Posted by Molly Peck

The world has changed a lot over the past year, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the amazing work happening at Stage 32! Our writing community has had some incredible successes this year, and we’re thrilled to be a part of them. All of the wonderful work that you - our writing community - have done this year deserves to be celebrated, and we plan to do just that.

Our lookbooks and contests have grown so much during 2021, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight as many success stories as possible to celebrate our writers’ accomplishments. For the end of the year, we put together a Best of 2021 Lookbook, showcasing all of our contest finalists and writers who received “Double Recommends” through Stage 32 written coverage or notes in 2021. The lookbook is getting a great response from our extensive list of industry professionals! Now it’s time for us to highlight some of our most outstanding writers and success stories of the year.

This year, 117 scripts received the coveted “Double Recommend” from industry readers and executives. Less than 1% of all scripts submitted to Stage 32 received this distinction in 2021.

Those writers who receive multiple “Double Recommends” are extra special and the writers the industry should all keep an eye on! This year, Stage 32 members Iain Anderson, Cameron Tendaji, Stan Evans and Barry Leach all achieved this feat - congratulations! Iain Anderson topped this list with 7 scripts receiving “Double Recommends.” His script, PET SOUNDS, was requested the highest number of times by executives this year as well.

A close second to this number was Justin Ballheim, who’s script, THE APPLICANTS, was requested the second highest number of times by executives. And, in May, it was through Stage 32 that Justin met producer Matt Goldberg who optioned the script and attached a director to the project! You can read more about that story by clicking here.

 

Stage 32 Presents the Top Scripts of 2021 As Chosen by Industry Professionals

Justin Ballheim, Writer of THE APPLICANTS

 

The “Double Recommend” distinction was able to help so many writers get their work out there this year, and we can’t wait to see even more writers achieve it in 2022!

We can’t forget about our contest winners, who impressed our judges throughout 2021. So here is a big shout out to each of them again! A big congratulations to Chris Phillips, Ellen Doyle, Lauren Schwein, Tayler Carter, Richard Cullen, Hilary Van Hoose, Wigham Foothill, Layla O’Shea, Julie Bruns and Steven Kammerer! Winning one of our screenwriting contests means beating out a record shattering number of submissions. We had record breaking numbers of submissions for all of our contests this year!

Our contest winners have continued to have success after their wins. Layla O’Shea, winner of the 6th Annual Television Writing Contest, hit it off with contest judge Boman Modine, an Emmy nominated writer and director. The meeting turned into a job for Layla, when Boman recommended her for a script analyst position for a European drama series. Congratulations Layla!

Tayler Carter, who won the 2nd New Voices in Animation Contest, will be flying out to Los Angeles to take meetings with the contest’s judges in January, but their script, BUCKHORN ACADEMY, has already been generating interest. The script was requested by multiple other executives after appearing in the Finalist Lookbook, some of whom requested meetings. They have already been meeting with Literary Managers who have requested their work after reading about Tayler in the Stage 32 Lookbook! We’re looking forward to seeing what Tayler does in 2022!

All of our contest finalists appear in our Finalist Lookbooks, where they often find success as well. Sarah Elizabeth Timmins, the Creative Director at Live Life Out Loud Films LLC, recently signed a shopping agreement with writers Kal-el Bogdanove and Adrienne Arno. The writing team were finalists in the 6th Annual Television Writing Contest.

Many of our success stories don’t come from contest wins, but from meetings scheduled through Stage 32’s Script Services. 30 or 60 minute talks with Executives have yielded amazing results this year. Writer Kawan Glover recently signed with Tessa Shaffer, a literary agent at Corviserio Literary Agency. He met Tessa through Stage 32, and she is now representing his memoir, and the script based on it. You can read more about that story by clicking here

 

Stage 32 Presents the Top Scripts of 2021 As Chosen by Industry Professionals

Kawan Glover signed with Manager Tessa Shaffer through Stage 32!

 

Veteran writer/producer Julia Verdin of Rough Diamond Productions recently optioned a script through Stage 32. She met with writer and script analyst James Papa, and the two are now co-writing a script called SURVIVING THE STREETS. So much can happen from just a meeting!

This year was huge for Stage 32’s writing community, and we’re planning for 2022 to be even bigger! Don’t wait to get your work out there, use Stage 32’s resources to help you achieve your dreams. Submit to a contest, check out our writers room, or get some feedback from an industry reader - it’s all at your fingertips. Make 2022 the year we write about you!

Next week check back for the Top 12 Success Stories of 2021! Let’s end the year with a bang!

To check out many of the writers mentioned, and more, download the Best of 2021 Lookbook at the link below.

Stage 32 Best of 2021 Lookbook


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