Rant alert

I entered The Alice '65 in 16 screenplay competitions. It got nowhere in 9, so far, but did achieve the following --

Indie Gathering (First Place – Comedy/Romantic)
StoryPros (Quarterfinalist)
PAGE International (Quarterfinalist)

I guess that's good. Better than nothing, right? Wanna bet?

Here are some of the other awards I've amassed (I think I actually have more for FRT and Bugzters but just can't remember them and the info is mixed up in boxes of paperwork I need to go through).

Darian’s Point
Worldfest Flagstaff/Charleston (First Place, Horror)

The Cowboy King of Texas {AKA: The King of the Cowboys}
Houston International Film Festival {AKA: Worldfest Houston} (First Place, And Special Jury Award)

Straight on Till Morning
Houston International Film Festival {AKA: Worldfest Houston} (First Place, Biography)

Bugzters
Pacific NW Writer’s Association (Second Place)

Blood Angel
Movie Deal! (Second Place)
Indie Gathering (Third Place)
Pacific N.W. Writers (Finalist)
Austin (Semifinalist)
Screenwriting Expo (Semifinalist)
Cinestory (Semifinalist)
Blazing Quill (Semifinalist)
Scriptapalooza (Quarterfinalist)
Slamdance (Quarterfinalist)
PAGE International (Quarterfinalist)

Find Ray T (AKA: Find Ray Tarkovsky)
Emerging Screenwriters (Finalist)
Scriptapalooza (Semifinalist)
American Accolades (Semifinalist)
Screenwriter Dig (Semifinalist)
WriteMovies (Semifinalist)
StoryPros Awards (Quarterfinalist)
Wildsound (Finalist)

Wide New World
Indie Gathering (Second Place)
Worldfest - Houston (Third Place)
British Feature (Semifinalist, The Big Picture)

Return to Darian’s Point
Shriekfest (Finalist)
Writer's on the Storm (Semifinalist)

5 Dates
Screenwriting Expo (Finalist, Suzanne's Prize)
Movie Deal! (Finalist)

The Lyons’ Den
One in Ten (4th place)

Dair’s Window
One in Ten (Finalist)

So...you think I can get an agent or producer to pay attention to me? Nope. Wanna know why? I was actually just told I really need to read Save the Cat and apply "those solid principles" to my scriptwriting. I've read the fucking book. I hated it. It's writing according to computer programming, but that is, apparently, the new template for Hollywood to tell whether or not a script is any good. Syd Field wasn't simplistic enough. I actually feel insulted.

On top of it, A65 was dissed by the Austin Film Festival, which then gave one man's script -- one script, not three different ones -- 3 positions in its finalists' lists. Now maybe the script is just that good. I don't know. I don't give a fuck. Because I also noticed that the writer is based in Austin and has worked with the AFF. Helps to be an insider; lets you have the upper hand. Because when I went there in 2007 I read some of those winning scripts (BA was a semi-finalist so I got a free pass to everything), and they were crap.

I gave up on Sundance because it had become incestuous, like this. Their screenwriting workshops -- which would only offer 10-12 slots for writers to come work on their projects -- got to where they would first accept any filmmaker who'd been accepted to the film festival and whatever was left over was what the rest of us would fight for...usually just 2-3 slots.

But I guess that's always been Hollywood's way -- work with people you know have done the job. So I'm not really surprised at AFF's actions. Hell, I should have learned my lesson in 2007.

No, what really pisses me off is, I spent nearly a thousand dollars that I could not really afford entering these competitions on A65, a script I'm damned proud of, and all I've gotten back nowhere near makes up for the spit I keep getting in my face. So that's it. I expect I'll get four more "sorry but you're just not good enough and in the know enough for us" responses. But that's fine, because it's now a case of, Fuck the competitions; I'm done with this shit.

Rant done, too.