by FilmInk Staff
Submissions to the Byron Bay International Film Festival’s 2025 Screenplay Competition came from around the world – from Turkey to Canada – with a particularly strong showing from the United States.
While some entries leaned on familiar tropes or prose-first thinking, the top scripts stood out for their cinematic craft and producibility.
Several of the strongest works, including among the top three and shortlist, are Australian-set stories written by authors based overseas.
The winner of this year’s competition is the Tasmanian saga A Treacherous Country by Arkansas-based Jay Jennings.
This historical drama begins in Van Diemen’s Land in 1842, flashes back to England, and then returns to Tasmania for a cleverly woven tale that feels both authentic and relatable.
Competition judge Alex Mankiewicz praised the screenplay’s “outstanding dialogue” that differentiates characters and propels the plot without excess exposition. “There’s a wry lightness despite the harsh setting,” they said. “It’s a compelling mystery with an ending that does not resolve patly.”
The two runners-up demonstrate the breadth of tone in this year’s field: The Back Half, by early-career WA writer Anna McGuckin, is a mash-up of road trip, family dynamics and emotional self-discovery, delivered with pitch-perfect Aussie humour. The Lady Pirates, by US screenwriter Theresa Anne Carey, is a rollicking high-seas period adventure with a modern take on gender that feels organic rather than forced. Its dialogue sparkles and the action sequences leap off the page. Shortlist (alphabetical) Because There Was Fire (Australia) Katlandia (USA) Let’s Kill Dad (Australia) Not Skinny (USA) Sakli (Turkey)
Each shortlisted script, Mankiewicz noted, shows firm command of screenwriting craft and could be developed for production. Genres range from Gen-Z heist to youth-oriented fantasy musical, real-life drama, adolescent loss, and a subversive story of sexual oppression that plays with narrative structure and visual metaphor. “In an era of algorithmic silos,” Mankiewicz added, “film’s power lies in gathering audiences in a darkened cinema – phones off – to enter other lives.”
For more information about the 19th Byron Bay International Film Festival (October 17–26, 2025), visit bbff.com.au.
