2023 Screenplay Winners

Here is the list of 2023 screenplay winners from the DIVERSITY Festival.

Watch the winning screenplay best scene readings:


A Waterless Place, by Leiter Daniellson
After witnessing an Alien spacecraft crash in the mountains two brothers rush to the scene and gather what they can. A shadowy figure is sent to hunt the brothers down and eliminate them before their Father rescues them.

1st Scene Reading: A Waterless Place, by Leiter Daniellson


UNDYING LOVE, by Bill Liggins
All hell breaks loose when a flaky podcaster involves herself in a race between the US government and a powerful secret society to find an authentic immortal.

1st Scene Reading: UNDYING LOVE, by Bill Liggins


Gladiatrix Daughter of War, by Roxanne Gregory
Gladiatrix Daughter of War — Barbarians+Spartacus=Gladiatrix. Acolyte priestess Aoife survives the fall of the Druidic stronghold but is enslaved. She kills a brothel master & is sold to a ludus, a school for gladiators, where she flourishes becoming Rome’s deadly champion. As Amazonia Nyx Death-Bringer she will have blood justice for her people.

1st Scene Reading: Gladiatrix Daughter of War, by Roxanne Gregory


Christmas Pizza, by Andy Heidel, Chloe Sehr
Noelle is a struggling NYC singer and musician that returns to her hometown of Carillon after her mother dies in a freak accident during the annual Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole Contest. Upon her return, she discovers that the building she is supposed to inherit is in foreclosure and her ex-girlfriend/bandmate Joy has opened up a pizza parlor on the ground floor.

1st Scene Reading: Christmas Pizza, by Andy Heidel, Chloe Sehr


Mr. Pettigrew, by Larry J. Martin
Beau, having lost a leg in the Civil War, stumbles out of a cattle car at the little Nevada town of Nemesis. He’s taken under the wing of Mr. Pettigrew, partner in the Angel Saloon and given a job sitting shotgun. Pettigrew kills the son of a powerful mine owner and Beau is drawn into the trouble. It’s two against twenty.

1st Scene Festival Reading: Mr. Pettigrew, by Larry J. Martin


VILLAGE, by Adolpho Phillips
It takes a village to raise a child and Tasha’s village is crazy but willing.

1st Scene Festival Reading: VILLAGE, by Adolpho Phillips


THE EVIL THAT MEN DO, by Jeffrey van Davis
When a police detective, hunting a serial killer, gets too close, the killer murders his wife and two children, sending him into a downward spiral of alcohol, suicide, and a near-death experience where God tells him to become a priest. Years later the serial killer reappears – in his confessional.

1st Scene Script: THE EVIL THAT MEN DO, by Jeffrey van Davis


SHORT Screenplay: The Garden, by A.M. Chester
A short, short film about finding magic and the trauma of sudden loss when that magic goes away.

Winning SHORT Screenplay: The Garden, by A.M. Chester