Top 25 Features - 2025 JumpStart Writing Competition

Image
Jumpstart

 

Top 25 Features - 2025 JumpStart Writing Competition

Roadmap Writers is thrilled to announce the Top 25 Features 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 Entertainment,  Heroes and Villains, Writ Large, and more

And now we’re pleased to announce the...

SEMIFINALISTS FEATURE
SCRIPT TITLEWRITER(S)LOGLINE
AN AXE FOR THE FROZEN SEASamantha SilvaySet in a fictionalized Soviet state, An Axe For The Frozen Sea follows a Socialist realist writer and his wife on their journey from good soldiers to revolutionaries.
BEANSTALKAarthi RamanathanAfter a shy, neurodivergent teen from Modern-Day Chicago accidentally unearths a magical beanstalk that unleashes dangerous giants into his world, he must venture into their realm and confront his greatest fears-both the giants in the otherworld and those in his own life. COMPS: HOOK meets NARNIA.
BLOOD TIESMick WormaldA troubled teenage girl discovers she is next in line as the high priestess of a centuries old witches coven, who gain their magic from drawing blood from male children.
BOOK F*CKERLissette Jean-MarieA romantasy audiobook producer reeling from a break up accidentally opens up a portal that a hot knight from a magical world falls through, and now she must help him get back home while trying to keep her own life from falling apart. BOTTOMS meets ENCHANTED
CAT BURGLARSDuncan NovakIn this deconstruction of neo-noir thrillers--Jude Turner, a suicidal young man living with Cerebral Palsy, embarks on a brutal quest for revenge against the people who stole his cat.
DEMONSShiva RamanathanA desperate father who resorts to crime and murder to fund his fertility treatment must confront his past when the seven-year-old girl he killed is reborn as his daughter.
Comps: Fargo, Prisoners and The Omen.
DETECTIVE CLAUSDavid ZeltserA divorced, workaholic police detective-stuck with his spirited daughter for the holidays-takes the case when a suspicious sleigh accident sidelines Santa. As they unwrap the mystery, father and daughter realize saving Christmas might mean reinventing it. Blending the comic charm of THE SANTA CLAUS with the adventure of THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES, this fresh, inventive holiday tale has the potential to become a beloved franchise.
HAUNTED HEARTMike BencivengaWhen a struggling ghostwriter for motivational speakers is haunted emotionally (then literally) by a lost love, she must find the closure and optimism to move on so that her ghost lover can do the same.
I DREAMED YOUSam SpollA married couple who run a prestigious London film festival are rattled when a controversial auteur requests a last-minute screening of her new film, starring an American actress from the couple's past.
INWARDJolan BastienAfter unleashing a seething evil while exploring an abandoned asylum, a filmmaker with a tragic past is drawn into a living nightmare where she must confront buried family secrets and her own inner demons to survive.
JOSEFINAKevin WalshA gay Iraqi-American man confronts his traumatic past while embarking on a frantic search for his mysterious, missing lover.
KALEIDOSCOPEErik HowardWhen a grieving teenage girl uses a mystical kaleidoscope to uncover clues about her brother's murder, she risks her own life to rescue another missing child from the same killer.
KIRBY IN LIMBOJamie CampbellA retiree's perfect life is shattered when a car crash takes the lives of his wife and daughter. After an insurance settlement leaves him the world's most miserable millionaire, he attempts to pick up the pieces and find a reason to keep going.
LIKE AN ANIMALDavid PageWhen a passionate animal rights crusader is suspected of killing people in the ways they abused animals, she's forced to help the FBI find the killer-without becoming a victim herself. 
[NOTE: We never see animals harmed.]
LIL HOLMIESDelaina M. WaldronTwo little Black boys from broken homes will try to solve a mysterious murder in their neighborhood for a good price - Candy and Cakes.
MAGLIOCCOJim WurstWhen a cynical hostage negotiator in Rome is hired to free a small-town Sicilian mayor from a kidnapper demanding the closure of a US nuclear base, everyone's a suspect-including the intriguing woman working as his intermediary. THE GODFATHER meets MICHAEL CLAYTON
MARLINSPIKEStephanie MooreWhile living a life of quiet anonymity with her family in a small Alaskan town, the lone survivor of a serial killer is pulled back into her nightmare when the killer resurfaces and the FBI comes to her for help in catching him. Now, she is faced with an impossible choice: risk losing everything-her family, her freedom-by revealing what she did to survive or hunt down the killer first and bury him along with their deadly secret.
MEMORY IS A FISHJenna DorianA woman flirting with sobriety returns home for her practically-catatonic-from-Alzheimer's mother's final birthday, but when a hurricane hits, her plan to come clean about her life to her father, a washed up musician turned full-time caregiver, fades into the background of his regret, grief, and denial.
METEORAlec WhittleA faded musician must set his pride aside and escort his ex-wife to the screening of her latest film at an elite mountain festival-while desperately hiding the fact that she's dead.
MEXICO CITYAlec GuttasA broker who hates his job goes on a road trip with his high-school friends to help save the twin brother of a dead friend he'd neglected.
MOST LIKELY TO BE REMEMBERED Jesse RandallA gay outcast in a dying farm town seeks retribution at his high school reunion on a conservative classmate turned aspiring LGBTQIA+ politician who derailed his life when they were both teenagers.
600 STEPSSylvia-Anne ParkerWhen a young woman forced into domestic slavery in London discovers her long-lost sister is being held by a gang of human traffickers, she must race against time and her own captors to mount a rescue.
STRING LIGHTSVP BoyleAs a brutal snowstorm grinds the country to a halt, a group of wildly imperfect strangers collide in unexpected ways-confronting reinvention, purpose, grief, and fate itself-until they realize that what feels like the end of the road may be the beginning of someone else.
TOUCHWOODAmy CharlesworthShe's surrounded by hot bodies. He's surrounded by cold ones... A promiscuous sex therapist and a virgin mortician challenge each other to confront their insecurities and issues with intimacy.
UNRESTHadj GillA man, haunted by a classmate's murder twenty years ago, is trapped in a nightmarish version of his old school, forced to relive the tragic day. To save the victim, he must choose: sacrifice himself or endure eternal torment.

QUARTERFINALISTS

Image
Samantha Silvay

 Samantha Silvay  

AN AXE FOR THE FROZEN SEA  

BIO

Image
Aarthi Ramanathan

Aarthi Ramanathan

BEANSTALK  

BIO

Image
Mick Wormald

Mick Wormald

BLOOD TIES 

BIO

 

Image
 Lissette Jean-Marie

Lissette Jean-Marie 

BOOK F*CKER

BIO

Image
Duncan Novak

Duncan Novak 

CAT BURGLARS

BIO

Image
David Zeltser

David Zelter

DETECTIVE CLAUS 

BIO

Image
Mike Bencivenga

Mike Bencivenga 

HAUNTED HEART

BIO

Image
Collette Legault

Collette Legault

HEAVY

BIO

Image
Sam Spoll

Sam Spoll

I DREAMED YOU

BIO

Image
Kevin Walsh

Kevin Walsh 

JOSEFINA 

BIO

Image
Erik Howard

Erik Howard

KALEIDOSCOPE  

BIO

Image
Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell

KIRBY IN LIMBO 

BIO

Image
 David Page

David Page

LIKE AN ANIMAL

BIO

Image
Delaina M. Waldron

Delaina M. Waldron 

LIL HOLMIES 

BIO

Image
Stephanie Moore

Stephanie Moore

MARLINSPIKE

BIO

Image
Jenna Dorian

Jenna Dorian

MEMORY IS A FISH

BIO

 

Image
Alec Whittle

Alec Whittle

METEOR

BIO

Image
Alec Guttas

Alec Guttas

MEXICO CITY 

BIO

Image
Jesse Randall

Jesse Randall

MOST LIKELY TO BE REMEMBERED

BIO

Image
 Sylvia-Anne Parker

Sylvia-Anne Parker 

600 STEPS

BIO

Image
Amy Charlesworth

Amy Charlesworth

TOUCHWOOD

BIO

Image
Hadj Gill

Hadj Gill 

UNREST

BIO

 

Image
s
The Roadmap Promise

Roadmap Writers prides itself on the quality of executives we bring to our programs and we work hard to get you the best feedback possible.

Our vetted executives are chosen by the legitimacy of the companies they work for and their ability to evaluate pitches and pages.

Only the executives you sign up for will be provided with your materials.