SIP Screenwriting Competition

SIP 2024 is Open! Early deadline: August 12. Final deadline: September 16.

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The “Set in Philadelphia” Screenwriting Competition (SIP), which is presented by the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, is open to all screenwriters, world-wide, who submit a feature length screenplay OR an original TV pilot length screenplay that can be shot in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. All genres are accepted. Scripts are judged on their overall quality and the extent to which they project “shootability” in the Greater Philadelphia region. SIP Finalist Judges are high profile producers, writers and actors who have a Philadelphia connection.

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AND THE 2023 WINNERS ARE…

Grand Prize, sponsored by Stephen Starr: Engram, by Patrick Mahon

WRITER BIO: Obsessed with the power of story to redeem, I’m a passionate Scottish screenwriter with a unique trinational perspective who writes ‘Dark with a Heart’ psychological thrillers. I gravitate to characters backed into a corner with no way out, forced to strip away all the onion layers, confront their own mortality and discover what truly lies beneath.

LOGLINE: In the near future, when forensic Memory Detectives solve murders by accessing the victim’s engrams, veteran Mem-Dec Max Novak ingests proof the Engram program is built upon a lie and must expose the truth before his corrupt superiors wipe his memory clean, forever.

The Prime Time TV Pilot Prize, sponsored by Comcast & NBCUniversal

AND

The Oscar Micheaux Prize, sponsored by VestedIn

Magical Negro by Sam Watson

WRITER BIO: Sam Watson is a Black, biracial, Ukrainian-American television writer. His identity is a patchwork of pierogies, collard greens and a whole lot of messiness, which is why he mainly writes about identity and how oppressive systems shape it. The trauma of racism on his dad’s side and the trauma of war and genocide on his Ukrainian side also informs Sam’s writing, which digs into generational trauma and how trauma informs our actions. Sam was a winner in the 2023 Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices contest, a semifinalist in the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival and the 2023 Nashville Festival, and his writings have placed in various other contests and film festival.
LOGLINE: In pre-Civil War Philadelphia, a rebellious Black man, who is a personified good luck charm, runs afoul of powerful city officials and must survive the bullet-riddled consequences if his thriving Black community is to persist.

The Nina Lo Presti Award, sponsored by Laurie Lo Presti: Mating, by Rae Shaw

WRITER BIO: Rae Shaw is an interdisciplinary media artist, writer and educator creating innovative and provocative narratives across disciplines of visual media, fiction/nonfiction, performance and poetry. Her work uplifts the experiences of women of color and combats stereotypes of the black female in visual media.

LOGLINE: A young girl on the edge of puberty strives to convince her family to help her protect other young girls from a child predator as she struggles with nightmares of her own burgeoning sexuality.

Content for Kids, sponsored by Hallee & David Adelman, From Philly to the Stratosphere, by Jenny Krumrine

WRITER BIO: Jenny Krumrine, Ph.D. is a children’s author, science writer and former research scientist. Her playful children’s writing encourages scientific curiosity and environmental awareness. She has authored fiction and poetry for Cricket Muse and Highlights Hello. She was also the winner of the 2008 Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Regional Award at the Philadelphia Film Festival for her screenplay Think About Love.

LOGLINE: When a retired aerospace engineer moves in next door and reveals that the enormous contraption he’s building will let Earth’s atmosphere escape so the whole world will be his, eight-year-old Zophia has only her two best friends and her unusual pet, which might be a cat or a dog (or might not), to help her figure out how to stop him.

The “Set in Philadelphia” Screenwriting Competition (SIP) is proudly presented by the Greater Philadelphia Film Office under its Greater Philadelphia Filmmakers program with 2023 awards sponsored by:

Stephen Starr
Hallee and David Adelman
Comcast & NBCUniversal
Laurie Lo Presti
VestedIn