Script Writers based in Northern Ireland may be interested in applying for the recently announced Orange (Mobile Phone Network) Prize for Screenwriting and the Pathe Production Prize.
Orange, the digital mobile-phone network, and Pathe, one of the UK's leading Independent film production and distribution companies, have joined forces to create an initiative to identify new film-making talent. The scheme has two distinct elements: the Orange Prize for Screenwriting and the Pathe Production Prize. This initiative is supported by The Sunday Times, Odeon, the cinema operator and two new-talent organisations, The First Film Foundation and The Script Factory.
The Orange Prize for Scriptwriting is a search to identify the three most outstanding film scripts written in one year on the basis of excellence of writing, originality and accessibility from any of three - thriller, comedy or love story.
Entrants must be 18 or over and be British citizens or UK residents. They must not have written or co-written a script that has previously been produced as a full-length feature film. Each entry costs £35.25 (inc Vat), for which the entrant will receive a professional script report analysing the strengths and weaknesses of their script. The three winning writers will each receive a prize of £10,000 and their scripts will be the only entrants for the Pathe Production Prize; one will be selected to be produced into a full length feature film.
How To Enter
Visit www.pathe.co.uk or www.orange.co.uk to request entry details and terms and conditions for the Orange Prize for Screenwriting/Pathe Production Prize. Scripts must be submitted by 5 p.m., Wednesday, September 30, 1998. The three winners will be announced in January 1999. A shortlist of the most outstanding scripts will be judged by Ridley Scott, director of Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise, Mark Shivas producer of Truly Madly Deeply and Regeneration, the screenwriter Hossein Amini, Kathy Burke star of Nil By Mouth and Lenny Henry.
