THE GOLD LIST | BIFF 2023
Screenplays of Outstanding Achievement
A Player's Paradox
(Grace Sargeant)
A tale of two masters in the art of seduction, playing each other to the point of self- sabotage. Hired by a vengeful ex Maxi takes up the ultimate challenge of seducing and destroying Victor. Both get caught up in a game to seduce the other. Tension mounts as the players get lost in the tumultuous game of passion, manipulation, deception, and destruction, leading the players to break the ultimate rule and lose control of their emotions.
Freedom Man
(Billy Festorazzi)
Surrounded by poverty, death and disease… Jin discovers that the worst part of living under the rule of President Xuan Vinh, is the leaders influence on his own neighbours and family, for even the ‘traitor’ Jin is not safe from his own wife’s perilous loyalty to their beloved dictator.
How to Jump
(Ezra England)
After being arrested for a murder she hasn't committed yet, Rowena Moore learns there is more to life and the universe than she ever could have imagined.
Live Forever
(David Knight)
Insta | @davidl.knight
In a time when Britpop ruled the airwaves, a group of friends find themselves stranded on the side of the road. Rapidly running out of beer and patience, can they pull together to make it to the gig that defined an era.
Her Majesty
(Keith Saltojanes)
When the biggest crime family in London goes too far, Queen Elizabeth herself takes matters into her own hands
Looking Over My Shoulder
(John Anthony Ellis)
The story of tough ex-con Jack Wilson who works as a driver/bodyguard for various ladies of the night who ply their trade via an online escort agency. Fresh out of prison, Jack is determined to stay on the straight and narrow and make a better life for both himself, and his eleven year old son Matthew.
Mum's House
(Pete Eliot)
With the authorities threatening to forcibly clear her home, a reclusive mother with hoarding disorder asks her estranged son and daughter for help, but with the family’s history of psychological trauma and simmering resentment this proves a far from easy task.
Neath Port Talbot
(Jesse Mattson)
A Lawyer from London loses her father to a sudden heart attack and he leaves her a boxing gym back home in Neath, Wales, where she ends up coaching the young man her father trained to an MMA rise.
No-Mann
(Lawrence Whitener)
Burned-out female Chicago Detective is challenged by an unstoppable unbeatable super-human serial killer to watch helpless during its horrific Christmas killings. No man, can kill, No-Mann.
One For Sorrow
(Simeon Lumgair)
A troubled young woman visits her boyfriend’s family and looks remarkably similar to the father’s ex-wife. Her visit brings out family secrets, which forces everyone to confront what they thought they knew about each other and themselves.
Purgatory
(Darren Hill)
A loving couple wake up in a heavenly purgatory and attempt to solve the mystery of how they died, before they pass on to the afterlife.
Steady
(Jack Harrison)
A seasoned but troubled bouncer must face the relentless pressure of his profession, navigating through hardships, inconveniences and tragedy over the course of a night at one of the country's most notorious nightclubs.
Technicolor Noir
(Madison Sean Flannery)
After a pop star dies under suspicious circumstances, a stoic ex-cop and a theatrical fangirl find themselves trying to unravel the same dangerous conspiracy - if they can get out of each other's way first.
The Black Cross
(Korea Black & Gianna Rose)
A former government assassin is hunted by an insidious organization with ties to her past.
The Drowned Men of Ballybad
(Baby Boy Monaghan
& Coco Mault)
A biracial Irish-American woman accompanies her father's corpse back to his hometown, a fishing village in Western Ireland. There she finds herself in a traditional singing contest while unraveling secrets about the past.
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The Merchant
(Jesse Mattson
& Bobby Davison)
An illegal gun runner and his gang get caught by the CIA selling weapons to drug dealers in Boston and are forced to smoke-out a rebel group gaining power in Northern Syria.
The Prodigal
(Thomas O'Malley)
Receiving news of his father's death, Dermot Conneely, travels from Brooklyn with his pregnant wife to the remote island of Inis Manaanán off the coast of Ireland. The island is blighted with disease and famine but their arrival is greeted with happiness and hope: the prodigal son has returned and the birth of their child will be the first child born on the island in generations.
Three Men and a Kitchen Table
(Kyriakos Georgiou)
After three men successfully rob a bank, everything is going perfect until they get back to Toni’s apartment to count the money, then something tragically goes wrong.
Typhoid Maria
(Timothy Porter)
Twitter | @timporterwrites
Insta | @timporterwrites
The rich are dying of a horrific disease in late 21st century New York City as competing terrorist groups race to control the biological weapon, Maria. Set in a near-future where environmental damage and economic inequality have gone unchecked, Typhoid Maria is a timeless story of one brave woman fighting to retain autonomy over her own body and protect her family.
Vexatious
(Yuval Caspi)
Due to a romantic turmoil, a young and idealist lawyer is forced to move in with her estranged father, a cunning local solicitor who tries to convince the residents of a small English town to support his new crusade.