Contests
British Short Screenplay with National Film and TV School
By
Jan 6, 2004, 03:20

Kaos Films are proud to announce the launch of their third annual screenplay competition, the British Short Screenplay Competition (BSSC), which will now be run in association with UK's premier film and TV school the National Film and Television School (NFTS) at Beaconsfield.

The British Short Screenplay Competition was set up by Kaos Films as the only competitive and international short screenplay competition that undertakes to produce the winning screenplay.

Says producer Arif Hussein of Kaos Films: "From its inception we wanted the Competition to become the premier show-case for emerging international screenwriting talent and the platform for young British directing and producing talent. This initiative with the NFTS guarantees that we achieve those aims."

The BSSC has attracted over 600 entries from all parts of the world and the panel of judges has been honoured with Stephen Woolley, Nik Powell, Natascha Wharton, Leslee Udwin, Charles Dance and Piers Jackson.

The 2004 competition will run from Monday 15th December and the winners will be announced in July 2004. The winning screenplay will be directed by a graduate of that year's Director's course at NFTS and production will be run by Kaos Films and the NFTS. "After two years at film school this initiative will give the NFTS graduate a chance to work on a great script." says Arif Hussein. And there is a further benefit of the alliance for the finalist writers in that they will be invited to apply to the NFTS and will be guaranteed an interview with the Writing Programme selectors.

Nik Powell the new director of the NFTS "I have been involved with this competition from the beginning and I'm very proud of what it is trying to achieve and I'm hugely impressed with the quality of screenplays coming in. It is this quality of writing that I would like to offer NFTS graduates directors, producers, cinematoghraphers, production designers, editors, composers and sound people to work with."

The competitions' independent panel of judges will provide the school with the best short screenplay from across the world each year to be directed by the top post-graduate student "It's all about finding the best writing talent - if we can nurture the best short screenplay writers, we will be giving the feature film industry the writers of tomorrow. Of course, I would be very proud if the winning scripts were from the UK, but this is a global competition, and we've got to bear in mind there's some very exciting writers out there" says Arif Hussein.

The competition is open to all, young, old, produced, unproduced, veterans and novices to the film industry, and of the two winning screenplays to date "The Handy Man"goes into production in February and "Stars Don't Twinkle in Outer Space" will go into production in the summer of 2004.

The British Short Screenplay Competition is now receiving entries for the 2004 competition. The closing date for entries is Friday 28th May 2004. The winners will be announced on 16th July 2004. The BSSC is sponsored by Fuji Films, Lee Lighting, Lynx Digital, Panavision, Pinewood Studios, Screenplay Systems and Soho Images.

For details and entry forms check www.kaosfilms.co.uk

Kaos Films is a joint venture by producers Arif Hussein and Piers Jackson to source, develop and produce commercial feature film projects. Their current slate includes:

1. "WOUNDED" by AH Qureshi based on an original story by ED Tasca,
director Mikael Saloman. Set to go into production in June 2004.
Kaos Films, Scala Productions, Coote Hayes & South Pacific Films

2. "Gladiator Girl" by AH Qureshi
Kaos Films and Greg Coote co-production.

3. "BLACK BADGE" by Nicholas McInerny & Mike Cullen director Alrick Riley.
Co-production with BBC Scotland.

4. "WRONG NUMBER" by Nicholas Everhart

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