Grand Prize Winner - August 14, 2026

We are thrilled to announce that Dinosaurs Are Singing by Tim Gnazale has been selected as the Grand Prize Winner of Cut to Black Prize.

This compelling screenplay impressed our readers across every dimension of craft. Tim demonstrates exceptional command of story construction, character development, dialogue, pacing, emotional depth, and dramatic structure, creating a story that is both deeply personal and irresistibly cinematic.

At its heart, Dinosaurs Are Singing explores the complicated relationship between artistic legacy and personal sacrifice. The screenplay’s conflict between legendary sound editor Julian Roake and his estranged son, Owen, gives the story genuine emotional weight while providing a fresh and provocative perspective on the mythology of Hollywood.

The writing is confident, nuanced, and highly visual, with dialogue that feels authentic and purposeful. The pacing maintains momentum while allowing the characters and central conflict to develop organically. Most importantly, the screenplay understands that its biggest spectacle is not the dinosaur roar—it is the human story behind it.

Dinosaurs Are Singing is an accomplished, emotionally resonant screenplay that showcases exceptional screenwriting talent. We congratulate Tim on this well-deserved Grand Prize!


Finalists - August 3, 2026

Dinosaurs Are Singing - Tim Gnazale

Good News Gary - Chad Hutson

Killing Juliet - Barry Brock

Last Kiss in Tiananmen Square - Lisa Zhang Wharton

Tom Hanks Must Die! - Evan Neill


Semifinalists - July 20, 2026

1. City Beneath the Water - Beth Hanson
Drama

When a flood unearths hundreds of suitcases buried beneath a vanished immigrant neighborhood, a meticulous city planner finds one bearing her mother’s name and proof that the redevelopment project funding her career began with a mass eviction her family helped conceal. To save the last surviving residents, she must destroy the legacy she inherited.


2. Dinosaurs Are Singing - Tim Gnazale
Drama

When legendary sound editor Julian Roake is hired to restore the dinosaur blockbuster that made him famous, his estranged son Owen demands that its iconic roar be removed - a sound built from recordings of Owen's childhood voice during grueling sessions Julian remembers as artistic communion and Owen as exploitation. As Hollywood prepares to honor Julian's lifetime achievement, he must decide whether to erase the sound that defines his legacy or deny what its creation cost his son.


3. Every Apology in the World - James Kane
Drama

A professional ghostwriter hired to compose deathbed apologies for the wealthy discovers her newest client caused the industrial accident that killed her father and ruined her town. To secure restitution for hundreds of survivors, she must make him sound sincere enough to be forgiven while secretly building the confession that could destroy his empire.


4. Good News Gary - Chad Hutson
Comedy

A hard-charging investigative reporter loses his career and is forced into the one job he despises most, covering good news, only to discover that learning how to see what’s right with the world might finally fix what’s wrong with him.


5. Killing Juliet - Barry Brock
Comedy, Drama, Historical Fiction, Romance

When Shakespeare is commanded by Queen Elizabeth to transform his comedy about star-crossed lovers into a tragedy, his own fictional characters haunt him into writing an ending so true it breaks the audience — and accidentally creates an immortal love story.


6. Last Kiss in Tiananmen Square - Lisa Zhang Wharton
Historical Romance

In the final weeks of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, a young female college student falls in love with an older factory technician as millions gather to demand change, until tanks, bullets, and betrayal force them to choose between survival, memory, and one last kiss under fire.


7. Mercy Broadcast - Mary Thomas-Leighton
Drama

On the night a revered public radio host announces his terminal diagnosis, a caller claims to be the child he abandoned decades ago and demands an on-air reckoning. As the live conversation becomes a national obsession, he must choose between preserving the comforting voice millions trust and confessing the private betrayal that destroyed one life.


8. Oh, My Leo! - Jeff Naparstek
Dark Comedy, Fantasy

A man has the opportunity to spend twenty-four four hours with his wife… two days after he’s died.


9. The Wrong Funeral - Terri Sanderson
Dramedy

After a clerical error convinces everyone she has died, a lonely obituary writer secretly attends her own funeral and discovers the people she dismissed as strangers understood her better than her family ever did. Keeping the mistake alive, she sets out to repair the lives she neglected before the truth ruins them all.


10. Tom Hanks Must Die! - Evan Neill
Dark Comedy

When a bitter nobody becomes convinced that Tom Hanks is the cosmic reason his life sucks, he drags a new friend on a chaotic cross-country mission to confront destiny-and maybe punch America's dad in the face.


Quarter Finalists - July 10, 2026

Quarterfinalists notified by email on July 10, 2026