I’ve always been a fan of hard sci-fi. Star Wars nerd? Guilty. Dystopian sci-fi like “1984,” “Brave New World” or “The Matrix.” Most definitely. Even emphasis-on-sci sci-fi like “The Martian.” But as a writer, I’ve tended to lean more toward fantasy. I’m not a big fan of rules and fantasy has none, really. Sci-fi, on the other hand, demands you respect science or at least scientific theory. Sci-fi fans delight in the mix of real scientific possibilities inflicting chaos on fictional realities.

So it was with some trepidation that I wrote INFINITY CANVAS, first as a graphic novel manuscript and then adapted as a feature-length screenplay. It’s about a father and daughter who navigate surreal virtual worlds, apocalyptic Philadelphia streets and a repressive tech corporation’s surveillance state to reunite years after the father abandoned his family for a supposedly utopian metaverse. I felt I could pull it off because I’ve worked for years in the climate and clean energy space (the “real world” in the script is a near-future climate dystopia), and I took a keen interest in the metaverse as the popularity of the idea took off during the COVID pandemic (the evil corporation offers lifetime contracts to live in its immersive metaverse, which people do to escape the hopelessness of their world). That said, there was a lot of tech to parse, and you never know how you’ve done until you hold the finished product up to the fire.

Fortunately, the screenplay did not come back scorched from the judges at FilmQuest Fest, one of the premier sci-fi and fantasy film festivals in the country. In fact, it was just named an official selection of the festival and one of the Top 50 feature screenplays. I’ll find out if it placed in the Top 20, Top 5 or is the grand prize winner after the festival kicks off on October 26.

I must say, as someone who has spent a significant number of his childhood and adulting hours reading and watching sci-fi, it is a pretty cool feeling to have this little moment of validation from those who know good sci-fi best.