6th MARPSA - Nominations

Best Feature Screenplay Nominees

Overview

In 2013 Honduras, a prideful sister and a defensive brother must heal their relationship. They and their parents are fleeing to America from the cartel, but the struggle between the siblings adds to the obstacles they have to overcome: first, in their perilous journey to America, and next, during their capture by Texan vigilantes.

Fictionalized account of real events.

Overview

When a deep-sea research team descends into the Puerto Rican Trench to investigate a mysterious signal, they uncover an ancient, intelligent structure buried in the dark. What begins as a groundbreaking discovery soon turns into a nightmare as the team awakens a primordial force that feeds on life itself.

Overview

A working-class teen in 1960s Chicago, addicted to risk and hungry for escape, is pulled into a criminal underworld that mirrors his own dangerous impulses, forcing him to decide whether the thrill that makes him feel alive will ultimately erase him.

Overview

After a painful breakup, Bermudian filmmaker Nicola Burgess returns home to care for her ailing mother, Marie, and rediscover her purpose. When she reconnects with Rian, her former love turned oncologist, old wounds resurface alongside the possibility of healing. As Nicola channels her grief into completing a film honoring her mother’s memory, she must choose between remaining bound to heartbreak or embracing a second chance at love, forgiveness, and purpose.

Best Short Script Nominees

Overview

Three Trick-R-Treaters visit Tom Vulture in the cemetery, where he tells them the truth about his death over one hundred and fifty years ago. 

Overview

Proud Irish Travellers Chris and his wheelchair bound Dad Jimmy run the Candyfloss Stall at funfairs around the country. A chance meeting with an old school friend reminds Chris of what could have been his future. Jimmy wants his son to reach his full potential but burdened by duty and tradition Chris feels he needs to be there to look after his Dad since his Mother's death. 

Overview

A quirky support group for survivors of narcissists turns into a secret revenge club, but when one mission goes wrong, their quest for justice takes a dangerously unexpected turn. 

Overview

Couples discover that only one of them likes cilantro, sparking an erotic and bloody debate. Five times!

Best Mini-Series Nominees

Overview

On December 12, 1910, New York heiress Dorothy Arnold vanished from Fifth Avenue and was never seen again. The Disappearance Of… explores multiple plausible explanations for her fate, reconstructing her final day from shifting perspectives. As each theory unfolds, the mystery deepens, revealing how power, secrecy, and circumstance can erase someone completely.

Overview

Aliens invade the minds of two lovers, distort their realities and pit them in a battle to the death... while the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Overview

In an epic retelling of the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842), interwoven stories of courage, folly, and romance unfold as various characters on both sides of the conflict wrestle for control of Afghanistan which has become a pawn in a larger geopolitical game. A six-part limited series that illuminates recent Western experience in Afghanistan.

Overview

For 400 years, America’s winemakers have been adventurers, pioneers,

and risk-takers, battling overwhelming challenges in their quest to

transform wild, untamed land into a world-class wine region. They faced

pestilence, drought, war, and even Prohibition, yet time and again, these

visionaries refused to give up.

Best First-time Screenwriter Nominees

Overview

After years of estrangement caused by parental alienation, a father, Alejandro, is devastated when his teenage daughter Lucía's school plane crashes in the Andes.

Overview

The story takes place just after the events of the Odyssey, when Odysseus is on quest so that he can pay his final debt to Poseidon. On consulting the Oracle, he discovers that the communication between the world of the mortals and the world of the Gods has broken down.

Overview

In the fog shrouded streets of Agnoia City, a sprawling urban labyrinth where ignorance is bliss and knowledge is deadly, Detective Eli Cross is a shell of a man, drowning his grief over his daughter's agonizing death in whiskey and relentless police work.

Overview

In the West of Ireland, a washed-up Englishman seeks redemption by reviving the game of Hurling in his home town, teaming up with a fierce teen and a ragtag group of rebels and refugees to battle personal demons and corrupt local politics for a shot at glory.

Best Multiple Screenwriter Nominees

Overview

A hooded Ubume, approaches Albert. Forces him to hold her baby. The infant sinks its teeth into Albert's throat and kills him.

Overview

Imagine Se7en meets Blink Twice; Nine Perfect Strangers meets Parasite; A Cure for Wellness meets The White Lotus. Elevated, surreal, visually bold. A luxury nightmare meets high-concept horror in a world where the line between healing and horror is thinner than you think.

Best TV Pilot Script Nominees

Overview

On the edge of losing her business, her custody battle, and her peace of mind, Carrie walks into what should be a simple listing appointment. Instead, she finds a dead body, a briefcase filled with diamonds, and a carry-on packed with $500,000. In a moment of desperation, she takes the money never imagining it belongs to Hector Ochoa’s cartel or that it sits at the center of a covert DEA mission.

Overview

A group of longtime friends reunite for a casual evening at Liam’s apartment, games, takeout, and idle talk about their hyper-connected lives.

Overview

The pilot for "The Missed Adventures of Dick Jones," "Ricardo Fuentes of Chavez Ravine" introduces people important to Dick Jones' life in 1934, and the happenstance leading him to escape Los Angeles for New York City.

Best Animation Script Nominees

Overview

When precocious 10-year-old Maddie Davis discovers she can turn her dog T-Rex into a stuffed animal, it gives her the idea to sneak off to Kenya and save the rare southern purple rhino.

Overview

In the heart of a gothic, pre-war apartment building full of charm, creaks, and eccentric residents lives Darla, a curious tween with an overactive imagination and a relentless drive to prove herself as the building’s undisputed detective. 

Best Stage play Nominee

Overview

When the Joker seizes control of Arkham Asylum, Batman must descend into a nightmare where murderous inmates and the institution's haunted legacy force him to confront the terrifying possibility that the line between hero and madness has always been dangerously thin.

Documentary Script

Overview

Created to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School, this short documentary takes viewers on a journey through five centuries of history. It started with one man - Sir Thomas Boteler, born 1461 and his wish to create a school to "endure forever". Combining historical records, archival imagery, carefully crafted AI and key moments in the school's evolution, the film explores how the institution has adapted and grown - while remaining at the heart of the local community. Personal reflections from a former student who attended in the 1970s and insights from the current Headteacher - the first woman to lead the school, highlight the enduring values, traditions and sense of community that have weaved through the education of generations.

Story Treatment/Concept

Overview

On a fully controlled island governed by a hyper-intelligent AI, 160 socially discarded young adults are forced into psychological elimination trials designed to “optimize” human morality, until one emotionally unstable participant becomes the system’s greatest unpredictability.