USA

Best Screenplay Feature Film 2026

Jury Member 

 

MICHAEL MANN – Legendary filmmaker, screenwriter and producer of such iconic films as HEAT, The Insider, Miami Vice and Collateral! Four-time Academy Award nominee!

Michael Mann is a world-renowned director, screenwriter, producer, and one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. He is a four-time Academy Award® nominee, two-time Emmy®-winner and recipient of WGA, DGA and BAFTA Awards as a director, producer and writer.
After writing and directing the Emmy®-winning television movie THE JERICHO MILE, Mann executive produced the acclaimed and highly influential television series MIAMI VICE and CRIME STORY. He won an Emmy® for the mini-series DRUG WARS: THE CAMARENA STORY, which he co-wrote and executive produced. Mann directed the pilot and executive produced the HBO series LUCK starring Dustin Hoffman and the limited documentary series WITNESS also for HBO. Recently, Mann served as an executive producer and directed the pilot episode, launching the HBO Max series TOKYO VICE, starring Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe in 2022.
Mann made his feature film directorial debut with THIEF and went on to also write and direct MANHUNTER, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, HEAT, THE INSIDER, ALI, MIAMI VICE, and direct COLLATERAL, PUBLIC ENEMIES, BLACKHAT, and FERRARI. As a producer, Mann’s work includes Martin Scorsese’s THE AVIATOR, THE KINGDOM, HANCOCK, TEXAS KILLING FIELDS and FORD V FERRARI.
As an author, in addition to filmmaking, Mann’s #1 New York Times Bestseller novel, HEAT 2, written with Meg Gardiner, was published by Harper Collins, and Mann is currently adapting it for the screenplay.

PAUL SCHRADER – Writer of Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL. Academy Award® Nominee for Best Original Screenplay for First Reformed (2017)

Paul Schrader is known as one of the cinema’s most successful screenwriters. He is also a film critic and film director. He started his career as a film critic, before he began writing screenplays, hitting the jackpot when he sold his first screenplay, Yakuza, for then-record sum of $325,000, thus establishing his reputation as one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters.
He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Paul Schrader has also directed 24 films, including Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) and Affliction (1997).
His three most recent films have been described by Schrader as a loose trilogy: First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021), and Master Gardener (2022).
He has written the screenplays for two ‘Best Picture’ Academy Award nominees (Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), but would only receive his first Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Screenplay’ more than 40 years working in the business – he got nominated for First Reformed (2017).

DAN JINKS – Academy Award® Winner for Best Picture for American Beauty

Dan Jinks is an American film and television producer. In 2010, Jinks launched his own film and television production company, the Dan Jinks Company. In July 2011, he signed an overall deal with CBS Television Studios.
Previously, working with producing partner Bruce Cohen, Jinks produced Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn. The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
The pair won the Best Picture Academy Award in 2000 for producing American Beauty. The film won a total of five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Next film was Tim Burton’s Big Fish, which was nominated as Best Picture for both the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs.
In television, Jinks and Cohen executive produced the acclaimed ABC series Pushing Daisies, which won eight Emmy Awards.
In the summer of 2008, Jinks and Cohen produced A Timeless Call, a tribute to war veterans that Steven Spielberg directed for the Democratic National Convention.
Jinks produced Nothing to Lose, starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins for Touchstone Pictures, and executive produced The Bone Collector, with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie for Universal.

WENDY FINERMAN – Academy Award® Winner for Best Picture for Forrest Gump

Wendy Finerman is an American film producer. She is best known for winning the Academy Award for Best Picture for Forrest Gump in 1994. Forrest Gump received critical acclaim for Zemeckis’s direction, performances (particularly those of Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise), visual effects, music, and screenplay. The film was an enormous success at the box office; it became the top-grossing film in America released that year and earned over US $678.2 million worldwide.
Further Wendy Finerman won a BAFTA Award for Fairy Tale in 1998. She has also produced such popular films as The Fan starring Robert De Niro; Stepmom starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon; P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler and The Devil Wears Prada starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. She is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and runs her own company, Wendy Finerman Productions.

GARY MICHAEL WALTERS – Producer of such iconic films as Drive, Nightcrawler, and Whiplash! Emmy Award® Nominee for Outstanding Television Movie Oslo (2021)

Gary Michael Walters – CEO of Bold Films. Bold Films is a production and finance company dedicated to providing an artistic haven for creative talent and to producing original, studio-quality films with worldwide commercial appeal. Gary oversees all aspects of Bold Films: production, finance, legal, creative, strategy and sales. Gary has produced or executive produced all of its movies. He is a producer of such iconic films as Drive, Nightcrawler and Whiplash! His recent production is Netflix’s film The Guilty with Jake Gyllenhaal.

MIKE MEDAVOY – Academy Award® Nominee for Best Picture for Black Swan

Mike Medavoy – CEO of Phoenix Pictures. Sample some of the best American films over the past forty years and there’s a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many of them. From agent to studio chief to producer, he has been involved with over 300 feature films, of which 17 have been nominated and 7 have won Best Picture Oscars®, as well as numerous international film festival awards. He is a producer of such iconic films as Shutter Island, Zodiac and Black Swan! For the latest he received an Academy Award Nomination. He’s produced for Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and many more…

SIENA OBERMAN – Variety Top 10 Producers to Watch in 2021, Founder & CEO of Artemis Pictures

Siena Oberman is the founder of Artemis Pictures, a filmmaker driven female run production company. She was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 2022, Variety Top 10 Producers to Watch in 2021, and Diversity in Cannes Top 10 Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2019. She focuses on stylistically bold independent films and female driven stories. She’s had feature films in TIFF, Berlinale, Tribeca, Telluride, and Venice. Her films have been acquired by companies such as A24, IFC, Screen Media, Universal, Lionsgate, Hulu, and eOne. Before Artemis, Siena was a Development Executive at Yale Productions. Prior to producing, Siena went to USC and studied Business and Cinema.

ADAM NOVAK – Head of Story Development for WME

Adam Novak is the Head of Story Development for Hollywood’s Top Talent and Literary Agency WME (William Morris/Endeavor)
Born, bred, and buttered in DC, Adam Novak majored in screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinema-Television where he sold his senior thesis script Conversations with a Cannibal before starting his career at the venerable William Morris Agency (now WME) as the exclusive script reader for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Clint Eastwood, and Bruce Willis.
As Head of the William Morris/Endeavor (WME) Story Department for more than 25 years, Novak championed The Blair Witch Project, Promising Young Woman, Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, and Waterworld.
Novak has also published a series of novels about the movie business: The Non-Pro (Salvo Press/2008), Take Fountain (Rare Bird Books/2015), Freaks of the Industry (Rare Bird Books/2017), and Rat Park (Red Giant Books/2022). Novak recently celebrated his 33rd year at the WME agency.

 

 

JAPAN

𝐓𝐨𝐤𝐲𝐨 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐦 & 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬

Best Screenplay Feature Film 2026

Jury Member

JOS FONTEIJN
Jos Fonteijn (born 1962) is a Belgium-based bilingual (English–Dutch) screenwriter with a background in psychology and ICT, active in writing since the early 1980s. He studied screenwriting at the Colofon Writers’ Institute in Amsterdam in the 1990s. His work focuses primarily on science fiction, artificial intelligence, comedy, religion, and heist genres. Between 2020 and 2025, he completed several screenplays, marking a return to long-form writing. Learn more: IMDB | FILMFREEWAY | LINKEDIN

KARL MATHER
Karl lives and writes in Australia. He has written several award-winning short films, including The Story of Bubbleboy, Great Adventures and Tokyo Film and Screenplay Awards Best Micro-Film Waiting For The Man. His scripts for feature films have been winners or finalists in more than 70 screenplay competitions worldwide including Stage 32, Vail, ISA Fast Track, Blue Cat, UK Film Festival and more. As yet, none has been made – but he remains a glass half full kind of person. Learn more: INSTAGRAM

TREVOR HUFF

Trevor Huff is a 25-year-old screenwriter from Saginaw, Michigan. A lifelong film enthusiast and avid reader of screenplays, he has been writing his own work for a little over a year. In 2025, he won the Tokyo Film and Screenplay Awards for Best Western Screenplay.

JILLY GARDINER
Jilly Gardiner is a writer and screenwriting lecturer, currently a Senior Lecturer in Film Production at MetFilm School, Ealing Studios. Her short feature Being Keegan, starring Stephen Graham, won multiple international awards and received a Best Screenwriter nomination at the BAFTA-qualifying London Underwire Film Festival. She is also an award-winning stage writer and a category winner at the Tokyo Film and Screenplay Awards.
Learn more: WEBSITE | IMDB

DAVI KINSKI
Davi Kinski is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist, and a graduate of the International Film Academy (AIC). His feature documentary Poemaria(2024) premiered at the Gramado Film Festival and won Best Director (Feature Documentary) at the Tokyo Film Awards, along with multiple international and audience awards. In 2025, his short film Alice, Five Minutes Before Sunset premiered at the Culver City Film Festival and won Best International Short Film at festivals in Bangkok and India.
Learn more: INSTAGRAM | FILMFREWAY

LEONARDO RAMIREZ
Leonardo Ramirez is an award-winning American screenwriter, author, and voiceover actor known for character-driven science fiction. His short screenplay Homeless ranked #1 for Fantasy Shorts on The Red List and won international awards, including Best Concept Screenplay at the Tokyo Film and Screenplay Awards and a prize at the Milan Film Festival.
Learn more: WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM | STAGE 32

SARA ALVES
Sara Alves is an award-winning London-based director, producer, and editor working in documentary and drama. Her work includes the short drama Palavras que Curam, which won Best Film and was broadcast in prime time on CNN and TVI Portugal, and the short documentary Always on My Mind, awarded Best Direction and Best Story in 2025. She is currently developing new projects, including H(a)unted, winner of Best Short Script at the European Short Awards 2025 and Best Thriller Screenplay at Best Script Award – London. Learn more: FILMFREEWAY | IMDB

PATRICIA PLANCK FRIES
Patricia Planck Fries began her career in television news before moving into film and television production at Charles Fries Entertainment and later Harvey Comics Entertainment, where she worked on properties such as Casper the Friendly Ghost. She is an Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary Pure Grit and now leads Doodleflix Entertainment, with more than 27 writing credits worldwide. Learn more: WEBSITE | IMDB

GERARDO GOUVERNEUR
Gerardo Gouverneur is a Venezuelan filmmaker and sound designer based in Caracas, trained as a senior audio technician at the School of Audio Arts and Sciences of the Audio Engineering Society. He is the writer and director of the award-winning short fiction film Anything for Her (2024) and has directed several documentaries in Venezuela. Alongside his creative work, he produces institutional documentaries and advertising projects, combining storytelling with strong technical expertise in sound.Learn more: INSTAGRAM

JUSTIN HUNT
Justin Hunt is an award-winning writer, producer, and director whose films have been distributed in over 80 countries and recognized for addressing challenging social themes. Through his company, White Whale Pictures, he has earned more than 70 film festival awards and created seven feature films, including the award-winning documentary Rotten Apple and the internationally distributed feature The Post. His recent screenwriting work has been recognized by major competitions such as the Austin Film Festival and the Tokyo Screenplay Awards. Learn more WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM

JILL THRUSSELL
Jill Thrussell is a writer, author, poet, lyricist, songwriter, and games creator who works across fiction, semi-fiction, and non-fiction, often with a multimedia focus for children and families. Her work spans genres from sci-fi and comedy to fantasy and family adventure, frequently exploring human psychology, perspective, and emotional experience through creative storytelling.

SANGITA IYER
Sangita Iyer is an award-winning Indo-Canadian documentary filmmaker and founder of Mele Films, whose work has screened at film festivals worldwide. She is also the President of the Shakti Foundation, a nonprofit focused on education, mental health, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. Learn more: INSTAGRAM

ERNA LENHERR
Erna Lenherr is a screenwriter, poet, and creative visionary based on the Croatian island of Hvar. She is the creator of Toli – Heart of the Algorithm, a genre-blending film exploring the intersection of consciousness, AI, and unconditional love, recognized at international festivals and registered with the Writers Guild of America. She is currently developing transmedia projects on AI–human synergy, including the YouTube series Toli & Codarella Universe: Heart of the Algorithm.

LORETTA WISH
Loretta Bolger Wish is a writer of fiction, plays, essays, and poetry, and the author of the award-winning fantasy novel Bumpy Night on the Walk of Fame. Her plays and monologues have been presented at theatre and film festivals in the US and internationally. A former journalist and government writer, she is also the author of the film blog Hollywood Castaway and has curated exhibitions and led workshops focused on writing and cinema.

GEOTJA UMANO
Georja Umano is a writer and screen artist based in Santa Monica. Her work centers on fish-out-of-water heroines facing societal and life-threatening challenges. She holds an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU, completed Advanced Screenwriting at UCLA, and works across film, theatre, and literature as a SAG-AFTRA actress and writer. She founded the Elephant Matriarch Project in Kenya. Her screenplay Terriers in the Jungle, adapted from her award-winning novel, won First Prize at the Matera International Film Festival and received multiple finalist awards worldwide.

ESLI BALATOVA
Hi,I am graduated from RITCS School of Arts as a documentary maker. I search for unheard voices in the underground or from outcasts and try to visualize their past and current lives.

 

FRANCE

INTERNATIONAL INDIE FILM & SCREENPLAY FESTIVAL

Best Screenplay Feature Film 2026