Here is the list of 2023 screenplay winners from the Fan Fiction Festival.
Watch the 3 winning screenplay best scene readings:
The Sea Captain’s Cottage, by Stephanie Marie Couture
After losing her job in NYC, Marylin and her daughter move away for a quieter life in Maine. Marylin hopes to fix her strained relationship with her daughter and find new purpose by restoring an old seaside cottage. What she didn’t anticipate was falling in love with the ghost that resides there. A modern adaptation of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” Book by R. A. Dick.
STAR WARS: REVELATIONS, by Darius Gerard Clar
MAZ OJAL, a corrupt business tyrant, discovers large amounts of Kyber Crystal deposits and sets out to gather the find, using slaves in the process. A 90 year old YODA, his son DAGO, and other villagers are captured and enslaved to mine the Kyber. During a dispute, Dago is slain by one of the guards. During a prison riot, Yoda and ZEN KALDRONIUS steal a ship full of Kyber, escape the mines, and are chased by Maz’ Alpha Team. Yoda and Zen end up crashing on jungle planet but N’KATA DEL GORMO, a Hysalrian, saves them. N’kata sees that the force is strong in them and takes them in as Padawans.
CRIMINAL MINDS Spec: INNER LIFE, by Tanya M. Wheeler
At Christmas, the profilers of the BAU pick up a cold case that turns out to be the kidnapping of a young woman, Mary, from Chinatown, held captive for nine months by unsub Gabriel. Alerted to Mary’s disappearance by her Western boyfriend, Joseph, the team navigate closed Chinese culture, and matchmaking traditions, in a race against time to rescue Mary before she gives birth on Christmas Eve.
After losing her job in NYC, Marylin and her daughter move away for a quieter life in Maine. Marylin hopes to fix her strained relationship with her daughter and find new purpose by restoring an old seaside cottage. What she didn’t anticipate was falling in love with the ghost that resides there. A modern adaptation of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” Book by R. A. Dick.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Steve Rizzo
Marilyn: Val Cole
Jess: Hannah Ehman
Best Long Form Short Film: THE BLOOD CRYSTAL: A STAR WARS FAN FILM Best Short Form Short Film: SUPERMAN Best Sound & Music: THE TALES OF BOBA FETT Best Direction: KILLING JOKE Best Cinematography: STAR WARS: RENDEZVOUS
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
SUPERMAN, 4min., Canada Directed by Andre St-Amour Lois Lane is captured by two dangerous gangsters! Superman flies to her rescue, but is challenged by Metallo and then things only get worse! PART ONE of short animated Superman FAN FILM SERIAL!
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE BLOOD CRYSTAL: A STAR WARS FAN FILM, 32min., USA Directed by Dark Hoffman Two young JEDI, Daptain Drovat and his Padawan, were secrectly sent by the Rebellion to find the Blood Crystal, rumored to have infinite powers. A young Sith races to an abandoned Imperial Kyber mining base on the moons of Orsicca in order to procure the crystal fo the Empire. Following orders from the Rebellion and the Empire, both Sith and Jedi have found themselves on the same moon, fighting to find the Blood Crystal…
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE TALES OF BOBA FETT, 4min., USA Directed by Benson Mckay After a group of smugglers acquire a valuable asset, they soon realize they’re not alone. Without warning, they are being hunted by one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
STAR WARS: RENDEZVOUS, 20min., USA Directed by Brent L Peterson A pair of do-gooders attempt to protect a young, force-sensitive girl from bounty hunters on their way to rendezvous with a mysterious contact with the power to protect her much better than they can.
Audience Award Winners: Best Fan FIction Film: BATMAN: EGO Best Performances: THE OATH: A BATMAN FAN FILM Best Direction: SPIDER-MAN: MORALES
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
BATMAN: EGO, 18min., USA Directed by Jack Tyler Komaroff Batman: Ego is a riveting fan-film adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s preeminent Batman story “Batman: Ego and Other Tales”. In the film, Bruce Wayne is forced to confront his inner demons and unpack the persona that is “the Batman”. With dark noir visuals, captivating performances, immersive sound design, and two powerful action scenes, this adaptation is one for the ages!
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE OATH: A BATMAN FAN FILM, 17min., USA Directed by Johnny K Sergeant Frank Kelly is one of the last good cops in Gotham, and his life is about to change forever. This fan film takes a trip back to the mean streets of Gotham when “the Bat” was just a rumor chased by reporter Alexander Knox, and the city was powerless against crime bosses like Carl Grissom.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
SPIDER-MAN: MORALES, 17min,. USA Directed by Sipho A Nxasana In the wake of a personal tragedy, young Miles Morales begins his journey of donning the mask as the titular hero Spider-Man.
MAZ OJAL, a corrupt business tyrant, discovers large amounts of Kyber Crystal deposits and sets out to gather the find, using slaves in the process. A 90 year old YODA, his son DAGO, and other villagers are captured and enslaved to mine the Kyber. During a dispute, Dago is slain by one of the guards. During a prison riot, Yoda and ZEN KALDRONIUS steal a ship full of Kyber, escape the mines, and are chased by Maz’ Alpha Team. Yoda and Zen end up crashing on jungle planet but N’KATA DEL GORMO, a Hysalrian, saves them. N’kata sees that the force is strong in them and takes them in as Padawans.
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Dago: Steve Rizzo
Yoda: Sean Ballantyne
Zen: Geoff Mays
Guard: Andy Camp
At Christmas, the profilers of the BAU pick up a cold case that turns out to be the kidnapping of a young woman, Mary, from Chinatown, held captive for nine months by unsub Gabriel. Alerted to Mary’s disappearance by her Western boyfriend, Joseph, the team navigate closed Chinese culture, and matchmaking traditions, in a race against time to rescue Mary before she gives birth on Christmas Eve.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Hotch: Steve Rizzo
Rossi: Sean Devlin
Simon Fang: Allan Michael
THE LAST GUARDIAN (Star Wars Fan Fiction), 78min., Canada Directed by Kyle Parish A Star Wars Fan Film. On the far corners of the galaxy, a lone Jedi Guardian, Cal, suffers in exile while protecting a powerful relic from a new Sith cult. Haunted by visions of his past family and the voices of the dead Sith within the relic, Cal is slowly drifting into madness, not sure what is real and what isnt. Endlessly tormented by his wife, the Sith cultist Aaylia, and hunted by her army of cloned assassins, Cal believes he is making the ultimate sacrifice to protect the galaxy. But when a Republic pilot, Ilia, crashes on his world, Cal is forced to confront his past and present, while determining the fate of not just the galaxy, but his family.
Movies are only as good as the characters that fill them. A film can look and sound terrible but if the characters and their stories grab you, then you will continue to follow them. I build all my stories around characters that I find very human. The setting might be in a fantasy or science fiction realm, but the characters are very much people you could see yourself in the position of. It’s this core philosophy that drove The Last Guardian forward.
I never expected to shoot another Fan Film. I’ve done several and thought I was ready to move past it. 2019 was a very difficult year for me. I was dealing with a lot of different things and it was during this that I started developing The Last Guardian. Immediately I had the idea of this strong, mythic almost, character who was broken down to the point of forgetting who they actually were. And the idea that this was actually caused by them being manipulated by someone they once loved was very interesting to me. We see in the film the consistent back and forth struggle between Cal and Aaylia. Two people who, despite everything that’s happened to them, still love each other, but they are on very different paths. Their child, Jinn, who is stuck between, forced to pick sides and in this case, make a huge sacrifice. It’s a situation I thought would relate to a lot of people and something I wanted to explore. The question of how far you would go for family, for love.
That was one part of what The Last Guardian is exploring but the other and equally driving focus is on acceptance. Coming to accept the person you are. We all have things that we keep inside. Truths that we might not want to accept or perhaps don’t want to believe about ourselves. Cal must face this deep look at himself but so must the character of Ilia. She carries within her something that her mind and soul have hidden from her. A truth that’s devastating. I wanted to start to peel the layers back and explore this kind of repressed trauma coming to light. While what the trauma is isn’t directly spelled out in the film, the pieces are there. As Ilia becomes more stressed, the truth slowly shows itself. It’s a mystery for the audience as it is for Ilia. If you watch closely and do piece the mystery together, it’s a shocking truth, something to be explored in a follow up.
In all, The Last Guardian is a study of dealing with trauma and family. Yes it is a Fan Film, which means it can’t be sold for distribution. That is never the point behind these. Telling the story is the point. Exploring these characters, enjoying the journey is what truly matters. Fan Films may not get the same appreciation as other projects but that doesn’t lessen the importance of the stories they can tell. A chance to explore new things in a universe we love, while allowing the filmmakers, actors and crew, to hopefully get recognitions for the hard work they have done to bring these stories to life on the minor budgets we have for such projects. In the end we do this because we love it. And I hope you will join us in loving it too.
FAN FICTION Film and Writing Festival 