WINNER OF THE TRUE INDEPENDENT SCREENPLAY COMPETITION FOR 2003 - THIRD PLACE

Dan Borengasser is vice president of Ozark Film & Video Productions in Springdale, Arkansas. Prior to that, he held positions in sales and station management at ABC television affiliates in Arkansas and New Hampshire. He has been a syndicated humor columnist, had a science fiction short story nominated for a Hugo Award and written greeting cards and stage plays.

He shifted to screenwriting when a colleague gave him screenwriting software. Since then, he has won or placed in a number of screenwriting contests. Prior to the True Independent Screenplay Competition, his most recent effort was the Flicks on 66 contest, where his short screenplay "Clown Camp" was produced and went on to win "Best Actor" and "Best Film". Though he finds writing psychically satisfying, mostly it's a way to avoid yard work.

Borengasser lives in Springdale, with a wife, Sally, who's had more than forty books published; with a Zen-practicing cat, Majicka, who meditates behind the washing machine; and with a terrier/whippet, Pajama, who's so bright that, if she had opposable thumbs, she'd have already written several chapbooks of poetry. The latest family member is Hodge, a feline so large he looks like a sumo wrestler in a cat suit.

Dan Borengasser

"Being selected as a winner in the True Independent Screenplay Competition is not only extremely gratifying, but invaluable as well. It‚s always difficult to gauge the competency and/or effectiveness of a completed screenplay, but a contest can provide the objective feedback and validation that is so hard to get elsewhere. And, of course, anything that can give you another little boost of confidence is hard to beat."