2017 Genre Celebration Festival: Best Feature Screenplay

My screenplay Loonatoona is the Winner of Best Feature Screenplay in the 2017 Genre Celebration Festival.

2017 Texas International Film Festival Finalist

My screenplay Loonatoona is a Finalist in the 2017 Texas International Film Festival.

2017 Short Stop International Film Festival, 2nd Runner Up, Best Screenplay (Written)

My screenplay Loonatoona is 2nd Runner Up, Best Screenplay (Written) (i.e. 3rd) in the 2017 Short Stop International Film Festival.

Amsterdam Film Festival: First Time Screenwriter Competition, Second Place

My screenplay Loonatoona is a Winner (Second Place) in the First Time Screenwriter Competition of the 2017 Amsterdam Film Festival

2017 Sunset Film Festival Los Angeles Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2017 Sunset Film Festival Los Angeles.

Loonatoona 1.8 Kim Wilde Chequered Love

To celebrate my second winner award (Transylvania Cinema Awards), as well as several other recent official selections and semi-finalist awards, I've made a new promo video, featuring Kim Wilde's Chequered Love.

2017 Atlanta Comedy Film Festival Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2017 Atlanta Comedy Film Festival.

Loonatoona 1.7 Pussyfoot The Way That You Do It

Loonatoona has recently added awards from Mountain Film Festival (Sir Edmund Hillary Award - Screenplay), TMFF - The Monthly Film Festival (Finalist), Sacramento International Film Festival (Semi-Finalist) and Milledgeville Film Festival (Official Selection).

To celebrate, here's a new promo video!

2017 Milledgeville Film Festival Official Selection

My screenplays Loonatoona and Mate For Life are Official Selections in the 2017 Milledgeville Film Festival.

Update: Now Semi-Finalists.

2017 Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2017 Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne

Feedback TMFF The Monthly Film Festival

I paid for feedback from TMFF The Monthly Film Festival for Loonatoona. Here it is: 


"turns it up to eleven"
"more bizarre than it should have been"
"the strange tone and bizarre story"
"highly intellectual without seeming so"
"incredibly original"
"unreal but hilarious elements"
"The script is creative"
"kind of confusing and definitely weird"



"Loonatoona – TMFF Feedback

Loonatoona is a slapstick comedy exploring the natural outlandish qualities Australia seems to have when viewed from the outside and turns it up to eleven by adding even more bizarre elements to build a general sense of surrealism that makes it easier to be open minded and receptive to the jokes in the script.

The story seems to take the concept too far and becomes more bizarre than it should have been, particularly since the more ridiculous the story gets the harder it is for it to deliver its message, which seems to be one of tolerance based on the fact that normality is nothing but a perception that can change from person to person and region to region, the script basically shows the daily struggles of the 5 members of a “regular” Australian family as they deal with problems that seem alien to us but normal to them, like the father working in a government subsidized rabbit costume dispensary, the mother having an affair with a possibly imaginary cowboy or their daughter nonchalantly engaging in a personal project that consists of taking pictures of her friend´s sexual escapades. The script has a serious flaw though; the comedic style is simplistic and more geared towards children or very young people, but the tone is undeniably adult, with swearing, nudity and adult situations abounding, which brings up the question: will the script manage to entertain its intended target? It remains to be seen but in general is not bad, only that perhaps the author should rethink the way in which the comedic payload is delivered.

It is quite hard to judge the characters since they are very strange and flawed but they seem to be so on purpose not only for comedic value but also as a way to drive home the general message of the story. They usually find themselves in surreal situations, often by their own hand, and deal with them in even more alien ways. They aren´t incredibly annoying or upsetting but it´s also impossible to build any rapport with them.

The dialogue is highly localized with many phrases being typical to the Australian speech and is also full of references to sayings, products, legends and other elements familiar to Australians but not for the general audience. Saying that is badly written would be an injustice, but it has to be mentioned that is highly alienating and can get difficult to understand for anyone not familiar with the “aussie” speech.

Producing a comedy like this one is a risky business given the strange tone and bizarre story the script is telling, and the fact that the humor is mainly based on exploiting the ridiculousness of the situations in which the characters find themselves, this is a typical slapstick comedy that still finds it possible to remain highly intellectual without seeming so. Thus having a lot of value hidden under the guise of a generic script, such a complicated outlook makes it hard to predict its actual commerciality.

The script is incredibly original even if some of the humor is highly referential and depends on the audience having knowledge about certain other movies and literary sources. Those references are tweaked enough to make them fairly unique and to adapt them into the script.

Through the lens of intergalactic observance and the inclusion of some unreal but hilarious elements the author shows what seems to be an outlandish family and the equally shocking country where they live, delivering a simple but effective message; normality is all but an illusion, morality is a social construct and the values that some may hold as essential may be optional for others. It is a message about understanding one another and realizing that simply because something feels strange doesn´t mean it´s bad.

The script is creative and the humor may be enough to elicit laughter out of many, but the overall plot is kind of confusing and definitely weird. It is one of those comedies where people need to turn their brains off and embrace the bizarre imagery in order to enjoy it."

2017 Mountain Film Festival: Winner

My screenplay Loonatoona is a 2017 Sir Edmund Hillary Award Winner in the screenplay competition in the Mountain Film Festival.

Sacramento International Film Festival Semi-Finalist

All four of my screenplays (Loonatoona, Mate For Life, Superpsycho, Another Day At The Circus) are Semi-Finalists in the Sacramento International Film Festival.

Loonatoona 1.6 Fox S-S-S-Single Bed

To celebrate the addition of Madhouse Movies and Top Indie Film Awards, I made a new promo video for Loonatoona.

Update: At the time I made this video, Boomtown Film and Music Festival had officially notified me, through Filmfreeway, that I was a semi-finalist.
Over a month later, they claim that was a "mistake" and Loonatoona was not accepted.

2017 Madhouse Movies Film Festival Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2017 Madhouse Movies Film Festival.

Top Indie Film Awards: Nominee (Best Feature Script)

My screenplay Loonatoona is a Nominee (i.e. Finalist) for Best Feature Script in the 2016 Top Indie Film Awards.

Loonatoona 1.5 Respectable Mel & Kim

To celebrate the addition of Reel Authors Screenplay Contest (Semi-Finalist) and LS&B Comedy Writing Contest (Official Selection), here's a new promo video for Loonatoona, featuring Respectable by Mel & Kim.

This song should be recorded by Spiderbait for the film's closing credits!

Reel Authors Screenplay Contest: Semi-Finalist (Comedy/RomCom)

My screenplay Loonatoona is a Semi-Finalist (Comedy/RomCom) in the 2016 Reel Authors Screenplay Contest.

2016 LS&B Comedy Writing Contest Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2016 LS&B Comedy Writing Contest.

Superpsycho screenplay: fun, clever, rejected

Despite calling it "fun" (five times), "clever" (twice) and "so close from becoming a classic", the Fan Fiction Festival has not accepted Superpsycho. Go figure.

Here are their feedback notes.

"Hi Shockadelic

Thank you for your submission to the Writing Festival. Here is the feedback on your submission. The committee has noted that your story is not yet ready to be performed at our festival. If you like to resubmit, please email us back whenever you're ready and we'll have you submit for 30% off the regular submission.

Superpsycho is a fun crossover between the universe of Superman and that of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Martin Crane, a man on the lamb, checks in to a quiet motel but he is perturbed by the strange behaviour of its handsome proprietor Clark Kent. How will Martin cope when things start going bump in the night?

There is a lot of lighthearted fun in this script, poking fun at the original source materials in a clever way. I especially liked the twist on the voyeur scene in Psycho in which Norman Bates spies on Marion through a hole in the wall whereas Clark Kent uses his xray vision to spy on Martin in his room, sometimes unwillingly. The homoerotic, irreverent take on the original texts was clever and fun in tone.

The blood/red hair dye twist felt a bit obvious overall but the moment of Martin washing it off his hands was nice, even it did confuse the roles slightly. Since the plot follows Psycho, even using a lot of lines from the film, it would be better to stick to Martin as Marion and Clark as Norman, unless you are saying something specific by changing it. Perhaps Clark/Waldo could get the dye on his hands while spying on Martin in the shower?

On that moment, it felt like it lacked something. Obviously the shower scene is so iconic that it has to be used in a parody such as this but it felt like a repetition of the earlier voyeur moment of Clark spying on Martin. The underlying current of this short is sexual tension but while the shower scene is more intrusive than the xray vision, it’s still just voyeurism. Something more needs to happen in his interaction maybe Martin is horrified at first but then thinks what the hell and invites Clark/Waldo in? This could be a fun visual moment with the red hair dye staining the suit and the bath, etc.

There are a couple of small details in this short that may need changing; firstly I’m not sure an outline of a knife would be visible underneath Martin’s jeans. As it is a key set up for a pay off later in the film, perhaps Martin could actually visibly put it there or take it out to check it. Secondly, while I like the play on Marion to Martin Crane, all I could think about was Frasier, though Marty Crane doesn’t quite work as well, it may avoid this confusion. It might be worth asking a few other people if they had this issue before you make any changes.

This script is a lot of fun but it felt a little like a repetition of Psycho with not enough changed in order to keep an audience engaged. This is the start of a really fun take on a classic but it can be pushed further in almost every scene and particularly the ending in order to make it different and really capitalize on the humor. This script is so close from becoming a classic.

Please let us know your thoughts on your feedback. Always want to make sure that each writer is satisfied with their notes to ready them for their next draft."