Our Members Are on Fire — Here’s What They’ve Been Up To!

Shantell Ogden thanks the cast and crew of Music City Mistletoe, a feature film that she wrote and produced.

As we count down to TSA's awards dinner on November 15 as part of Script-Com (tickets on sale now), I want to recognize some of the accomplishments and successes TSA Members have had just over the past few weeks.

Shantell Ogden's feature film Music City Mistletoe premiered to a red-carpet, packed house screening last week, which I was fortunate to attend. Even though holiday movies and country music aren't really my "jam," the film had a strong screenplay (which Shantell wrote), solid performances, great music, and the film was professionally shot and looks fantastic. Music City Mistletoe's streaming run begins in late November (details tba) and I strongly urge you to check it out when you get the chance.

Melissa Sheridan won this year's Pitch Competition at the Nashville Film Festival, which several other TSA members also competed in.

Meanwhile, several TSA writers are making serious inroads on the contest circuit, including Elvis Wilson, Tracy Page, and Sarah Smith whose scripts made the top tier of the Austin Film Festival, in competition against over 11,000 other scripts! Then there's Melissa Sheridan who won the Nashville Film Fest's pitch competition and had a script she co-wrote with her son Jett place in NaFF's script contest. The dynamic duo of Mike Bentley & Corbin Eaton snapped up best comedy feature script at NaFF alongside other TSA Member-penned scripts that also placed at NaFF. Jim Peacock's Seaside pilot made the finalist round of Final Draft's prestigious Big Break competition and just made the semi-finals at Filmmatic's TV competition. All of this is in addition to the report we filed from the Summer Social, where dozens of TSA Members' scripts and films scored placements in competitions and festivals all across the country in the first half of 2025.

Several of our members this year have taken the next step and decided to shoot their script themselves, including Sarah Smith (Life on Planet Earth) and Elvis Wilson (The Bracelet) whose films are on the festival circuit and which we hope to screen as part of this year's RIFF festival.

Then there's the ever-lovable, always quotable Bob Saenz who, in addition to hosting a great Study Hall session for us last week, has had some pretty incredible news about several projects he's been attached to which I won't spoil, but which you can ask him about at Script-Com's Logline Workshop on November 12.

TSA Board Member Heidi-Marie Ferren is not only sitting on a screenwriting panel and judging a pitch competition at the Austin Film Festival's Writers Conference this year, she's currently staffed on the Fox TV series Memory of a Killer, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michael Imperioli. Heidi-Marie will be part of our Writing for Television panel at Script-Com on November 10 along with several other surprise guests.

Jason Allen won TSA's first 'Short 'N Silly' script contest.

So 2025 has been an amazing year for many TSA members. Not just the ones I already mentioned, but also the dozens who are wrapping up their "class projects" for Script School, writers like Mike Bentley and Jason Allen who won TSA's short script contests, and the eventual winner of our Short 'N Scary contest (which you still have time to get an entry in for).

In the end though, regardless of whether you have placed in a competition or shot a movie, the only real victory any of us can have as screenwriters is completing a project. That only happens with persistence and support and Tennessee Screenwriting Association is proud to offer our support to everyone who "just keeps writing!"

I look forward to everyone's continuing success in that regard and I will see you at Script-Com in a few weeks!