Congratulations to Montclair Film’s 2025 Emerging Screenwriter Competition Winners

On Saturday, May 10th, Montclair Film held the Awards Ceremony for the fourth annual Emerging Screenwriters Competition. All the finalists were celebrated at a Red-Carpet Reception at Cinema505. The Grand Prize-winning script was read at a professional table read. See all the photos from the event on Flickr

Grand Prize Winner

GRAND PRIZE: Xavier Marte, Liberty High School
Gentrified
Three teenagers make an attempt to stop gentrification in their hometown by making it as unappealing as possible.

Horror / Thriller 

FINALIST: Demitrius Joseph Balevski, Pequannock Township High School
Reflections
Haunted by guilt after a fatal accident, Amber Rose struggles with terrifying hallucinations of her own reflection, which taunts and torments her. As her paranoia spirals, she pushes away those closest to her.

FINALIST: Norah Louise Hershey, Columbia High School
Prey
A mentally disturbed girl in her twenties moves to a new town in hopes of self-discovery. However, what she finds is the opposite of comforting.

WINNER: Willow Dunn Killebrew, Montclair Kimberley Academy
Nightmares
“Trauma is timelessness” — Eli Hayes, reviewing “Mysterious Skin”

FINALIST: Maxwell Talbot, Seton Hall Prep
Tracks
A forest ranger receives an odd distress call from a hiker lost deep in the woods. The further he treks to find the hiker however, the stranger things get. He soon realizes something is waiting for him.

Romance

Presenter: Kayleigh Nardella

FINALIST: Krista R Lilienthal, Pompton Lakes High School
The Letters
In this short drama, tension between two best friends emerges when they decide to open their college acceptance letters together.

WINNER: Ryle Navarro, Passaic County Technical Institute
Fumiyuu
Two soulmates connected by a red-gold string and their journey of falling for one another.

FINALIST: Candace Zheng – Garcia, Pompton Lakes High School
A Bittersweet Melody
A young couple in a duet are practicing in their school’s band room when an argument breaks out about their future.

Comedy

FINALIST: Brianna Pearl Anderson, Passaic County Technical Institute
Fast Money
Four friends struggle to figure out a way to make enough money to pay off a loan shark.

FINALIST: Carlos Batz Jimenez, Pompton Lakes High School
I Would Never!
A detective and a deputy attempt to find the culprit behind the death of the detective’s brother. Doctors tell him his brother died of natural causes, but the detective is convinced his brother was brutally murdered.

WINNER (Tie!): Xavier Marte, Liberty High School
Gentrified
Three teenagers make an attempt to stop gentrification in their hometown by making it as unappealing as possible.

WINNER (Tie!):Caroline Sheridan, Park Ridge High School
Funny Business
Mr. Zingo, a party clown and dear friend of the loving couple Emily and Elliot, stops by to pick up some of his “work-related” gear. However, as Emily excitedly shuffles through Zingo’s gallery of gags, his destructive secret is slowly revealed.

Drama

Presenter: Alex Schwarm and John Rotondo

WINNER: Logan Corea Hinojosa, Bloomfield High School
Separation
The story of a boy’s last day on Earth before the end of the world.

FINALIST: Anthony Michael DeMarco, Middletown High School South
Intersecting Parallels
Two boys who resent each other are chosen to work on a project together. After back and forth ideas, the two settle upon an agreement, one gets a good grade and one gets thrown out of class. Will they succeed?

FINALIST: Maya Caroline Konczynski, Roselle Park High School
Echoes of Attu
Lydia, in search of a peaceful place to write, travels to a secluded vacation spot, only to discover that the walls are filled with the echoes of the past.

FINALIST: Hudson Schowalter, West Orange High School
Your Song
After his tragic death, Richard, a teenage composer emancipated from his family, is forced to work together with his roommate, Christian, the only person who can see him, in order to get closure on his life.

ESC Judges

Evan Dickerson – Screenwriting Instructor and former curriculum coordinator with Montclair Film.  His production and writing credits include: Good Friday, A Revolution, Split Ends, and Disarray Days.

Tim Greenberg – Writer and Creator of the Netflix series Living With Yourself, also known for writing and producing The Detour and The Daily Show.

Kevin Dreyfuss – Managing Director, Courier Newsroom. Emmy-winning writer and producer of genre film, TV and digital content, former video head for the Harris-Walz campaign. Credits include Knights of Badassdom, Cooper’s Bar, and digital episodes of Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead.

Ryan Moore – Director of Film Academy and Curriculum at Montclair Film, Screenwriting Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and writer/director of the feature film Marijuana Minutes, and the upcoming Galaxy Four.

Kayleigh Nardella – Education Program Coordinator with Montclair Film, Former Film Theory Professor at the University Of Johannesburg in South Africa.

John Rotondo – Screenwriting Instructor, Former Professor at University of the Arts, writer of the feature film The Garden Left Behind and the novels Paul is Dead & When the Lights Stop Blinking 

Alex Schwarm – Creative producer and development executive specializing in international scripted television. His credits include RECTIFY, DEUTSCHLAND 83, and THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL.

Susan Skoog – Susan Skoog- Screenwriting professor at NYU’s Undergraduate Film and TV program, former dean of the School of Film and Screenwriting program director at University of the Arts. Writer/Director of the Sony Picture Classics’s film Whatever, and digital series Breeding Grounds. 

About the Emerging Screenwriter Competition

Montclair Film’s EMERGING SCREENWRITING COMPETITION celebrates the work of screenwriters who are in the 8th through 12th grades. The emerging screenwriters’ screenplays represent a wide range of styles and voices that showcase the diverse talents of young people who are using story to express themselves.

The screenplays can be submitted in a variety of genres including Comedy, Drama, Action/Adventure, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and Horror, and will be adjudicated by a jury of screenwriting and filmmaking professionals.

The Perks

• The Grand Prize-Winning script will be performed at a table read by actors at the award ceremony.
• Winners will be celebrated at our annual ESC Award Ceremony
• Winners will be acknowledged in a Montclair Film press release and on their website
• Winners in each category receive emailed script consultation from an experienced screenwriter

The Rules

• Short Film or Web Series Pilots will be accepted up to a length of 12 pages (not including the title page).
• Submissions must be submitted as a PDF
• Formatting: 12-point Courier font. 1.5 inch left margin. 1-inch right margin.
• Scripts must be formatted correctly to be considered. If you did not write your screenplay in screenwriting software (Final Draft, Movie Magic, etc.), consider re-writing it using com or Celtx.com, both of which have free options.
• Each writer may submit no more than two screenplays.
• Scripts may be submitted with multiple genres including Comedy, Drama, Horror — or a genre not listed.
• Awards are determined by the ESC Jury.

Submissions for the 2026 Emerging Screenwriters Competition will open in November 2025. For more information, email education@montclairfilm.org.