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On Sunday, November 3rd, Santa Barbara author Julie Dillemuth won top honors for “Best Screenplay” at the Ojai Film Festival. Her award-winning screenplay, THE DRAGONS’ CHOSEN, was adapted from the young adult novel by Gwen Dandridge, also a local author. The prize? A live table read of the screenplay by professional actors.
“This is such a tremendous honor, I am thrilled to win this award,” Dillemuth said in her acceptance speech as she received a festival trophy during the awards brunch.
The Ojai Film Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, and this is the ninth year of the screenwriting competition, brought to the festival by Bruce Novotny, vice president of the board of directors. “When lightning strikes and a story reaches people on a wide scale, and moves them, and stays with them, it can help shape a culture. Stories help us learn about the world, our place in it, and what we owe to that world and to others. This understanding of the power of story is what’s behind this festival’s celebration of the starting point of film stories: the screenplay,” Novotny said as he presented the award. “Our award-winning screenplay is an imaginative mix of dragon-centered fantasy and throwback feminist energy.”
The table read of the winning screenplay has become a highlight of the festival—a live performance of actors bringing the script to life, with costume elements and a narrator reading the “action” lines of the screenplay. For THE DRAGONS’ CHOSEN, eleven actors dramatized the story, under the direction of director, producer, actor, and writer Frieda de Lackner, whose short film 172 PUSH-UPS also screened at the festival.
“When I first read the script, at the very beginning I could just envision the scenes; it was so descriptive, I was like, “I love this!” Lackner said.
THE DRAGONS’ CHOSEN is about a princess chosen for a dragon sacrifice who is resigned to her fate until a 1970s Berkeley college co-ed mysteriously arrives in her world, bringing ideas like challenging the status quo, standing up for oneself, and having choices, to Princess Genevieve. There’s also a love story.
“It’s a fun, romantasy adventure set in this medieval-type world, but the themes resonate with us today,” Dillemuth said. “Sometimes it’s easier to explore and talk about challenging topics when they’re presented in fantasy– in another time and place from our own.”
Dillemuth, who is also a picture book author and published poet, hopes to see her screenplay made into a movie one day. “Watching the table read performance, with actors literally bringing my words to life—it was an absolute dream come true. Seeing the actual movie on the big screen—with epic scenery and the dragons– would be just phenomenal.”
But for now, there is Dandridge’s novel to ignite readers’ imaginations as they journey with Princess Genevieve and Chris “of the land of Berkeley,” encountering nail-biting twists and turns, and watching these characters change in unexpected ways.