Nashville screenwriter Mike Bentley won the Tennessee Screenwriting Association's 2025 'Short 'N Sweet' script competition with Tinfoil Hearts, a comedy about a conspiracy theorist who is so devoted to uncovering the truth, he finds something even more rare—someone who truly understands him.
This is the second consecutive winning script by Bentley, who won TSA's Short 'N Scary horror script contest last November. This time, Mike was awarded a prize at TSA's Spring Social event which included a customized trophy, an annual membership with TSA, a Regal Cinemas gift card, and having his script shown to local producers and directors to try and get the project made.
Bob Saenz, professional screenwriter and one of the judges for the Short 'N Sweet script contest told a packed house, "I can honestly say this is one of the best short scripts I've read in a long time." Bob also encouraged Mike to try and get the script made into a short film since it is written with an affordable micro-budget in mind.
Other finalists in the 2025 Short 'N Sweet script contest were:
"Lovestruck" by Mark Naccarato
"Boundary Waters" by Carrington Fox
"The Last Valentine" by David Roth
"Timeshare" by Judy Klass
Nineteen scripts for the Short 'N Sweet contest were submitted by Members of the Tennessee Screenwriting Association. Judges were Jason Allen, Heidi-Marie Ferren, Bob Giordano, Peter Kremer, Bob Saenz, and Cat Stewart. All entries were anonymously submitted to the judges, which means that the only person who knew the authors of these scripts before judging was completed was the contest manager.
Finalist scripts are available to read at the TSA's Member Portal (membership required). Congratulations to everyone who entered the contest this year!
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