The Malta-based Mediterranean Screen Arts Academy is looking at Hollywood following the success of its international scriptwriting competition which attracted over 1,100 entries.
The year-long competition, organised in collaboration with the Institute of Tourism Studies, was won by American writer Mary Craven for her screenplay “Unusually Cold”. She will receive a €5,000 cash prize, together with access to mentoring and industry-facing opportunities.
The Screen Arts Centre is now focusing its sights on Hollywood as it enters “an exciting next phase of development”.
“The competition has already generated interest from industry professionals in Hollywood, reinforcing the centre’s ambition to operate as a globally connected platform for emerging creative talent,” a spokesperson for the MSAA said.
The screenplay submissions reflected a wide range of voices, cultural perspectives and storytelling approaches.
“The volume and diversity of submissions reaffirmed the continued relevance of long-form storytelling at a time of rapid technological and cultural change. Scripts spanned multiple genres and formats, engaging with contemporary global concerns alongside deeply personal narratives,” the competition organisers said.
The entries were assessed by an international jury of senior film and television professionals.
The panel included Roland Joffé, the Palme d’Or-winning director of The Killing Fields and The Mission, and Trevor Walton, a senior television executive with extensive experience in scripted television and international co-productions who has worked with CBS, FOX, Lifetime, and CBC.
“This has been a very exciting project. Every individual, if asked, has a story to tell. The screenplay is the first point on a journey, and the journey is to make the film,” Joffé said.
Walton commented on the quality and scope of the submissions, noting that the competition challenged assumptions about the decline of sustained writing in the digital age.
“At a time when we are constantly told that one of the casualties of our digital age is long-form writing, that’s not what we discovered through this competition. Writers around the world are still producing work with flair, originality, and serious sustained effort,” he said.
ITS chief executive Pierre Fenech hailed the success of the competition as a “powerful testament to the international reach” of the year-long initiative.