Albert’s screenplays The Verge of Seas and Incarnations both advanced to the Second Round in the Drama Feature Category in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition. 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, is about a struggling alcoholic in a failing marriage who returns to his childhood home in Montana, where his husband and children inexplicably vanish. Realizing he’s in an alternate reality, he seeks help from his husband’s parallel – a straight man – and must choose between rewriting his troubled past or risking everything to reunite with his loved ones.
“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.”
Incarnations, also written by Albert, is a “Black List Endorsed/Recommended” script about a brilliant Ivy League biologist desperate to reunite with his deceased four-year-old son. He journeys to Tibet, sacrificing his career and marriage to obsessively pursue the meaning of a mysterious epigenetic marker—the “fingerprint of the soul”—that may be proof of reincarnation. Incarnations was selected for a 2022-2023 Humanitas New Voices Fellowship, as a work that explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. The project also won First Place in the Best Screenplay competition at the Oscar-accredited 2021 Rhode Island International Film Festival, and was a finalist for the Tracking Board Launch Pad Feature Competition, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition, and Screencraft Film Fund.
“THOUGHT-PROVOKING, MINDBLOWING, AND HEARTFELT, INCARNATIONS BLENDS SCIENCE-FICTION, SPIRITUALITY, AND PATHOS TO CREATE SOMETHING WHOLLY NEW AND MEMORABLE… INCARNATIONS HOOKS OUR ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY WITH ITS MINDBLOWING HIGH CONCEPT. THE EXECUTION THAT FOLLOWS IS THOUGHTFUL AND HUMAN… INCREDIBLY POWERFUL AND STIRRING, A UNIQUE CATHARSIS ONLY THIS SCRIPT AND THIS CONCEPT CAN DELIVER.”
“CLEVER, ORIGINAL, INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING, AND GRIPPING, A HIGH CONCEPT IDEA THAT TRANSLATES INTO A SMART CHARACTER- AND IDEA-DRIVEN STORY… THE PLOT TWISTS ARE CONSISTENTLY SURPRISING… THE KIND OF LOW-BUDGET, INTELLECTUAL THRILLER THAT PLAYS AT SUNDANCE… THE IDEAS ARE KING HERE.”
“SOARS EMOTIONALLY WITHOUT EVER FEELING SENTIMENTAL, CLOYING, OR FALSE… THE SCRIPT IS TRULY UNIQUE. IT’S UNLIKE ANYTHING THE READER HAS SEEN BEFORE: A FASCINATING PREMISE WITH AN ENTHRALLING WORLD.”
“INCARNATIONS DELIVERS ON ALL THE BEST PARTS OF A GOOD CEREBRAL SPECULATIVE FICTION PIECE. IT DOESN’T SHY AWAY FROM THE HUMAN QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE PREMISE, INSTEAD USING THE CONCEPT TO GROUND A COMPELLING CHARACTER-DRIVEN NARRATIVE FRONT TO END… A WELL-CRAFTED AND DEEPLY INTELLIGENT PIECE OF FICTION, THOUGHT-PROVOKING IN ALL THE RIGHT WAYS.”
“THE CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE STRONGEST PART OF THIS STORY AND IT SETS A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR PLOT… SO MUCH OF THE DIALOGUE IS POWERFUL… REFRESHINGLY HONEST… THE ENDING WAS INCREDIBLY EMOTIVE… THERE ARE MEANINGFUL MESSAGES THAT WE’RE LEFT WITH, THAT WE’VE LEARNT ALONG THE JOURNEY WITH THE CHARACTERS.”
