“Lone Wolf” McQuaide Nabs the Prize

We love it when our clients and readers write in to share some good news. Lord knows as struggling writers, we all need some! This weekend we heard from our pal Colleen McQuaide, who sent along a really well-done, all-official-like press release trumpeting her recent film festival screenwriting award win. So we’ll let her tell ya all about it… 

Hey, that’s a cool award!

Colleen J. McQuaide took a major comedy honor in an international screenwriting competition for her romantic comedy script Kat’s Mystique. The actress, screenwriter and producer won the Write Brothers Excellence in Comedy Award in the Action on Film (AOF) Festival Aug. 23 in Los Angeles.

In keeping with today’s trend toward strong female lead characters, Kat’s Mystique follows a woman as she takes a sabbatical from a prominent job in Philadelphia to return to her hometown after the death of her mother. Once back home, she has contentious run-ins with a man who had been a high school classmate of Kat’s, who now heads up the town council and seeks to develop land next to Kat’s homestead. As the two do battle over the land, they find they have more common ground than they had imagined.

McQuaide herself had to battle strong male-dominated odds in taking the prestigious screenwriting honor. Of 155 scripts accepted by the AOF Festival, only 35 were penned by females. Eight women were among the 34 writers who received honors at the annual screenwriting event. Kat’s Mystique was given top comedy honors after being chosen by representatives from Write Brothers, an Academy Award®-winning maker of screenwriting software who was a sponsor of the festival.

As an actress, McQuaide is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and appeared in films such as The Sixth Sense. Her production company, Hedge Jumper Pictures, recently wrapped production of a promotional trailer for another of her comedy scripts, Happy Acres. For the trailer, McQuaide drew on actors and crew from the shooting locale in rural Pennsylvania as well as Hollywood professionals such as costume designer Mimi Matsumoto (Code Name: Geronimo). McQuaide’s Happy Acres script is in keeping with her mission of providing family-friendly scripts to the film and television industry.

Related links:
http://www.hedgejumperpictures.com
www.imdb.me/colleenjunemcquaide