Editor

Mike Miller's Ten and a Half Captures Prestigious ASA Top Honors

John E. Johnson, Executive Director of the American Screenwriters Association (ASA), announced today that Mike Miller of Vista, CA has won the Grand Prize of the 8th Annual International Screenwriting Competition, sponsored by the American Screenwriters Association and Gotham Writers' Workshop. The award will be presented at the Actor's Ball & Awards Gala on September 24, 2005 as part of the San Diego Film Festival and ASA International Screenwriting Conference in San Diego, CA.

The script, Ten and a Half , takes place on July 16th 1969, in the coastal town of Cocoa Beach Florida, where a bank robbery gone bad leaves the most damaging secret in American history in the hands of a couple of hopped-up knuckleheads who are being chased by rouge government agents, the local police and drug dealers, who all want something entirely different from the unsuspecting pair on the run.

Miller will receive a cash prize of five-thousand dollars; ASA and Gotham Writers' Workshop assistance in pitching his script to Hollywood including a trip to the San Diego Film Festival and ASA International Screenwriting Conference in San Diego, CA; the 'Mick' Caswell Award for Screenwriting Excellence; a full script consultation with script consultant, screenwriter and author Michael Hauge; promotion of his script to more than 6,500 film industry professionals, Final Draft software, and additional screenwriting resources.

Congratulations also go to the four other finalists: Michael Amato of Franklin, MA with Gray Matter; Scott Fauber of Birmingham, AL with Nothing Coming; Joseph Holland of Yonkers, NY with Booker T.; and Mary Kate McGeehan and Susan Shaughnessy of Studio City, CA with Bearded Ladies.

FINALISTS LOGLINES


GRAND PRIZE WINNER:
Ten and a Half
Mike Miller (Vista, CA)
Contact: Mike Miller, phyllisanncarullo@cox.net

On July 16th 1969, in the coastal town of Cocoa Beach Florida, a bank robbery gone bad leaves the most damaging secret in American history in the hands of a couple of hopped-up knuckleheads.

SECOND PLACE
Gray Matter
Michael Amato (Franklin, MA)
Contact: Michael Amato, mlamato@comcast.net

In the year 2024, Agent Samuel Gray is critically wounded and comatose after learning of an imminent, massive terrorist attack and a double-agent within his organization. Morgan Walker, an embittered paraplegic and former operative, must enter his friend's mind to discover what he learned before being shot. But once he is inside Gray's head, Walker discovers that he is not alone.

THIRD PLACE
Nothing Coming
Scott Fauber (Birmingham, AL)
Contact: Scott Fauber, scottfauber@hotmail.com

When an ex-con decides to steal his sister's life savings and hit the road for good, her troubled teenage son gives him a reason to stay.

FOURTH PLACE
Booker T.
Joseph Holland (Yonkers, NY)
Contact: Joseph Holland, jhol1215@aol.com

Booker T. Washington, the greatest Black leader of his times, struggles against a White segregationist lawyer and an enterprising Black activist over the course of race relations in the late nineteenth century South.

FIFTH PLACE
Bearded Ladies
Mary Kate McGeehan and Susan Shaughnessy (Studio City, CA)
Contact: Mary Kate McGeehan and Susan Shaughnessy, Kauaimk@aol.com or rach83@mac.com