AFF Screenplay Contest: Something new, something great?

ANCHORAGE — It is the 16th year for Anchorage Film Festival and the first time there has been a screenplay contest. Rebecca Pottebaum, the Festival director says it is a “really great asset.”

“It’s a pretty established idea,” she said. “That a lot of times to get your work in front of producers, you need to expose yourself to a lot of readers, or get feedback, or workshop it, or you know hey, win some contests.”

“When you submit to contests, when you have a winner, you have a lore attached to it. [Like the Anchorage International Film Festival] It actually gives it a little bit more clout.”

This makes a writer’s work more likely to be passed around, so it can get in the right hands to eventually be produced. The amount of credibility in a writer’s work seems to increase with recognition from contests such as the one held by Anchorage Film Festival.

The contest winners are: 1st Place: “Minimum to Be” (Jason Mott, NC, USA) 2nd Place: “Fish Wind” (Jana Orkugut, AK, USA) 3rd Place [Tie]: “Pipeline” (Jody Ellis, AK, USA) 3rd Place [Tie]:“Out For Blood” (Michael Conley, USA)

The origin of the contest essentially arose from a conversation between Pottebaum and a UAA instructor and award-winning screenwriter.

“An idea born out of ‘hey why don’t we have a screenplay contest?’ ” Pottebaum says. She stated it wasn’t difficult to integrate the contest into the festival.

The screenplay competition coordinator narrowed all the submissions down to the top nine, then those screenplays were passed on to several jury members who are varying professionals in the community. They read and rated the screenplays on their quality.

The Anchorage Film Festival is international and brings writers, film-makers, and other professionals in the industry from around the world. Naturally, with dozens of submissions to the contest, Alaskan Writers competed with outside writers. 2 Alaskan writers managed to place 2nd and 3rd place in the contest.

“It’s great to see that there are some [Alaskan] people writing some great, pretty solid things,” Pottebaum states.

The two stories by the Alaskan writers had an Alaskan theme. Perhaps part of their success derives from a lingering fascination with Alaska, from the outside, in.

Rebecca claims that a lot of people are writing about Alaska. She see’s opportunity within this intrigue.

“There’s so much interest and hunger out there for Alaska material – because everyone is still fascinated with Alaska… it’s not an accident.”

“The time is right for this material- that’s based on the really, real stories of Alaska – to come out.”

According to Pottebaum, screenplay contests are an effective way to get your work seen, molded and fit into the “grand scheme of things.”

Contests like this can bridge the gap for writers trying to get recognition for their work and film-makers looking for something great to read then produce. The Anchorage Film Festival is a 10 day event, with lot’s of Q & A’s and collaborations in between. That is a fairly respectable run time especially by Alaskan standards. An event at this scale and reach can help buffer the challenges locals face to get their work known.

Pottebaum states that there is a lack of big production companies up here so it is harder to get your work raised up to the big leagues. The challenge is after you’ve written as screenplay, where do you go from there?

She makes an example, “ ‘Okay, I’ve got this great script, but I don’t have connections down in L.A or anywhere where there is a lot of companies, a lot of people.’ ”

“So either: You shop it out to your friends, who might make a low-budget production, or you sit on it. You don’t know what the next step is.”

Pottebaum says that’s where the film festivals come in.

There will be a workshop / panel event Dec. 4, 2016 centered around the contest winners, who will read samples of their work and go over Q & A with a panel. It is essentially a networking event to connect writers and filmmakers.

“We’re really proud of our first year as a screenplay contest. We want to grow- make it known that we are a resource for people who want to connect to the film industry.”