Soul Touch, my screenplay adaptation of the novella by Deena Warner, has won its third award, this time from the Hollywood International CINEVERSE Screenplay Awards. This is the only third competition I’ve submitted the script to, and it’s garnered something from all three.

While I’m grateful, I’m also frustrated. The notification from the festival, sent through the FilmFreeway clearinghouse, says only that my judging status is now “Award Winner,” but it doesn’t say for which award. There’s been no reply to my follow-up inquiry, and there’s no mention of it on their website. (Update 8/28/26: They finally updated their website to show we won Best Romance Screenplay. Here is the link.)

The lack of a website listing is especially troublesome. In my short time time submitting to festivals (other projects include The Three Brothers, Couple’s Counseling, and The Cryonic Pharaoh), I’ve learned not all competitions are created equal. For a credit to be IMDb-qualifying, IMDb has to be able to independently verify your track record, which usually requires being mentioned on a third-party website. This is why only some of my recent wins appear on my profile page. So I wish more festivals would work with us in getting those credits up.

On the topic of some festivals being better than others, I’ve also learned to spot a few scams. All festivals require submission fees, which I’m happy to pay, but it seems some festivals only exist to collect those fees. So when I receive unsolicited email requesting that I submit to this or that, I ignore them whether or not they offer to discount my fee. I especially ignore them if they guarantee the status of Official Selection. Only festivals I’ve submitted to can access my FilmFreeway projects, so if you’re writing me out of the blue, then I know you haven’t read/watched anything—so why in the hell would you offer Official Selection status to me sight-unseen unless you were a career scam artist?

So, there you go: a few months of accumulated rant. Onward.