Five feature-length screenplays have been judged winners in the 2000-01 Screenwriting Competition for students enrolled in the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting.
From about 100 entries, the five winners are "A Secret Rebel" by Betsy Bangs, "The Comeback" by Tim Burns, "Diary of a Meth Cooker" by Michael Shea, "Royal Treatment" by James Raymond and "Scary Monsters" by Andrew Nordvall.
"Obviously, we're very proud of the winners and everyone who submitted screenplays," Professional Program senior lecturer Hal Ackerman said. "The overall quality of all the writing was very high. We began this program for people who had the talent but weren't among the 20 we can accept into our MFA program each year. Because we receive hundreds of applications and the difference between the people we can take and the people we can't is so small, the program is a terrific opportunity."
Ackerman said the Professional Program emulates the master of fine arts program in its structure and in the overlap of the teachers in both programs.
Winners received their awards last night on the UCLA campus during the certificate ceremony for the program's participants.
Those receiving certificates are Paola Marquez Aguirre; Jung-Jin Ahn; Veronica Angeles; Piet Baete; Betsy Bangs; J. Wesley Bassard; Neil Berkeley; Eliese Besemer; Zvia Bird; Mark Brown; Helena Burns; Rahel Butah; Eileen Cabiling; Diana Caldwell; Don Castro; Anthony Ciavatta; Armand Constantine; William Danielson; Susan Doherty; David Eastman; Kristin Evans; Matt Flores; Bodil Fuhr; Sonia Garcia; Svetlana Gerasimova; Kenneth Gerstein; Page Getz; Scott Gist; Brian Goodlett; Erika Grediaga; Bruce Griset Jr.; Joey Day Hargrove; Marcy Harris; Cindy Hewitt; Kelly Hudspeth; William Huscher; Ramesh Iyer; George Johnston; Surya Kalsi; Carri Karuhn; Cynthia Kunishige; Patrick Lacho; John Lang; Marshall Layne; Paul Linke; James Longshore; Eric Luttrell; Paige Macdonald; Jennifer Mahal; Kevin Marks; Blake McCallister; Jennifer McGrath; Andrew Nordvall; William Porter II; Meredith Ralston; Mitchell Reiter; Eli Reyna; Valerie Risner; Hernan Ruiz; Jenevieve Santoriello; Loren Scott; Michael Shea; Sara Shea; Hilary Smith; Leri Smith; John Strelow; Brian Suskind; David Tiktin; Rachel Vine; Laurence Walsh; Danielle Wolff; Tara Youngblood; and David Zelitzky.
The Professional Program in Screenwriting is a certificate program conducted through the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and runs for an academic year from October-June. It has been in existence since 1994.