STILL Early September: 12 Goals Accomplished

I listed many different kinds of goals for myself in 2025. Some goals I knew I’d get done and others I felt fairly confident that I’d get them done. Both of those kinds of goals were 100% reliant on me doing them, though. Then, I had the Maybe Goals, they were not entirely in my hands, so I couldn’t say for certain that I’d get them done.

And the Maybe Goals had varying levels of difficulty. Further sub-categorized as The Maybes, The Eh… Maaybes, and The Eh… I Don’t Really Knows. But I find it important to always have many goals of varying levels of difficulty, some being easy so you can earn yourself a win and feel accomplished, some that are tough so you push yourself to work hard, and quite a few in between.

Some of the Maybe Goals were reliant on competitions, mainly script competitions. I have entered quite a few competitions and many of them have several rounds, and I’ve even moved on to second and third rounds in past competitions. But I wanted to do that again. Candidly, I want to do well in as many competitions as I can. The more accolades I have, the better it is for me, the better my resume looks. I think that makes sense to everyone. So, on my list for my Writing Goals of 2025, I put that I wanted to move on to a second round of a competition, move on to a third round of a competition, and win a competition. Each more difficult than the last, right? And I don’t expect to accomplish all of them, or even any of them. But the point was to try.

My script “A Tale of Two Tales” was a semifinalist in a competition last year so I wanted to enter that one into more competitions. I felt it was strong and could do well, also if one script has multiple accolades, that looks great. So, I entered it into a couple of competitions.

In July, the first announcement came for one competition… and my script was not selected. In August, the first announcement for another competition came around… and my script was not selected for that one either. I had entered that script and another script into other competitions but most of those wouldn’t have announcements until 2026, so I figured, “Well, looks like I won’t be achieving any of those goals this year. That’s alright, I was going to be shooting for them in 2026 whether I accomplished them in 2025 or not.”

Sidebar: I had been using Coverfly to showcase a lot of my scripts and other projects on my profile, and also using the site to enter many competitions. However, Coverfly announced that they would be going down and I wanted to find myself a replacement site. I liked that I could list many script projects and accomplishments and that agents and managers and producers used the site to find new talent. Through Coverfly, I had actually gotten a meeting with a management company. It felt like an excellent resource, so as it was going away, I looked for a replacement… and I found five. Film Freeway, Inktip, Blacklist, Stage 32, and ISA. I made a free account with each and figured I’d see how they all go.

I listed information, projects, accomplishments… all the good stuff on these sites. And some competitions that I wanted to enter, I could do so through Film Freeway. So, I did. Including “A Tale of Two Tales” and its accomplishment of being a semifinalist in a past competition.

One day, I got an email from a film festival through Film Freeway. This film festival wanted me to enter “A Tale of Two Tales” into the screenplay competition part of their festival. They told me that if I did, I would be an official selection and would skip the selection portion. I was astonished! I suppose this is a benefit of using Film Freeway, people who run contests and festivals may find you and invite you to join.

I looked into the competition and it looked interesting! It was relatively new, so I was aware of the fact that it wasn’t a huge festival, and they were likely trying to get more people to join. However, that didn’t mean it wasn’t a real competition recognized by a trusted site. It was. And to be a part of a competition, and to be an official selection, that was some more notoriety. I was excited, so I accepted. And then, two more festivals reached out to me in the same manner! After doing some careful research and seeing if I wanted to enter these competitions, I found myself to be interested in them as well, and entered!

So, at this point, “A Tale of Two Tales” was an official selection in the New York Tri-State International Film Festival, the Tokyo International Short Film Festival, and the Seoul International Short Film Festival… the third one the official selection has yet to be announced but will be soon. I was aware of the fact that these were all relatively new festivals, but also aware that it’s an honor to be involved with any festivals, and that’s more accolades that I can claim.

Just seeing that official selection laurel is exciting!

And to see my name on the fim festival's site, with my work, hell yeah! And hello, Tokyo!

I was excited about it, and excited about the possibilities. But a competition is still a competition, you’re up against a lot of other people… people who put a lot into their craft.

And then just the other day, I got the email from the New York Tri-State International Film Festival. My script won in its category! I won!

How’s that for notoriety? I was excited for “A Tale of Two Tales” to be an official selection, and now it’s a winner! I actually won a competition. First time ever!

And that also means that I accomplished yet another goal of mine… one I really did not expect to accomplish. And funny enough, I felt I had a decent chance to move onto a second or third round in a competition… and slim chances to win. Well, I won… but didn’t accomplish the easier goals… the goals you would’ve thought you’d HAVE TO accomplish first. But in the case of this competition, there were no second rounds or third rounds, they just chose the winners.

So, me… along with many others… won our categories and had that news announced this week!

So thrilled to have won, to have accomplished a goal of mine, and to be able to earn an amazing accolade that I can surely brag about (professionally of course) in order to garner interest in my script and in myself as a writer. That’s the hope.

But either way… I won a competition. That’s incredible on its own.