The mission of Diverse Voices is to provide a contest that is purely focused on promoting and encouraging diverse voices and stories. The contest's hope was to find stories that are told from perspectives – through the author and/or characters – that are often underrepresented in Hollywood today. We're so happy to say that the response to this contest was unbelievable.
This inaugural Diverse Voices contest has brought together so much amazing talent and so many incredible stories. After 3 rounds of reading, we're extremely excited to announce the top 25 finalists! There many very talented writers who did not advance. The competition was fierce and just because a project may not have advanced doesn't at all mean that it isn't a fantastic story. In fact, we're certain that some scripts not advancing will bring their writer success in the very near future.
We also want to extend a sincere congratulations to everyone advancing. If you are advancing it means that after three reads, your judges agreed that this is a stand out story that needs to be told. Please make sure to congratulate these writers on the Facebook announcement — they deserve it!
The winners will be announced on July 15th and the Fall Season of Diverse Voices will open for entries on that date as well. In the meantime, don't forget to check out two of our contests currently accepting submissions – WISC, our fantastic feature contest, and WeTV, a contest specifically for TV writers.
And now, the Diverse Voices Finalists:
| 147 written by David Baugnon |
| 48 States of Grandpa written by Paul Jury |
| A Gentleman of Good Hope written by Christina Hulen |
| Bog Walk written by Dominique Holmes |
| Butterfly Children written by Melanie Schiele |
| Buzz Cut Season written by Tatiana Bears |
| CHASING RAINBOWS written by Micah Cohen |
| Darling written by Aaron Yeung |
| Dietrich Danzig written by John Pisano-Thomsen |
| DIVORCE PARTY written by Lauren Manes |
| EVE written by Micah Cohen |
| Foxy Naught written by Karen Rouse |
| Gauguin's Garden written by Brandon Rosin |
| Going Home written by Nir Shelter |
| Harboring written by Russell Nichols |
| Je Fait written by Edward Jordon |
| MARS written by Tara Pinley |
| MY STARDUST written by J.J. Hillard |
| My Stupid Libido written by Mel DuPont |
| Never Leave Your Vehicle written by Paul Clarke |
| Pocono Heaven Lodge written by T Gordon Stanley |
| Power & Light written by Mark Jones |
| The Body Electric written by Amy Thorstenson |
| The Tear Collector written by Linda Niccol |
| The Trill Nikkia written by Leon Chills |
Thank you again to everyone who entered, to all of our sponsors, to all writers, and to the Books for Kids Foundation. The entrants of this contest helped us raise $1,437 for Books for Kids and we're only going to grow our contributions from here.
