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Top 50 Pilots - 2025 JumpStart Writing Competition
Roadmap Writers is thrilled to announce the Top 50 Pilots from our 2025 JumpStart Writing Competition.
JumpStart leverages the reach and resources of Roadmap Writers to advocate for these exciting emerging voices. This year's judging panel includes execs and reps from companies such as Good Fear Content, Odenkirk Provissiero, Heroes and Villananthology-styles, Writ Large, and more,
And now we’re pleased to announce the...
TOP 50 PILOTS
| SCRIPT TITLE | WRITER(S) | LOGLINE |
| ABSOLUTE DINNER | Nic Turner | In a brutal galaxy where chefs kill for culinary supremacy, a haunted sushi master hunts the warlords who deep-fried his family-only to learn that revenge is the one dish best left unserved. |
| AETHER DREAMS | Peter Andrews | SF Pilot. SF An elderly man, who sacrificed his body to live among the stars as a satellite, competes for the top rank but may only reach it if he sheds his last remnants of humanity. Future episodes will explore the lives of his cohort of satellites driven by human brains as they tease out information about possibly threatening alien visits. |
| AGENCY | Anthony Hyatt | When a disillusioned Madison Avenue creative calls out her agency's biggest consumer packaged goods client for borrowing marketing tactics from the tobacco industry, she decides to start a competing agency dedicated to telling the truth about subpar products. |
| AJNABIYEH | Batoul Mourad | The lives of Australian-raised teenagers in 1998 are upended when they return to their homeland, Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon, but not even political conflict cannot supress their teenage desire for scheming and rebellion. |
| ARTIFICIAL INEPTITUDE | Nollan OReilly | When a news reporting robot gains consciousness he must simultaneously learn to navigate his newly acquired emotions and convince his boss that he can keep ratings up enough to avoid being reprogrammed. |
| AURA | Tiffany Alzatti | In this coming-of-age dramedy, a defiant Mexican teen witch-in-training attempts to wield her unruly magic trying to protect herself and crush from her mother's newly awoken power. |
| BACTERIA EMPIRE | Jarod Backens | In a near future marked by rampant inequality, a renowned but deeply depressed gene editing scientist must confront a toxic relationship from her past while racing against rival labs and insurgent groups to stop the next global pandemic: antibiotic-resistant bacteria. |
| BAD PANTS | Liv Jonse | When three unlikely friends-a perfectionist nurse, a loose cannon stay-at-home mom, and a lesbian accountant-discover magical pants that unleash their inner baddies, they must challenge their community's judgmental politics while reweaving the frayed fabric of their suburban lives, one magically empowered day at a time. |
| BELLEVUE | Tyler Peterson | A young, misguided documentarian attempts to charm his reclusive neighbor, a former Hollywood starlet, to be the subject of his next film, blurring the lines between empathy and exploitation. |
| BLACK DEATH | Cam Smith | A war hero turned barber endeavors to build a normal life in 1923 Harlem, but his plans are imperiled by Jim Crow and the Irish Mob. (Based on true events) |
| BLOOD BROTHERS | Cynthia Riddle | A young criminology student's DNA is found at the murder scenes of a serial killer, forcing him to enlist the aid of his ethically challenged professor to help clear his name - only to discover that he, she and the real killer are all inextricably linked. |
| BLOOD IN THE WATER | Liz Tenan | When a dead Native woman surfaces at the Paradise Springs Indian Reservation, FBI Special Agent Chelsea Laforte can't understand why the community won't seek justice. She finds an unlikely ally in tribal outsider Samantha Deboda who has nothing left to lose. The two women must work together in order to expose the work of a nefarious organization hellbent on exploiting the secrets buried in the tribe's bloodline. It's MARE OF EASTTOWN meets WIND RIVER. |
| BROTHER BABA | Nick Fituri Scown | Despite growing up without a dad WESLEY suddenly finds himself the de-facto father for his estranged Libyan half-siblings, HASAN & FOUAD, when they get emergency student visas to escape their war-torn country. Now Wesley tries to teach them how to survive in America, while they teach him how to be a part of a real family. |
| CARE SOURCE | Matthew Nicholson | Single mother Nancy Nathanson must give a once-in-a-lifetime presentation for her family business when an unexpected and debilitating medical diagnosis not only risks her job but will change her dysfunctional family forever. |
| CHUTZPAH | Leah Gottfried | A feisty Orthodox Jewish teen's dreams of partying in high school are thwarted when her strict rabbi father becomes her new principal, forcing her to find creative ways to rebel under his watchful eye. |
| CLOISTERED | Lauren Sudworth | Tudor teen nun Agnes knows who she wants to marry-and it's not God. Agnes must escape Whitby Abbey before she gets nunned forever. CLOISTERED is a warm-hearted, witty 8 x 30 mins historical comedy, set in pre-reformation Whitby Abbey, and focused on the story of Agnes Kettering, a reluctant teenage nun. CLOISTERED blends modern humor and feminist themes with a historical setting in a format that would appeal to audiences who loved DERRY GIRLS or THE GREAT. |
| CREEPS | Frankie Campisano | Fired from his dream job at CREEPS, INC., a washed-up hometown hero recruits his former best friend to start their own paranormal agency and restore his reputation. |
| CRIME CLEANERS | Vered Neta | After a woman kills her abusive husband, her sixty-something mother and her friends help her hide the body and clean up. Unfortunately, they are so successful a local Crime Boss forces them to clean his own murder scenes. |
| ELYSIAN FALLS | Ragan Mozee | |
| FLOP ERA | Celine Foster | After her co-founder boyfriend publicly torpedoes their company and their relationship, a Type-A perfectionist must rebuild her life with the help of her dysfunctional college besties. |
| GARGOYLE HIGH | Lauren Conoscenti | In this supernatural teen drama, a new student navigates the trials of an all-girls boarding school - homework, an antagonistic roommate, the ancient creatures she keeps releasing on campus - while striving to uncover the truth about her biological family. |
| HAFŪ | Miya Kodama | When half-Japanese, half-Korean Ami Hwang and half-Japanese, half-white Emi Conners meet the weekend before college begins, the two immediately despise each other - only to discover they are, in fact, half-sisters - and their estranged father is dead. |
| HARMONY HEROES | Jacqueline Sandee Valle | In the whimsical fantasy land of Cloudrock, when the arrival of Spring is mysteriously delayed, a trio of musical kids with unique talents work together in harmony to save the day! |
| HELL TOUR | Minna Lee | A genderqueer Asian American punk band drives their tour van into Hell to rescue their drummer. |
| HOI PALLOI | Liz Eccher | Set in Ancient Greece, HOI PALLOI follows a young aristocrat, Penelope, and her best friend as they navigate relationships, ennui, and uncontrollable visions of a looming, apocalyptic future. |
| IN SECURITY | Dave Beamish | The after-dark antics of night guards in the poorer part of Portland. When it's everyone's second job, levels of effort vary. |
| INTERFERENCE | Jason Kesse | After a mysterious spacecraft lands on Earth, a police chief's son who disappeared nearly a decade ago suddenly returns home. |
| L.O.T.U.S. | Nathan Patton | When a supercomputer predicts an aimless surfer from Santa Cruz will be the next President of the United States, she becomes the target of sleeper agents tasked with her assassination. She must decide whether to warn the others on the computer's 'kill list' or leave behind the only country she's ever known in order to save herself. |
| LA MAUPIN | Jennifer Ramsey | A flamboyant opera singer skilled in swordsmanship battles vampires attempting to gain influence in Louis XIV's court. |
| LAZARUS RISING | Pavan Grover | When a brilliant but emotionally distant heart surgeon's estranged 12-year-old daughter unexpectedly shows up at his hospital, he must navigate both her presence and a deadly mystery involving suspicious patient deaths, all while fighting to save his department from being taken over by an AI medical system. |
| LIMBO LAND | Alex Paulk | Hadriel, an angel who has been demoted from her high status, wants nothing more than to get away from humans- a difficult feat seeing as she is the angel who processes human souls after their deaths. After finishing her tenure down in Soul Intake, she is forced back into her job when the nuclear holocaust occurs and four billion humans arrive at her doorstep. With no one to help her but a human-loving angel, she must find a way to send the humans off to judgment to get back to her old job. |
| LOLA PRICE | Elle Resendes | When a timid young author suffering from writer's block and past abuse meets a manipulative new mentor who offers both literary, and literal, redemption, her creative alter ego re-emerges to develop a plan for revenge-and one hell of a story. |
| MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME | Emily Howard | When a queer youth counselor returns to the town that closeted her in high school, she becomes a begrudging catalyst for three generations of gay awakenings. |
| MALKIE'S GALAXY | Mia Volta | When a tech billionaire decides to adapt his favorite science fiction books into a TV series, the author's luddite granddaughter discovers that he's a sci-fi-style villain and she's the reluctant hero who must prevent him from destroying the world. |
| MELISSA JOAN HART ATTACK | Jason June | An alternate universe, washed-up and drunk Melissa Joan Hart and her Type-A, HR exec brother, Cary, become roommates and help people Cary has fired find jobs in an effort to clean up Mel's image and save Cary from a guilt-induced heart attack. |
| MONSTERS AND GEMSTONES | Don Donahue | When a young monster trainer discovers a shape-shifting blue blob, they must join forces to escape the sinister Black Syndicate. |
| MONTECITO | David DeGusta | A struggling writer is visiting his tech entrepreneur brother when his baby nephew disappears on his watch, touching off a desperate search that spills out secrets and ignites conflicts. It's Broadchurch meets Gone Baby Gone in a wealthy California enclave. |
| NINA & THE IN-BETWEEN-ERS | Brea Sondhi Dutt | On the one-year anniversary of her brutal breakup, Nina - a melodramatic, overthinking Indian lesbian in Boston - just wants to survive the day. Instead, she ends up battling her work nemesis, nearly delivering a baby in an UberPool, and stumbling into unexpected connections with fellow in-between-ers. |
| NOBODY'S HORSES - AN 8-PART LIMITED SERIES - PILOT EPISODE - "YOU CAN'T GO HOME" | Courtney Graham | NOBODY'S HORSES is a limited series inspired by true events in 1994. After a shocking horse-doping scandal destroys his veterinary career, Doc is given an unexpected shot at redemption. When 122 wild horses die mysteriously on an active military base, Doc is recruited to rescue the remaining herds before the impending NATO war games seals their fate. Battling personal demons, intense media scrutiny, and a military cover-up, he risks everything to uncover the truth and save the horses he's sworn to protect. Doc's fall from grace becomes a crusade to save the horses that end up saving him. |
| OOPSIES POOPSIES | Kevin Koljack | When the debauched star of the biggest kids show in town finds his blackmailing ex-wife dead, he and his obsessive assistant must navigate the seedy world of children's puppetry in order to solve the murder, clear his name, and keep him on stage. |
| PRUSSIAN BLUE | Henry Harper | The daughter of a legendary thief makes her first foray into the world of high art crime. |
| RANDOM AND ODD | John Kirkman | An LA based throuple at the head of a mismatched modern family deals with a tragic accident affecting one of its members, forcing them to reevaluate the true meaning of happiness and where life is taking them. |
| RESCUE EDDIE | J.R. Spaulding, Jr. | When a quixotic nursing assistant embarks on a mission to discover why he is slowly transforming into a zombie, he draws the ire of the mad scientist who runs the interdimensional secret research facility down the street. |
| THE 100-YARD WAR | Cody Schlegel | In the crucible of college football, legendary coaches Woody Hayes of Ohio State and Bo Schembechler of Michigan wage a fierce ten-year war, turning the rivalry between their teams into an epic saga of strategy, determination, and enduring legacy from 1969 to 1978. Based on a true story. (Drama) |
| The Last Gate Pilot: One in a Million | Nikhil Emmadi | When a 'too smart for her own good' archeology student is given dire medical news, she discovers she's a vital link to a relic of mass destruction that will tip the scales in a secret war threatening to engulf everyone she loves. |
| THE LAST WORD | James Crisp | A struggling actor, while navigating his own personal demons, stumbles upon an unexpected source of income and inspiration: reading eulogies for the deceased. |
| 2040 | Thomas Medori | In a world where AI predicts and manipulates human behavior, a disillusioned federal investigator and a rogue programmer uncover a secret that could save or doom society. Hunted by powerful forces, they must race against time to expose the truth before becoming pawns in the very system they seek to destroy. |
| VERSUS | Alex Marsha Sylvia | After beginning his transition, a transgender male high school student is forced to examine his history of gender-based violence while navigating the complexities of being a man during the #MeToo movement. |
| WEST | Elyssa Catalfano | Eighteen-year-old Charles must hire a group of mercenary cowboys to retrieve stolen information from his recently inherited multi-billion-dollar business. |
| WHAT'S BURIED BENEATH THE PINES | Kris Shuman | When a prodigal professor is thrust into his estranged family's pine empire, he must outwit corrupt lawmen and treacherous friends while grappling with a legacy that threatens to turn him into the man he fears most: his father. |
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Congratulations again to these incredible storytellers! We can't wait to champion your voices in the coming months.