Congratulations to the finalists! Nice that they have someone from Canada (everyone else is LA or New York, location-wise which is interesting). Legion and Heart of the Monstyr are my personal favourites, loglines wise.

I noticed the geography thing, too, Aarthi. In years past, they have had a lot more diversity in terms of location. Last year, for instance, 3 of the winners were from Louisiana, NYC, and South Africa! But I think that sort of thing just varies randomly year to year.

I agree, Aarthi! Nice to see Vancouver represented. I also concur with your logline picks.

I'm always conflicted seeing these. It's so awesome to have grants like this out there for aspiring writers, yet how can I look at these (and past winners) and not feel intimidated? I have confidence in my writing, but this is definitely a reality check for so many of us.

Kalen, believe me, professional writers feel the same thing, love to see great movies and read great scripts, but it's intimidating, at least at first. Then it settles in as inspiration. So it's good to acknowledge the former, but hope that you can eventually embrace the latter. Re reality check: There is no way around it -- any facet of the entertainment business is competitive, screenwriting and TV writing right up there as being THE most competitive. It's just a fact of life. But the fact is, outsiders break in every year. If you need proof of that, you need only look at ME, a guy who had zero formal training as a screenwriter, but a wealth of knowledge based on watching thousands of movies during my life and an unbridled passion and love for cinema. Perhaps revisiting this post will be helpful: Feet on the ground... Head in the clouds. Finally there is the not insubstantial consideration of talent. Sheer persistence is not enough. To make it in Hollywood, a writer needs talent. You have "confidence" in your writing. Great! Grab onto that, believe in that. Whether a writer has enough talent to succeed (i.e., breaking into Hollywood, making some sort of living as a writer) may not be known or knowable, but there is no reason in the world why any writer shouldn't act in the BELIEF s/he has that level of talent. Then it just becomes a matter of reading scripts, watching movies, immersing oneself in the world of cinema, and writing pages. Finally this, Kalen: A healthy dose of creative juju for you. Whoosh! Now go write some pages!

Ah. Good to know - thanks!

Awesome. I read that when you first posted it. Great piece. It's so weird. I've worked a lot of jobs in my life, but never has anything I've done required so much perfection, ambition, drive, pure talent, imagination, etc., as pursuing my dreams of becoming a professional screenwriter. In the end all you can do is try, and if you try your best, you have to be happy knowing you gave it your all.