CinemaSpoke screenplay competition now accepting submissions

Cinema St. Louis is now accepting submissions for the 2009 CinemaSpoke
Screenwriting Competition and Workshop. CinemaSpoke is an opportunity
for St. Louis-area screenwriters to have their work read aloud in a
public forum by professional and amateur actors and to receive
feedback from a panel of film-industry experts experienced in
producing, screenwriting, filmmaking, development, and criticism.
Deadline for submissions is Feb. 28, 2009.

A committee of selection judges will read the first 30 pages of each
submitted screenplay. Based on these 30 pages, the judges will then
select five scripts for the competition. The five 2008 CinemaSpoke
finalists will be announced on Monday, April 3.

The first 30 pages of each selected script will be given a public
reading. Readings will be held at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every
month – April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7, and Aug. 4 – at the Dana Brown
Rehearsal Hall/Rialto Ballroom on the fourth floor of the Centene
Center for Arts & Education, 3547 Olive St. in Grand Center. The
winning screenplay will then receive a full reading on Sept. 15. All
readings are free and open to the public.

Writers will be allowed to play a role in casting the actors who will
do the live readings of the competition scripts. A panel of film
professionals will offer criticism and feedback based on these
readings. The author will also respond to questions from both
panelists and audience members and has the option to rewrite the
script based on feedback from the panel. Once the panel has read the
final versions of all five scripts in their entirety, a winning script
will be selected from the five.

CinemaSpoke selection judges are St. Louis Post-Dispatch film critic
Calvin Wilson; St. Louis Beacon film critic Harper Barnes; St. Louis
Community College at Meramec professor emeritus of film and University
Film and Media Association president Diane Carson; former HBO and PBS
programming associate Amani Roland; and Missouri Film Commission
assistant director Andrea Sporcic. CinemaSpoke panelists are TV writer/
producer Paul Guyot ("Judging Amy," "Felicity"), TV writer Rift
Fournier ("NYPD Blue," "Kojak"), screenwriter Richard Chapman ("Live
From Baghdad"), St. Louis Post-Dispatch film critic Joe Williams,
film producer Buzz Hirsch ("Silkwood"), and St. Louis writer/producer
Bobbie Lautenschlager.

For more information, contact Cinema St. Louis at 314-289-4150 or
visit its Web site at www.cinemastlouis.org.