SCREENPLAY AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED
For Immediate Release: October 7, 2002

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

Independent Pictures is proud to announce the three award-winning
screenplays for this year's Ohio Independent Screenplay Awards,
our sixth annual script competition. This marks the first year for
the organization's Best Voice of Color Award, which highlights the
writing achievements from a screenwriter whose voice, story and
characters speak to generally marginalized audiences.

Winner of the Best Voice of Color Screenplay: INUGAMI by Rich Figel.
A private eye must stop an evil creature from making him it's
next victim, as foretold by a Japanese fortune teller-who was found
mauled to death after the skeptical P.I. turned down her plea for
help.

A favorite for screenplay submitters and judges alike, the Best
Northcoast Screenplay Award focuses on stories that are set in
Northern Ohio. Winner of the Best Northcoast Screenplay: HER
MAJESTY'S MAGICIAN by David Pinzino. Nathan is a 12 year-old
magician whose schizophrenic mother believes she is queen of an
imaginary onion patch in their backyard. When Nathan's grandpa
dies, the struggle begins for Nathan and his mother to stay together.

Finally, the Best Screenplay Award goes to the most overall well-
written and crafted story. Winner of the Best Screenplay: 10 MINUTES
FROM PARADISE by Janyce Lapore. Three Small time hustlers living in
New York City live a desperate existence until the leader of the
group offers them a glimmer of hope when he devises a plan to rob the
Long Island Commuter Train.

Based on the its dialogue over description nature, HER MAJESTY'S
MAGICIAN by David Pinzino has been chosen to receive the professional
treatment at Script Mill, Independent Pictures' annual unstaged
reading event. Similar screenplay readings are commonplace in Los
Angeles and New York, and first brought to Northeast Ohio by the Ohio
Independent Film Festival.

Many thanks to our team of over sixty readers and four film industry
judges: Jane Alsobrook (Independent film producer; most recently
Executive Producer on working title THE BROTHEL with Ira Deutchman),
Sandra Birnhak (New York City based television and film producer, and
current owner of the Killiam Collection), TC Rice (Vice President of
Distribution for Manhattan Pictures International), and Dawn Wolfrom
(Independent film and television producer; recently on Eric
Schaeffer's USA Films release NEVER AGAIN).

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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