharon Felder Roth
Waters of the Heart Merle Goldberg & William Gerald Hamby
Iron Princes Patrick Ryan
All Rise Tommy Bryant
Inugami Rich Figel
A Crazy Situation Chryshallis N. Brooks
Fugitive Slave Dick Croy & Henry Burke
Amazon Tails Camille Cruse
Woman of the Open Hand Jacqueline Frazier
Diamond Event Julie Williams
Benevolence Carla Robinson
Mad Money William Reid
Of Dreams & Destinies Christy Paxton
The Sun in Your Eyes Kirk Lindsey & Michael Lind
Quo Vadis, Sean? Ethan Mayer Smith
10 Minutes From Paradise Janyce Lapore
The Clear Horizon Bill Flannigan
Five Full Moons Mary Joy McMachen
Zaytoun Nader Rizq
Treasure Recovered Jesse van der Schaaf

OISA honorable mentions include:

The Prom From Hell Devi Snively
A Crack in Time Carol Strickland
Einstein's Soup Glen Merzer
Elvis is Dead James B. Sweeney
Mute Swan Beth-Anne Blue
The Sleaze Adrianne Ambrose
Under the Lights Douglas Stark
Lemon Tea Marcia L. Sinclair
Nicolo Paganini George Borelli
Stomping Embers, Releasing Butterflies
And Unmasking family Secrets Lora L. Hyler

Independent Pictures supports emerging media artists and the
exhibition of their films and video projects to a wider audience
through the Ohio Independent Film Festival and other programs such as
the Ohio Independent Screenplay Awards, Script Mill, film training
programs, and workshops.

SUPPORTERS: The George Gund Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation,
Ohio Arts Council, Writers Guild of America East, Sherwin Williams,
IBM, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Filmmaker
Magazine, Media Design Imaging, TVWriter.com, Hollywood.com Indie
Films, FilmStew.com, WritersScriptNetwork.com, WriteSafe.com, Final
Draft, Scr(i)pt Magazine, Cleveland Public Theatre.

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