2026 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Winners Announced!
ATLANTA, GA (March 9, 2026)—The Atlanta Film Society is pleased to present the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Winners. Chosen from 632 submissions, the following 3 feature film screenplays, 1 pilot, and 1 short represent the top 5 scripts of all entries. They are competing for invaluable mentorship opportunities to hone their craft and plan the next steps in their careers, as well as cash prizes. Please join us in congratulating these impressive authors!
Feature Screenplays
Amen & Ameen
By Susan Polk | Belleville, NJ
Following a bombing while on holiday in Indonesia, a woman wakes in the hospital discovering not only has she lost her entire family, but is sharing a room with the bombers’ surviving child. Complicating her journey to healing and acceptance is the fact that the young child has become emotionally attached to her, and despite most people’s insistence she flee back to the safety of her home, she feels compelled to navigate this unlikely new relationship with the help of her nurse – who helps her learn the value of serving versus saving.
Born in California, raised in Florida and New Mexico, and now kicking it in New Jersey, Susan Polk is a screenwriter with roots spanning the US. Being in touch with such varied creeds and cadres of people inspires her to write character-driven, female-centric stories that explore family, motherhood, faith and community, hatred and healing. Susan's screenplays have been recognized by the Nicholl Fellowships, the Austin Film Festival, and the NYWIFT Writers Lab, among many others. They’ve also won Grand Prizes at the LA Femme Int’l Film Festival, the Paris Int’l Film Festival, and the inaugural Coronado Island Film Festival. Notably, her autobiographical screenplay, SuzyQ, received a Black List nomination after being read at Pascal Pictures. Susan has just completed her first novel-to-screenplay adaptation commission.
Ghost Mountain
By James Taing & Brian Kazmarck | New York, New York, and Northfield, NJ
When Thai forces secretly deport thousands of Cambodian refugees to a landmine-filled mountain plateau to die, a determined French businesswoman and aid worker risks everything to rescue survivors and expose the massacre to force international intervention.
James Taing is an author, filmmaker, and founder of the Preah Vihear Foundation, dedicated to preserving Cambodian refugee history. He co‑authored Under the Naga Tail and co‑directed the documentary Ghost Mountain: The Second Killing Fields of Cambodia, both recounting his father’s survival during the Killing Fields and the subsequent refugee crisis along the Thai‑Cambodian border.
Brian Kazmarck is an award-winning writer/director based on the East Coast whose films have played all over the world. He has directed several shorts and a feature-length sci-fi thriller, Terminal Legacy. Brian's award-winning short film Standing Eight is available on Amazon Prime. His short film The Portland Empire played at the Cannes Court Metrage and sold to Shorts International in the U.K. Along with Ghost Mountain, Brian is also developing a supernatural mystery/thriller called Wither.
Stormrunner
By Jack Padgett | Atlanta, GA
Synopsis: When a ferryman for lost souls working on contract in Maine finds his 6-year-old son in the water, he runs from his responsibilities and embarks on a desperate road trip in the hopes of bringing him back to life.
Jack Padgett is a writer, director, producer, and artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally a playwright, he is an alumnus of the Horizon Theatre Company Playwriting Apprenticeship, a program geared specifically towards training writers in the collaborative development process. After graduating at the cusp of the 2020 Covid lockdowns and following a few small productions on stages around Atlanta, Jack pivoted into production and is now a Production Coordinator in the thrumming Atlanta commercial scene. The skills he's developed in this role have enabled him to self-produce his own work, and he's currently in the process of editing his second short film with his creative partner, Diego Mallens. Still tethered to his roots, Jack is also a 4-time director of Horizon Theatre's New South Young Playwrights Festival, an annual week-long celebration of contest-winning undergraduate playwrights from around the country.
Pilot Screenplay
IMPOSTER
By Kalos Chu | Los Angeles, CA
When a working-class kid from San Francisco Chinatown starts his freshman year at Stanford, the wealth and ease around him expose just how far he'll go to be seen as one of them.
Kalos Chu is a Los Angeles-based writer, probably currently sitting in traffic. His script, IMPOSTER, was selected as the winner of the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Kalos wrote the book for OUT: An Asian American Musical, which was developed through the National Centre for New Musicals at Theatre Aquarius. He has previously written for The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest theatrical organization in the United States, where he wrote the book for their 173rd production, SHIP HAPPENS. For the Pudding, Kalos also wrote and directed two comedy roasts for Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner. He is currently working on a commission from The Musical Stage Company for a new musical, entitled The Crossroads.
Short Film Screenplay
Olivia Colman Says My Farts Don’t Stink
By Lisa Marie Tedesco | New Haven, CT
Alex and Fiona are newly together in their cute little queer relationship and ready for the next level - to be on “farting terms” …
Lisa Marie Tedesco (she/they) is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of Paper Plane Entertainment operating in New Haven, New York City and Los Angeles. With the company, and production team, Lisa strives to create content that positively represents the LGBTQIA+ community, both in front and behind the camera. Their motto encompasses the words “Breaking All Barriers” and frequently uses the hashtag #RepresentationMatters to enforce the value and need for diversity in filmmaking. Lisa's first-ever short film, August in the City, won critical acclaim on the film festival circuit from 2017 all the way up until the present-day, with a screening held at the prestigious Festival de Cannes.