The Missouri Film Office is co-sponsoring a new event with the Missouri Motion Media Association in an effort to promote the growth of the film and television industry within Missouri. The Missouri Stories Scriptwriting Fellowship is a national competition looking for writers who have penned screenplays or TV pilot scripts set in Missouri.
Andrea Sporcic (Photo courtesy of Twitter @myfilmlife)
Winners will receive an all-expenses-paid fellowship experience with established industry mentors in Missouri. So far Missouri native writers Bob Gale and Ken LaZebnik have signed on as program mentors. Gale is best known for co-writing films in the “Back to the Future” trilogy while LaZebnik wrote the screenplay for “A Prairie Home Companion” and more than 20 episodes of the television show “Touched by an Angel.” During the fellowship, writers will have one-on-one time with mentors and will tour the areas in which their respective screenplay or script is set.
“We would love to see eventually a television series and more feature films that are set and hopefully shot in Missouri,” says Missouri Film office specialist Andrea Sporcic, who is excited about the opportunity to encourage writers who have projects set in Missouri. “Without writers, there is no story, so starting with the very beginning. You don’t have to be a Missouri writer, we are looking for Missouri set stories.”
The deadline to submit a screenplay or TV pilot script is November 28th. Up to three winners will be selected to attend the fellowship experience which takes place February 1st-4th. Visit MoFilm.org/MoStories to find a submission form along with rules and regulations.
