2024’s OUTHERE CONTEST WINNER & FINALISTS

WE ARE HONORED TO ANNOUNCE OUR GRAND PRIZE WINNER AND FINALISTS!

We created the OutHere contest in response to the need for greater participation and representation of the LGBTQ+ community in screenwriting and the wider entertainment industry. According to the GLAAD TV report for 2022-2023, there was a decrease of 1.3% in LGBTQ+ characters, on scripted primetime American broadcast series, from the previous year. The goal of OutHere therefore was to champion queer characters and stories, particularly those that celebrate joy, community, and family.

Our Grand Prize Winner and Finalists represent the pinnacle of submissions entered in this, the inaugural year of the contest. Now that the contest has closed we will commence the distribution of prizes and review the opportunities for the OutHere Contest stories to be sent to our amazing roster of 300+ producers, production companies, directors, managers, and agents.

It has been a privilege to read the amazing scripts that were submitted and we want to say a HUGE heartfelt thank you to everyone who entered.

FINISH WRITING YOUR OWN BEST SCREENPLAY WITH FEEDBACK FROM SHORE SCRIPTS!.

Don’t miss a deadline. Download our Contest Calendar!

OUR TOP 5 FINALISTS

(in alphabetical order)

	Cameron Haruta	And/Or	Feature Screenplay	An initial clash between Kiyo, a failed writer turned bookseller, and Noelle, an up-and-coming author, gives way to a romantic spark. On the same night, Kiyo is lured by their sister into a blind date with her affable coworker, Jamie. As the relationships progress, Kiyo finds they’ll have to choose, not between two people, but whether to pursue their happiness, even if it’s the less conventional thing to do.
	Charlotte Cooper	Bury Your Gays	PoC Short	BURY YOUR GAYS is a dark comedy that follows the story of Grace, a jobbing actor who cannot understand why she keeps being killed off. That is until she meets a mysterious agent who explains the trope; Bury your Gays. Join Grace as she navigates her actor’s mortality through different film and TV genres and desperately tries to fulfill the agent’s one task… DO NOT DIE.
	Eissa Saeed	In His Name	Feature Screenplay	Feroz’s life takes an unexpected turn when he marries his boyfriend, Javier, and must return to Pakistan to change his name. On arriving home, he finds that he has to navigate family secrets and face the remnants of his past life before he can start a new one with Javier.
	Justin Anthony Long	The Jewel Box	Television (½-hour)	A musical multi-cam sitcom with singing and dancing and drag queens, oh my! A longtime gay couple and their eclectic friends comically struggle to find self-acceptance, romance, success, and happiness while running a drag club in Palm Springs.
	Lynsey Cullen	Good Vibrations	Television (½-hour)	Annie (50s) has dragged her wife Jess (50s) and children Alfie (13) and Poppy (5) back to her hometown, the boring (fictional) midlands town of Dulbury, to fulfill her dream of opening the town’s first adult toy shop Good Vibrations, setting the stage for a comedy series about family, community, and new beginnings.

OUR TOP 15 FINALISTS

(in alphabetical order)

	Albert M. Chan	The Verge of Seas	A struggling alcoholic in a failing marriage returns to his childhood home in Montana, where his husband and children inexplicably vanish. Realizing he’s in an alternate reality, he seeks help from his husband’s parallel – a straight man – and must choose between rewriting his troubled past or risking everything to reunite with his loved ones.
	Allie Moss	Bump	A successful and settled woman turns 40 and sets her heart on having a baby, turning her and her wife’s world upside-down as they navigate the long and bumpy road of IVF to parenthood, making a host of new friends along the way.
	Barbara Lauria	The Witch Bottle	When a young cop and her bride-to-be find a mysterious bottle buried in their yard, they accidentally release a malicious witch who shatters their relationship and murders her family members one by one. While fighting to save her loved ones and her upcoming marriage, she discovers that this clever witch has very deep ties to her family and a scheme to destroy it from within.
	Cameron Haruta	And/Or	An initial clash between Kiyo, a failed writer turned bookseller, and Noelle, an up-and-coming author, gives way to a romantic spark. On the same night, Kiyo is lured by their sister into a blind date with her affable coworker, Jamie. As the relationships progress, Kiyo finds they’ll have to choose, not between two people, but whether to pursue their happiness, even if it’s the less conventional thing to do.
	Charlotte Cooper	Bury Your Gays	BURY YOUR GAYS is a dark comedy that follows the story of Grace, a jobbing actor who cannot understand why she keeps being killed off. That is until she meets a mysterious agent who explains the trope; Bury your Gays.  Join Grace as she navigates her actor’s mortality through different film and TV genres and desperately tries to fulfill the agent’s one task… DO NOT DIE.
	Eissa Saeed	In His Name	Feroz’s life takes an unexpected turn when he marries his boyfriend, Javier, and must return to Pakistan to change his name. On arriving home, he finds that he has to navigate family secrets and face the remnants of his past life before he can start a new one with Javier.
	Gabe Dunn	You & I, You & Me	You & I, You & Me is a feature film about a pop superstar, whose rise to fame was derailed by her coming out as trans, and a trans guy punk rocker with addiction issues. They’re paired by his gruff record label CEO father to work on her new album. They hate each other. And then, they fall in love.
	Justin Anthony Long	The Jewel Box	A longtime gay couple and their eclectic friends comically struggle to find self-acceptance, romance, success, and happiness while running a drag club in Palm Springs.
	Lynsey Cullen	Good Vibrations	Annie (50s) has dragged her wife Jess (50s) and children Alfie (13) and Poppy (5) back to her hometown, the boring (fictional) midlands town of Dulbury, to fulfill her dream of opening the town’s first adult toy shop Good Vibrations, setting the stage for a comedy series about family, community, and new beginnings.
	Manju Reijmer	The Worst Friend	The pleasing Suraj is set up on a double date by his best friend Josephine weeks before her wedding but ends up falling for her fiance Emre instead. When Emre might like him back Suraj must make the quintessential quarter-life choice: love or friendship?
	Matija Sraj	Queenmaker	After a cash-strapped, publicity-seeking drag queen who impulsively decides to run for Australian parliament is unexpectedly elected, he has to overcome childhood trauma, inept housemates-turned-staffers, and constant battles with the Prime Minister to try and change politics for the better.
	Olivia Haller	And Also With You	When a nice Catholic church lady comes out as bisexual in her 60s, her lesbian daughter reluctantly helps her enter the dating scene as the oldest baby queer in Cleveland.
	Patti Curl	Bocce’s Kiss	A hopelessly romantic transgender woman finds herself in over her head when a charming recruit joins her bocce ball team and she’s confronted with the possibility of her dreams coming true.
	Rae Binstock	Butch	A lesbian private detective takes on the filth, glamour, and corruption of 1970s New York as she investigates a series of murders targeting the city’s newly radicalized gay community.
	Timothy Jay Smith	Istanbul Crossing	A gay Syrian refugee in Istanbul, while juggling dangerous smuggling operations for both the CIA and Islamic State, falls in love with, and must decide between, two men who offer him very different futures.