15th annual INTERNATIONAL FAMILY FILM FESTIVAL

2010 WINNERS & FINALISTS

SCREENWRITERS SHOWCASE      SUNDAY, MARCH 14 AT 2:00PM

Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, California

Feature Drama Screenplays

Winner

The Hunters by Mark L. Smith

Finalist

Samson V-2 by James Kirtland

Feature Comedy Screenplays

Winner

Dressing Up by Hugh Schulze

Finalist

The Seduction of Auntie Rose by Alpha Blair

Feature Animation Screenplays

Winner

Birdigo by Seth R. Hartman

Finalist

Splat! by Alix Reeves

Feature Sci-Fi/Fantasy Screenplays

Winner

American Fung-Shui Man by Paul Chen & Melanie Wu

Finalist

Dupont’s Mound by Polita Glynn

Short Drama Screenplays

Winner

Are We There Yet? by Sabrina Zackery

Finalist

Best Friend by William Malkin

Short Animation Screenplays

Winner

Naevaeh Can’t Wait by Leslie M. Bradford

Finalist

Aliens, Princesses and a Dog by Russ Brandon

Short Sci-Fi/Fantasy Screenplays

Winner

Keemo, the Archer by Mark Winzer

Finalist

  The Hunt for the Golden Cobra by Keva Keyes

CAMP FIRE
SCREENWRITER:  Kristopher White
SYNOPSIS: After accidentally starting a fire at school, a teenage girl is forced to grow up when she’s sent to ‘Camp Fire’ as punishment.  The Camp, based on an actual program, teaches its’ young juvenile wards to fight forest fires.

DANIELLE’S BEACON
SCREENWRITERS:  Peter Scott, Michael Berlin
SYNOPSIS: She wants a big family.  He wants a long happy honeymoon – no kids, no problems.  What they both get is heart-numbing disappointment.  After years of failing to have children – adoption is the only option.  This is a true story of love, trust, and the ability of the human spirit to endure.  It asks a question we all ponder: Why do we love each other?  Because we’re family.

DRAGONFLY  (Canada)
SCREENWRITER:  Bonnie Gibson & Melva McLean
SYNOPSIS:  When a penniless artist helps her Granny break out of the old folks’ home, she quickly finds a stowaway on board, and the cops are on her tail.  Dragonfly is a family ‘dramedy’ about taking risks, breaking free and living life to the fullest.

DRESSING UP
SCREENWRITER:  Hugh Schulze
SYNOPSIS: Hannah Montana meets Project Runway.  Two pairs of sisters become involved in a design and fashion competition that will take them from Detroit to New York City where they encounter challenges to themselves and tests of their relationships they never imagined.

ELLIOT
SCREENWRITER: Keva Keyes
SYNOPSIS: This story is an inspirational coming-of-age drama that takes place over the patriotic summer of 1976.  Set amongst the tranquil backdrop of Beaufort Country, SC and it follows Elliot as he overcomes adversity, comes to terms with his estranged father and trains to win the town’s 4th of July Weightlifting competition.  ‘Elliot’ is a story about defying the odds.

FANCY GIRL
SCREENWRITER: Pamela H. Dulgar
SYNOPSIS: A missing ‘will’ and a manipulating uncle make spunky heiress, Whitney, eleven, a penniless orphan.  Willie, twelve, a street-wise orphan from New York is plucked from society, along with Whitney, to find themselves on a train headed west.  Can they get home to recover her fortune and a family?

FORT SISSETON – DAKOT A TERRITORY
SCREENWRITER: Gregory Heitmann
SYNOPSIS: Find a connection to the Old West in the 1860’s Dakota Territory through the story of an Indian Scout, Sam Brown, and US Calvary Soldier, Sergeant Bryan Sipe as they battle the elements, renegades, the threat of a restless Indian population, and themselves as the frontier is settled.

HOLLY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
SCREENWRITER: Lew Osteen
SYNOPSIS: An impoverished Grandmother receives the unwanted custody of a problem Granddaughter at Christmas.

RELEVE
SCREENWRITER: Michelle Davidson
SYNOPSIS: When an aspiring ballerina attends a prestigious performing arts college away from her disciplined family and church, Anna takes a painful and rewarding journey, where she discovers her artistic abilities in less structured forms of dance, finds friendship and approaches her faith with maturity.

ROY RYDELL
SCREENWRITER: Johnny Arnold
SYNOPSIS: Roy Rydell wakes from a coma years after a rodeo bull-riding accident.  He sets out to recapture past glory.  Roy risks his life by bull-riding again.  When Roy falls for an animal activist veterinarian with a teenage son, he discovers the true meaning of love and life without giving up his dream.

SAMSON V-2
SCREENWRITER:   James Kirtland
SYNOPSIS: “Samson” an adult dog story of a family pet stolen and forced to fight for his life.

SOUTH PADRE
SCREENWRITER:  Ceasar James Courtway
SYNOPSIS: Faced with spending the remainder of his life in a hospital, a retiree reclaims a dream of sailing his boat to the Caribbean.  But when his son suspects he holds a small fortune, he must battle his son’s attempts to control his life while fighting to achieve his goal.

THE FISHING SHACK
SCREENWRITER:  James Kirtland
SYNOPSIS: Our past and the mistakes we made haunt us all of our lives.  The lives of a family revolve around a humble fishing shack in the bayou of rural Louisiana, and the struggle of one woman to make things right.

THE HUNTERS
SCREENWRITER: Mark L Smith
SYNOPSIS: 

THE PRODIGAL SONS
SCREENWRITER: Andrew and Jennifer Lewis
SYNOPSIS: A contemporary retelling of the famous biblical parable about two sons, one a repentant sinner and one who thinks he's a saint. And a father with enough grace for both of them.

BLAME IT ON NASHVILLE
SCREENWRITER:  Pat Sweeney
SYNOPSIS: A romantic comedy about a L.A. rock singer who accidentally lands a country gig in Nashville, Tennessee.  Never being out of L.A. Joey struggles to find himself in his new found way of life.  Mattie and her southern family values, turns this Hollywood rockers’ world upside down, leaving him confused about his life back home.

DADTASTIC
SCREENWRITER: Jimmy Monack
SYNOPSIS: When three bumbling single Dads attempt to connect with their kids by becoming real-life superheroes, real-life criminals decide to get in the way.

INVITATION ONLY
SCREENWRITER: Latina Emerson
SYNOPSIS: It’s the practical joke of the century.  Mona, the oldest of her siblings, has devised a plan to gather her feuding family members in one place for the ultimate prank.  They have each received a personal invitation to Mona’s funeral where she plans to teach them a lesson about family.

STAGE DAD
SCREENWRITERS:  Carin Chapin, Kevin McCloskey
SYNOPSIS: After discovering that his only daughter, Allie, has been cast in a tween variety show, Ben James, who is not about to let Allie become the studio’s next casualty of child stardom, attempts to transform himself from an adorably grimy janitor into a sleek Stage Dad.

NEVER THE BRIDE
SCREENWRITER: Cheryl McKay
SYNOPSIS: Girl accuses God of sleeping on the job of writing her love story.  God shows up to face those charges, looking her age.  Appealing.  He can’t write her story until she surrenders the purple pen she’s used her whole life to draft her hopes and dreams.  Can she trust him?

SHAKESPEARE UNPLUGGED
SCREENWRITER: Erin Donavan
SYNOPSIS:  Trauma and Drama.  A Mom directs a 5th grade play looking to get her daughter into private school, but finds her inner-rapper instead.

SNAPS
SCREENWRITER:  Johnny Arnold
SYNOPSIS: Photographer Peter O’Day gets caught between his lobbyist girlfriend and a community newspaper in Saint Paul, Minnesota that is trying to stop a developer from building a theme park that would destroy a neighborhood.  In the end, Peter finds that love is more important than money.

STAGE DAD
SCREENWRITERS: Carin Chapin, Kevin McCloskey
SYNOPSIS: After discovering that his only daughter, Allie, has been cast in a tween variety show, Ben James, who is not about to let Allie become the studio’s next casualty of child stardom, attempts to transform himself from an adorably grimy janitor into a sleek Stage Dad.

THE PUMPKIN PRINCESS
SCREENWRITER: Johanna Teresa Hochmuth
SYNOPSIS: Former Pumpkin Princess Annelise aged 14, is sick of pumpkins, but her refusal to take part in the annual pageant falls on deaf ears with her pumpkin-obsessed family.  When rebellious exchange student Zora, arrives, she thinks she has found a soul mate…until Zora falls in love with her family.

THE SEDUCTION OF AUNTIE ROSE
SCREENWRITER: Alpha Blair
SYNOPSIS:  As a free-spirited young woman helps her conservative grandaunt gain the courage to seek her ideal love, she finds her own.

A TOUCAN AMAZON ADVENTURE
SCREENWRITER: Donna Lisa
SYNOPSIS: When a flock of rowdy, fun-loving Toucans cause mayhem in the Amazon bird world, they’re banished to the dangerous lower forest.  The only one who can save the Toucans is a clever, outcast female, who leads them against an army of Night Creatures, and helps them reclaim their treetop home.

BEEP
SCREENWRITERS: Charlie Brady, Anthony Franklin
SYNOPSIS: Beep, an alien, and Julius, a young boy, who meet at a theatre as Beep escapes his archenemy, Margin.  Together they overcome a desperate scientist and a set of devilish twins before they defeat the galactic bully, sealing their friendship across the stars.

BIRDIGO
SCREENWRITER: Seth R. Hartman
SYNOPSIS: In the heart of the Alaskan wilderness, a young outcast eagle named “Gabriel” must take on a full forest adventure to save his village from the poachers who killed his father.  With the help of friends he meets along the way, Gabriel must overcome his fears if he is to become the hero he feels he was destined for.  Only problem, he has vertigo.
ERIN AND OWEN IN MYTHATANIA
SCREENWRITER: Nicholas Julius
SYNOPSIS: Erin and Owen, Scottish siblings are swallowed by Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, and brought to the land of Mythatania, where all creatures heard of in myth and folklore live.

KHENG KHENG CROCODILE
SCREENWRITER: Donna Lisa
SYNOPSIS: A lonely Thai boy must overcome village fear, a nasty poacher and a raging river in order to keep his spirited pet crocodile.  When the crocodile is kidnapped, an orphaned teen and an elephant join the boy on a dangerous jungle quest to save his beloved pet.

LILA LYMPHOCYTE SAVES THE DAY
SCREENWRITER: Dana Wax
SYNOPSIS: A naïve lymphocyte forms an unlikely bond with a rebellious hemoglobin while on a quest to discover why the body of a mysteriously ill 10-year-old boy is attacking itself and reverse it before it’s too late for them all.

OMARR THE CAMEL
SCREENWRITER:  Anne Bancroft Fowler
SYNOPSIS: Omarr the Camel and his master – a twelve-year-old boy named Basel – live in the city of Nazareth, where they make a living by selling cups of water to thirsty travelers.  Their life is hard in the ancient country of Judaea.  Not only is Basel viewed as an outsider but his flippant attitude and lack of respect for the local establishment  -- along with Omarr’s penchant for stealing figs, cause no end chaos in the market square.

ONE DOWN CLOWN
SCREENWRITER:  Heidi M.V. Sullivan
SYNOPSIS: In a fantastical circus, a shy little boy clown secretly dreams of running away from the circus – and becoming an accountant – but his animated clown parents want him to carry on in the family business.

SPLAT!!!
SCREENWRITER: Alix Reeves
SYNOPSIS: “Splat” comes from a long line of  Splats; those are house flies that have met their deaths by newspaper, fly swatter, shoe bottoms and all forms of crushing.  This legacy has kept him in fear until he discovers that the urban park that he and his fellow house flies call ‘home’, is scheduled to be sprayed by helicopters.

A HORSE NAMED PEGGY
SCREENWRITER: Richard Showstack
SYNOPSIS: In the Depression-era Midwest, to save the family farm and save himself from being sent away to a boarding school, a disabled boy must conquer his fear of horses, train his grandmother’s horse and win the steeplechase at the County Fair.  It looks impossible, but…

AMERICAN FUNGSHUI MAN (China)
SCREENWRITER: Paul Chen & Melanie Wu
SYNOPSIS: IF it weren’t for bad luck, Mike Findlay wouldn’t have any luck at all.  He can’t get a job, he can’t get a girl, can’t even keep his slacker cousin Alan, from driving through the bathroom wall while he’s trying to shower!  But when Feng Shui expert Master Lee and his beautiful daughter Melody walk into Mike’s life, he learns just what amazing things can result from rearranging the furniture.

BYE CUSPID!  THE ADVENTURES OF A MALE TOOTH FAIRY
SCREENWRITER: Michael Hogan
SYNOPSIS: Cuspid, an only child, grew to adulthood in the Tooth Castle, quite content with his job as a janitor, brushing and polishing the millions of tiny teeth that cover the walls.  Then one day his mother, the Tooth Fairy, decides it’s time to retire.  Tradition dictates that she pass on her magic wand only to family, so Tippy is enlisted to join a risky plot to transform the naïve Cuspid into a family man, and soon complications arise that could destroy the lives of everyone in the Tooth Castle.

DUPONT’S MOUND.2
SCREENWRITER: Polita Glynn
SYNOPSIS: When Cameron, a teenager who never met an electronic device her couldn’t live without, gets stuck on an archeological survey with his aunt in North Florida, he learns that time is more than what measures the distance from breakfast to lunch, and lives can be changed when the line between past and present is erased.

FINDING SANTA
SCREENWRITER:  Carrie Ann Lee
SYNOPSIS: A Christmas story about a grumpy homeless man, a magical velvet bag and some mischievous reindeer.  All Sava Clausen wants is a little bread and a place to lay his head at night, but St. Nicholas has other plans for him.  St. Nicholas, the gift-giving saint is thrown into a Roman prison for speaking his mind at th famous Council of Nicaea and Sava is asked to keep his velvet bag safe.  Are you ready to meet the real Santa?

LEITH BHAROGAN OF THE CRUEL EYES
SCREENWRITER: Margaret Sweeney-Ballou
SYNOPSIS: Paddy and Maureen wait for their father to return to Ireland.  They find a gold coin which belongs to the Leith Bhrogan, the Leprechaun, who over eight-hundred-years has become vicious.  They must prevail against him to break the spell.  The gold has the corrupting effect on paddy like their Father.

SEBASTIAN AND THE LOST ATOLL
SCREENWRITER: Michael Hogan
SYNOPSIS: A young castaway’s only hope for rescue lies in a long-lost female aviator named Amelia and the feuding extraterrestrials occupying his atoll.

THE MANSION (Turkey)
SCREENWRITER:  Leslie Bates (UniCvisions)
SYNOPSIS: The magic of Istanbul, Turkey, becomes a scary reality for four children from different cultures as they unlock the mystery of the seven faceted magical key.  How many doors do they have to open to bring them back to the present – and what adventures will they have on the way – and will they make it alive?

THE RAINBOW
SCREENWRITER:  Douglas Raymond
SYNOPSIS: When a mute, traumatized kid in Maine finds a piece of rainbow, it makes headlines around the world.  This causes a group of Himalayan monks to send one of their own to the States to fulfill his destiny.  The events that follow have worldwide ramifications we all inherently long for.

2010 INTERNATIONAL FAMILY FILM FESTIVAL
SHORT SCREENPLAY SYNOPSIS

ARE WE THERE YET?
SCREENWRITER:  Sabrina Zackery
SYNOPSIS:  Young Joseph Donohue leaves his home in New Jersey to fulfill the family dream of owning a ranch in Nevada.  When a wild mustang crosses their path, Joseph is convinced he can capture, train and compete at the local horse show.  Is this a boy’s dream or reality?

BEST FRIEND
SCREENWRITER: William Malkin
SYNOPSIS: A tender story about a poor, young boy’s love for his mangy old dog, Champ, blinded by the vicious and thoughtless actions of two young local bullies.  For some misguided political reasons, Ben Walters, the father of one of the boys, intends to have Champ put to sleep.

HAMPTON COURT – Episode #1 ROGUE NATION
SCREENWRITER: James Kirtland
SYNOPSIS: The North Koreans test a nuclear bomb.  Michael and Victoria Hampton penetrate the underground facility that manufactures weapons grade nuclear material, destroy the reactor and are nearly trapped underground.

HAMPTON COURT - Episode #2 TIL IT’S DONE
SCREENWRITER: James Kirtland
SYNOPSIS: A professional killer has a contract with Victoria’s name on it.  Michael must track down the assassin and time is running out.

ALIENS, PRINCESSES AND A DOG
SCREENWRITER: Russ Brandon
SYNOPSIS: As two girls play princesses, some dragon-like aliens try to abduct them, only to be foiled by their fearlessness, resourcefulness and trusty companion.

NEVAEH CAN’T WAIT (Canada)
SCREENWRITER: Leslie Bradford
SYNOPSIS: An animated short film explains the emotional affects of terminal illness to children. The toughest part of Shawn’s return to the Astral Plane, Nevaeh, is not the long journey. It’s the alienation of his friends.

BLINDA
SCREENWRITER: Vicki Bartholomew
SYNOPSIS: Blinda’s imagination populates her real life with fairy tale characters, who are in reality her own family doing ordinary things. 

KEEMO THE ARCHER
SCREENWRITER: Mark Winzer
SYNOPSIS: A young girl battles her cancer in a post-operative dream and discovers the fortitude to defeat her disease.  Hope really can change the future.

THE HUNT FOR THE GOLDEN COBRA
SCREENWRITER:  Keva Keyes
SYNOPSIS: Charles takes us to the summer of 1965 when he and his half brother Primus explored their natural environment in search of a medallion buried by an African ancestor.