During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers’ only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks), recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man’s freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.

Read Bridge of Spies screenplay…

UPDATE: The Ice Boy, my screenplay which is discussed here, is now a quarterfinalist in the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship.

Read my experience here…

Rating:

I’ve placed in a number of competitions, but the coolest by far was my first – The Austin Film Festival “Heart of Film Screenplay Competition”. It was long, long ago… Bush was still the Governor of Texas (I only know this because the screenplay finalists had a luncheon outside the Governor’s Mansion).

I remember receiving the letter notifying me I was a quarter finalist and informing my wife that if I made it to the semi-finals, I would like to attend the film festival. We had a brand spanking new baby, so taking off for a week wasn’t an easy choice, and even though I got home sick only after 3 days in Texas, the trip was worth it.

The place was crawling with celebrities, and though I was too shy to talk to most of them – I met Amanda Plummer (she was as sweet as pie), Laura Dern, saw Scorsese and a few others mingling during the events. Andrew Marlowe (who was a new celebrity screenwriter at the time) presented the awards. I even boarded the plane back home with Oliver Stone, but I was too doped up on Dramamine and Ativan (don’t care for flying) to say hello, let alone strike up a conversation. I seriously thought about slipping my screenplay into his carry bag.

I didn’t win, but I did option my script a few months later to a production company in New York who requested a list of the finalists from the competition.

Probably the coolest part, though, was hanging out with the eclectic group of screenwriters I was competing against - interesting creatures from all walks of life. Not sure what the contest is like these days, but I give the Austin Film Festival “Heart of Film Screenplay Competition” 5 stars.