Jeff York was named one of the International Screenwriters Association's Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2018. He has written 12 movie screenplays, two TV show treatments/pilots and two plays. His works have figured in the finals of 71 screenwriting contests and counting. He's been a Screencraft Fellowship finalist twice.
After 20 years in advertising, running a couple of creative departments, and winning almost every industry award, Jeff took his lifelong love of going to the movies and decided to take a crack at writing a screenplay. It was a character-driven horror movie (INCURABLE), and when he was finished with it, he sent it to Script magazine for their review. After taking their notes to heart, he rewrote INCURABLE, and it ultimately became Script's only recommended spec screenplay of 2009 (from over 1000 entries). Inspired by their affirmation, Jeff has been writing as much as possible ever since.
And it's turned into a lot of success. Jeff was the Grand Prize for his western THE SCOUNDRELS CLUB at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival "Table Read My Screenplay" screenwriting contest. The script also won Best Action/Adventure category in that same contest. The western has been a top finalist in six additional contests, including the 2014 Script Pipeline screenwriting contest and the 2016 Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship Contest.
Jeff’s dark comedy PLAY DIRTY was named a quarterfinalist in the 2014 Nicholl Fellowship, as well as the 2014 Final Draft “Big Break” screenwriting contest. It was a semifinalist in the 2014 Screencraft Comedy screenwriting contest and a finalist in the 2017 Script Pipeline contest, and it won third prize in the 2015 Emerging Screenwriters Contest.
In 2013, Jeff’s script, FIEND won Best Thriller at the Table Read My Screenplay contest at Sundance. “Fiend” also was a Top 10 finalist in the 2012 Script Pipeline screenwriting contest and the 2012 Flatshoe screenwriting contest. It was also a finalist in the 2013 Creative World Awards, the 2013 Final Draft Big Break screenwriting contest, the 2014 Screencraft horror screenwriting contest, and the 2015 Stage 32 New Blood screenwriting contest. It also won best spec script in the Horror Screenwriting Festival online in 2016.
INCURABLE continues to win awards as it has been a top finalist in 10 screenplay contests over the years, coming in third at the 2015 Emerging Screenwriters Contest and in the top five at the 2016 Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship contest. It also won best spec script in the Horror Screenwriting Festival online in 2017.
Jeff’s romantic dramedy, THE LOVE SEAT, was picked as one of the four best spec scripts of 2011 by Script magazine and was an official entry to the 2015 Irish Film Board for funding. And his scripts THE CONFESSION OF LIZZIE BORDEN and HITCHCOCK BLONDE were simultaneous finalists in the 2013 Austin Film Festival screenwriting contest. All have figured in the finals of a dozen other contests too. His latest is a character-driven thriller entitled CEMETERY GIRL, and it's already factored in the finals of the 2019 Script Pipeline screenwriting contest.
He has also written a play called SEANCE and penned the treatment and award-winning pilot for a TV talk show aimed at children called HISTORY/HERSTORY that was requested for consideration by The Jim Henson Company.
For five and a half years, Jeff was a top film critic for the Examiner online nationwide, amongst their 100 most read contributors. (The site folded in 2016.) He also writes his own blog about the movie industry called The Establishing Shot, which is read in 27 countries and has 20,000 readers a month. Jeff is a founding member of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, and their site was named one of the top 50 movie websites in the world (His Establishing Shot reviews are a weekly part of that site.) He also hosted the podcast series "Page 2 Screen" for three years, produced by the International Screenwriters Association.
In 2017, he was hired by Creative Screenwriting magazine to be their film critic, and he writes bi-weekly for that online periodical.
