Solar Opposites – BEA Graduate Screenwriting – Award of Excellence

Matt Neff is a second year graduate student in the Media, Journalism, and Film (MJF) Department’s MFA in Dramatic Writing program. He is set to graduate in May of 2024. Matt describes his inspiration for his favorite project, Solar Opposites, as a “spec episode for the series in which the main characters host a telethon to raise money for their own show to avoid getting canceled by Hulu.”

Matt has accomplished several goals while in the MFA program. Along with his work as a comedian, he’s also filmed his first short, How to F*ck Up a Heist, and is working on the MSU original sitcom Friends of Fiction, which is in pre-production for its pilot episode. After graduation, he plans to pursue a stand-up career in Chicago or L.A. and work towards a position in a professional writer’s room.

 

WHEELZ: Screenwriting – Narrative Feature – 3rd Place

Jade Johann was inspired by her desire for more inclusivity in characters portrayed on the screen. She also found inspiration in the idea that you shouldn’t be afraid to be yourself unapologetically.

Jade is a senior in the MJF’s Electronic Arts program with an emphasis in Visual Studies. She is also in the accelerated MFA in Dramatic Writing program. This means she takes credits in her undergraduate program and the MFA program at the same time, so she can earn graduate credit before finishing her undergraduate degree.

Her plans for the future include a Christmas movie that builds on the ideology of angels used in It’s a Wonderful Life and trying to see how that might look in today’s world.

 

AZN: BEA Graduate Screenwriting – 3rd Place

This is My Body Broken for You: BEA Graduate Screenwriting – Award of Excellence

Ellora Bultema’s inspiration for AZN came from a course she took on TV writing. “It examines the intersectionality of Asian-American identity and Midwest culture through the lens of a college campus sorority.” She describes the project as a Parks and Rec meets Glee mockumentary-style comedy. Ellora uses her own experience as a Chinese adoptee who has attended college in a Midwestern small town to inform her project.

Bultema’s inspiration for This is My Body Broken for You comes from the desire to write something darker and more cerebral, but still explore a comedic nature. She says she was trying to “channel her inner Charlie Kaufman.”

Ellora is a second year graduate student in the MJF Department’s MFA in Dramatic Writing. Even though the program is designed to be completed in three years, she is graduating in May of 2023. She uses writing to explore the different ways comedy can be expressed. After graduation, she wants to move to L.A. to pursue writing in either television, theater, or indie filmmaking.

 

Here’s a complete list of our winners!

CONGRATS TO ALL THE WINNERS!