ENVIRONMENTAL Festival Best Scene: POLAR BREAK, by Thomas M. DiGiacinto

Set in Churchill, Manitoba—The Polar Bear Capital of the World—Polar Break is a survival thriller where climate change isn’t exposition, but existential pressure. As the ice-free season pushes past record limits, starving bears flood the town. What begins as a containment mission spirals into a siege, forcing unlikely allies to face ecological truth, institutional failure, and their own breaking points. The Polar Break screenplay was recently selected for participattion in the 2025 Enviromental Film And Screenplay Awards.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Cnn Anchor: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Jimmy: Geoff Mays

FEEDBACK Festival Best Scene: CALIGO INN, by Shaun Delliskave (pgs 48 to 50)

A rising political star retreats to a secluded Virginia inn to draft a campaign platform that will secure him a spot on a presidential ticket—but as nightmarish visions blur with reality, he’s forced to confront the ghosts of those he sacrificed to climb the political ladder. Caligo Inn is a psychological thriller with gothic horror overtones, laced with political intrigue and moral reckoning, in which ambition, guilt, and supernatural justice collide under the genteel veneer of Southern hospitality.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
JJ: Geoff Mays
Hebsug: Sean Ballantyne

Today’s Writing Deadlines: July 22, 2025

Submit to these exciting festivals today. Festivals that offer feedback from the industry, plus performance videos.

WOMEN’S FICTION Novel Festival (3 options to submit):
https://femalefilmfestival.com/womens-fiction-novel-festival/

Women’s fiction is a broad term for books that center on women’s experiences and are marketed to female readers.

3 options to submit: 1st chapter. full novel. performance reading.


BLACK Screenwriters Festival:
https://blackfeedbackfilmfestival.com/black-screenwriters-festival/

This festival has a guaranteed 4-tier set up for each accepted script. (No matter what, all screenplays submitted receive FULL FEEDBACK on their work.)
1) Full Feedback on your script
2) Actors performance video reading of your script
3) Blog interview promotion.
4) Podcast interview on the Film Festival ITunes show


BODY IMAGE Short Story Festival (automatic acceptance):
https://storypitches.com/body-image-short-story-festival/

Submit your BODY IMAGE short story to the festival here, and we will automatically have it performed by a professional actor and turned into a promotional video for yourself.

UNDER 5 Minute Film Festival:

Watch the STYLE, EXPERIMENTAL, FASHION Shorts Festival (in case you missed it)

Watch the festival NOW for the next 48 hours by signing up for the FREE 3-DAY trial using the link, or go to http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch today’s Festival: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/style-experimental-fashion-shorts-festival

Mx., 5min., UK
Directed by WWenen Lusa
“Mx.” is a title used as a gender-neutral alternative to Mr. or Ms., reflecting inclusivity in gender identity. This film delves into the tension between gender identity and societal expectations, highlighting the quest for selfhood amidst oppression. Through the lens of diverse, non-binary lesbians, it showcases their struggles with physical acceptance, cultural pressures, and homophobia. The narrative emphasizes the symbolic power of costumes and dance as tools for inner awakening and liberation, illustrating the beauty and strength found in diverse identities. By following the journeys of these individuals, “Mx.” challenges societal norms and questions how the fashion industry can lead the way in accepting varied gender expressions, ultimately portraying the ongoing fight for identity acceptance and understanding.

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BLAKE AND CATHIE, 8min., Argentina
Directed by Ileana Gómez
SHORT FICTION FILM ABOUT WILLIAM BLAKE, ENGLIH WRITER AND PAINTER.

Hypnagogia, 4min., UK
Directed by Ysabelle Taylor
Hypnagogia is the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep. A sensation of semi-consciousness or trance where images float sometimes randomly, sometimes sequentially through our minds.

https://www.instagram.com/ysabelle_taylor_dance/

Seeking Tranquility, 4min., UK
Directed by Ysabelle Taylor
An improvised dance film in collaboration with dancer Aleth Berenice and composer Alberte Erantis. Filmed at Acosta Dance Centre, located in a historic building of the Woolwich Royal Arsenal in London.

https://www.instagram.com/ysabelle_taylor_dance/

Ripples, 1min., UK
Directed by Ysabelle Taylor

Last Love, 18min., Russia
Directed by Dmitri Frolov
The musical and poetic composition “O my prophetic soul” on the verses of Fedor Ivanovich Tyutchev for the Reader, Pianist and String Orchestra of the composer Sergei Aleksandrovich Oskolkov served as a sound basis for the philosophical parable about the Love of the human and divine, about the cycle of life, about the decline of civilization, That the latter will be the first. The film is shot as a dream, and the use of the aesthetic series of experimental cinema only emphasizes this state. The universal sound gives him the poetry of Fedor Tyutchev (1803-1873), deeply played by Leonid Mozgovoy behind the scenes. The young actors Natalya Surkova and Vladimir Zolotar, who existed in the frame, had a difficult task to show the first people not burdened with the intellectual work of subsequent generations. It was necessary to abandon today’s problems and try to imagine themselves as original people, and then immediately move to the very end of time. The plot begins with them and ends with humanity. This author wanted to show continuity: the first love and the supposed last is an indivisible whole of one eternal Love.

http://dmitrfrolov.narod.ru/Last_Love/en.html

Tomasz Kwiecien – Professional skating instructor, 6min., USA
Directed by Dominika Machel
Tomasz Kwiecień is on a mission — to get as many people involved in blading as possible, not just kids but adults too. His passion for skating knows no limits — he even set a Guinness World Record by completing a full marathon… skating backwards! Blading in schools?

https://www.instagram.com/dominika_machel/

Nakielsky, 1min., Poland
Directed by Dominika Machel
This isn’t a story – it’s a collision of senses. Movement, sound, image – equal, sharp as glass, precise as a blade. Nothing leads, nothing follows. They coexist in tension, in a rhythm that doesn’t obey rules but rises from the clash of motion, sound, and visuals. Each sense holds its ground – sight never overshadows hearing, sound never silences the body. But everything penetrates everything else – without that, there’s no meaning. The layers merge, not in harmony, but in friction – and that friction sparks reaction.

https://www.instagram.com/dominika_machel/

Maria Niklińska Marlen – make it, 3min., Poland
Directed by Dominika Machel

Today’s Podcast: Screenwriter Ed Vela (THE MORTALITY GAME)

Watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrcCUBi10A

Facing death due to different illnesses, three patients find themselves playing a made up game called The Mortality Game to experience life one last time risking it all.

www.instagram.com/thevelamonster

Get to know the writer:

What is your screenplay about?
It’s about 116 pages! Sorry, I just had to get one “Dad Joke” in, even though I’m NOT a Dad (that I know of). “The Mortality Game’ is in essence a story of life as seen through the lens of impending death. It’s about how we as humans face the “final act” of the stage play of our lives. In the case of my three headed lead: Schubert, Halada and Tugger face it in their own differing, yet quirky ways. Ultimately deciding to take a final road trip across the country while playing a game where they do dangerous things to challenge and defy death, since they have nothing to lose.

What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Character Driven Dramedy for the most part, as it has elements of Comedy and Drama, with a bit of Coming of Age mixed in for good measure.

Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Because the characters are as diverse in age and attitude as they are strong in development and memorability. Because the story, about how we face death is an important one to tell, since that is a situation that none of us can avoid. Because it explores letting go as well as fighting back, finding the joy in the dreaded, and allowing yourself to feel what you feel facing the end, whether it’s understandable or not, expected or not, appropriate or not.

Subscribe to the podcast:

https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod/

https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundp

Today’s FilmFreeway Deadline: Toronto FEEDBACK COMEDY Film & Screenplay Festival

Deadline Today to submit to the festival:

Since 2016, the FEEDBACK Film Festival has been showcasing the best of COMEDY directors, producers, writers, and actors at the festival in Toronto.

In-person and hybrid multiple screenings.

The Toronto Comedy Festival occurs every single month.

Various options to submit to the festival. A hybrid model.

– Cinema screenings for audience feedback video.

– Blog and podcast interviews. And a bonus virtual screening (optional!) geared to create community over distance, PLUS, get your film seen by the right people.

– Also option for live screening in Toronto (always sold out!) where you can attend for Q&A and audience reactions.

For FILMS:

Submit your short or feature film.
– NEW OPTION for guaranteed submission.

For SCREENPLAYS:

Submit your screenplay (feature, TV, short) and get full feedback no matter what from the industry. Winners get their script performed by professional actors.

– Also option to submit a 1-page script (guaranteed winner).

Another option is to submit your screenplay for a 10 day or less turnaround for your feedback.

Get your short film showcased at the FEEDBACK Film Festival and get an audience video.

Offers filmmakers to get their works showcased at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Then the filmmaker will receive an audience reaction video for their film.

Get your script and story performed by professional actors at the Comedy Festival.
– 0ffers screenwriters, novelists, and storytellers at all levels the fantastic opportunity to hear their stories read aloud using TOP PROFESSIONAL ACTORS.

MOVIE TRAILER: Hypnagogia, 4min., UK

Watch Movie Trailer : https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/trailer-hypnagogia

FREE festival starts at 8pm EST tonight at http://www.wildsound.ca/browse

Watch over 480 award winning short films now: https://www.wildsound.ca/watch-award-winning-short-films-1

Hypnagogia, 4min., UK
Directed by Ysabelle Taylor
Hypnagogia is the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep. A sensation of semi-consciousness or trance where images float sometimes randomly, sometimes sequentially through our minds.

https://www.instagram.com/ysabelle_taylor_dance/