Pip: Action, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller — if you're going to run a screenplay festival, you might as well swing for every genre at once.
Mara: This episode covers the Summer 2026 results from actionadventurefestival, including the writers whose work earned a full professional performance and those who landed in some very selective company. Let's start with who won and who was recognized.
Summer 2026 Screenplay Winners and Honorable Mentions
Mara: The question this post answers is straightforward but meaningful: out of a surplus of submissions for the first half of the season, which screenplays stood out enough to earn a professional staging, and which writers made the honorable mentions list?
Pip: The post frames the honorable mentions with a phrase worth reading directly: writers who "although they didn't formally win at the festival, are a group of screenwriters in select company."
Mara: That framing matters. An honorable mention here isn't a consolation — it's a placement in a curated cohort, which carries real weight when a writer is building a track record.
Pip: The three winners each had a best scene performed by professional actors and turned into a video — so this isn't just a certificate. It's produced work you can put in front of a producer.
Mara: The winning scripts span the full genre range the festival covers. Brantley Edwards took the Action/Adventure feature slot with FIFI, A Monkey's Tale. Elizabeth Anne von Isser won the Sci-Fi/Thriller feature category with Angelman Rising. And Ryan Thomas Hinrichs claimed the second Action/Adventure feature script win with THE HANGAR.
Pip: Three winners, ten honorable mentions — the honorable list is doing a lot of lifting here, and honestly the range is striking.
Mara: It really is. The honorable mentions include feature scripts, two TV pilots, and short scripts. Synestia, from writers Michael Douglas Tuthill and Julie Elizabeth Kashmanian, sits alongside solo entries like Russell C. Babcock's TV pilot Chameleon, Carlos Galinho Pires's Me, a Dog and the End, and Caroline Shea Duncan's A Gin Love. Eric S Quon-Lee's North America United rounds out the TV pilot entries.
Pip: The remaining feature scripts — THE LAST PATIENT, The Star Cycle by George Robert Strayton, and The Slide by Aaron Ryan — plus short scripts Chopper Gun from Montgomery Haines and Ether from Christopher Kulas, fill out a list that genuinely covers the genre spectrum.
Mara: Across formats and genres, what holds the list together is that every entry cleared a competitive bar in a high-submission season.
Pip: A high-submission season, a tight winners list, and ten writers in select company — the bar was real.
Mara: Next episode, more results from the festival circuit. Worth watching.
Action/Adventure Film & Screenplay Festival 