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TV One, the network dedicated to represent the best in Black culture and entertainment, today announced its return as a sponsor of the 2018 American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and the Fourth Annual TV One Screenplay Competition. Created to promote the production of creative, contemporary, engaging and relatable screenplays, the competition will highlight three new writers who will vie for a $5,000 cash prize and the opportunity to have their screenplay produced into an original movie, which will premiere on TV One and screen at ABFF. The competition opens Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017 and applicants have until Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 to submit their screenplays for consideration at tvone.tv/screenplay-competition-abff.

“TV One is excited to return as a sponsor of the American Black Film Festival and represent new voices in the entertainment industry through the 4th Annual TV One Screenplay Competition,” says D’Angela Proctor, TV One’s SVP, Original Programming & Production. “It is our goal to discover new talent and help make dreams come true for deserving young writers of color who will have the opportunity to see their work leap from the pages to the screen.”

Each year, TV One receives more than 200 submissions for the competition. A committee of entertainment executives read the top 20 scripts and three finalists are selected, based on creativity, originality, and the potential ability for the script to be transformed into a made-for-TV production. The finalists will receive an all-expense paid trip to the film festival in Miami (June 13-17, 2018) and will observe a scene from their script, performed by professional actors at a table read in front of a live audience. The Grand Prize winner will be announced at the “ABFF Awards Presentation” on Saturday, June 16. Official rules and submission information are available on TV One’s website and on ABFF’s website (www.ABFF.com).

“Our partnership with TV One has been impactful and meaningful. Together, we are finding Hollywood’s next up and coming writers and providing them with a platform to showcase their work. We are happy to continue this relationship and look forward to discovering and supporting new talent,” says Jeff Friday, CEO of ABFF Ventures.

TV One’s 2017 ABFF Screenplay Competition winner, Timothy Folsome, will debut his original film, Down For Whatever, at the festival this June. The film will then premiere on TV One in July 2018. In Down For Whatever, a young female doctor who works at a prestigious hospital learns that her newly-found biological teen sisters are ruthless cop killers that her detective husband is hunting down. The film was shot in Atlanta and stars LeToya Luckett, Hosea Chanchez, Imani Hakim and Bre-Z. Folsome is the first screenplay competition writer selected to also direct his winning project for TV One.

“Winning the TV One Screenplay Competition was a great experience. It felt almost like winning the Academy Awards,” says Folsome, who was looking for his big break when he decided to apply. “Screenwriters should enter the competition because even if you don’t win, it’s great exposure and there’s a chance that TV One may option your script. You never know what’s going to happen.”

TV One began its sponsorship of the TV One Screenplay Competition in 2015 with the debut of Runaway Island (Lorraine Touissant, Aisha Hinds, Thomas Q. Jones, A. Russell Andrews, Erica Tazel), written by the 2014 winner Christopher Brandt. In 2016, the network premiered Bad Dad Rehab, an original film highlighting the ups and downs of parenthood by 2015 winner Keronda “Kimi McKnight.” In 2017, TV One presented Downsized, starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker, by 2016 screenplay competition finalist, Michelle McKissick.

For more information about TV One’s upcoming programming, including original movies, visit the network’s companion website at www.tvone.tv. TV One viewers can also join the conversation by connecting via social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (@tvonetv) using the hash tag #Represent, #ABFF22, and catch clips and promos on TV One’s YouTube Channel.