Albert’s screenplay The Verge of Seas received positive feedback from the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, where it advanced to the Second Round in the Drama Feature Category earlier this year:
“IMPRESSIVE AND ENTERTAINING… LIKE SOME OF THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION IN CINEMA, ITS STRENGTH DID NOT RELY ON EPIC BATTLES WITH MONSTERS OR MIND-BLOWING EFFECTS, BUT INSTEAD IN ITS ORIGINAL IDEAS, HEARTFELT MESSAGING, AND WELL-CRAFTED STORYTELLING FROM A WRITER WHO SEEMS TO ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.”
Each year, the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition typically receives over 14,000 script submissions.
For over two decades, Austin Film Festival has been one of the most acclaimed contests within the industry for establishing the careers of up-and-coming writers. Past competition entrants have signed with major agencies and have had their scripts optioned, acquired, and produced by signatory production companies. Wes Brown, 2014 winner of the AMC One-Hour Pilot Award, has staffed on the AMC television series Goliath; Troy Miller, the 2013 winner of the Horror Screenplay Award, had his winning script optioned by Frank Darabont’s Darkwoods Productions; at the 2014 Austin Film Festival, the world premiere of Dawn Patrol was presented, a film produced from a 2008 finalist script written by Rachel Long and Brian Pittman that was acquired by Enderby Entertainment; and Amy Aniobi, 2011 semifinalist, has been hired to write for HBO’s Silicon Valley.
The Verge of Seas, written by Albert M. Chan, is about a grieving widower struggling to raise two young sons. When he returns to his childhood lake house, he’s unexpectedly trapped in a parallel universe in which he’s been dead 30 years, his kids have a different adoptive father, and his late husband—the love of his life—is not only alive… but straight.
“WITH A BRILLIANT PREMISE, POIGNANT RELATIONSHIPS AND THEMES AT PLAY, AND STRONG WRITING THROUGHOUT, THIS SCRIPT DELIVERS A THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND ENGAGING READ… COMPELLING AND EXCITING FROM START TO FINISH… THE QUEER LOVE STORY AT THE CORE IS REFRESHING AND HEARTFELT.”
