Happy new year to one and all! I revel in taking time around the holidays to slow down, work a little less, read a little more, enjoy friends and family, and just generally recharge my batteries.

As it turns out, film festival and screenplay award judges do not share that sentiment. A boatload of contest decisions rolled in over the past several weeks, and the news has been good for the two screenplays I’ve been submitting — Happy Jack, a feature-length unconventional superhero script, and The Bad Newz, a one-hour coming-of-age comedy TV pilot.

Here’s where the accolades list stands for Happy Jack as of January 5, 2023:

• Top 35% of all discoverable projects – Coverfly
• Top 20 Fantasy Feature of the Month (December) – Coverfly
• Semifinalist – StoryPros International Screenplay Contest
• Semifinalist – The Wiki Screenplay Contest
• Quarterfinalist – Cynosure Screenwriting Awards
• Quarterfinalist – Portland Screenplay Awards
• Quarterfinalist – San Francisco International Screenwriting & Cinema Awards
• Honorable Mention – Changing Face International Film Festival
• Honorable Mention – Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards
• Selected – Shockfest Film Festival
• Selected – Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Festival

As a reminder of what Happy Jack is about, here’s the logline: A misanthropic hermit with a special power to make people happy must confront humanity, greed and love in New Orleans after he is drawn out of hiding by a charlatan doctor. (Think disgruntled superhero Hancock meets the Southern charm of Big Fish)

Here’s the list for The Bad Newz, which I started submitting to contests months after Happy Jack and is still awaiting results from many of them:

• Top 29% of all discoverable projects – Coverfly
• Finalist – The Wiki Screenplay Contest
• Semifinalist – Your Script Produced! Season 3 (still in play to be named a Finalist on Jan. 11)
• Quarterfinalist – Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards

And here’s the logline for The Bad Newz: When two teenage brothers move to Newport News (aka Bad Newz), Virginia, in the late ’90s, they discover poverty is the monster no one can escape in this underserved, mixed race community. (Think the kids from Stranger Things in the world of Abbott Elementary)

The plan, of course, is to eventually graduate from contests to earn industry representation, but you have to start somewhere and I’m grateful these screenplays are earning recognition in competitive contests alongside great scripts from amazingly talented writers.