- Three Finalists Will be Chosen to Compete for $5,000 Grand Prize -

(BLACK PR WIRE) – ATLANTA – April 22, 2014 – UP, America’s favorite channel for uplifting family entertainment, and partner American Black Film Festival (ABFF) today announced that Friday, April 25 is the final deadline for entries in the fourth annual “UP Faith & Family Screenplay Competition.” The successful competition promotes the development of faith-friendly, family entertainment screenplays with a focus on the American Black experience, and is a component of UP’s Official sponsorship of Film Life’s 18th annual ABFF, the preeminent festival promoting cultural diversity within the film and television industry. The 2014 ABFF will be held June 19-22 in New York City for the first time.

Through Friday, submissions for the UP Faith & Family Screenplay Competition are being solicited by the ABFF on the organization’s website (http://www.ABFF.com/#!submit-up-screenplay/c6u3) and newsletter. All eligible screenplays received will be sent to UP for review by a select panel, which will choose the top three screenplay finalists. At ABFF in June, a scene from each of the top three screenplays will be performed live by actors and directed by the screenwriter. The Grand Prize winner of the Competition will be announced during the “ABFF Honors” awards presentation and will receive a check for $5,000.

“The UP Faith & Family Screenplay Competition has grown every year and is now recognized as a prestigious opportunity for aspiring screenwriters," said Brad Siegel, vice chairman, UP. “Each year, the competition draws a wide range of talent submitting work across various genres such as family adventure, comedy, romantic comedy sports and drama. The program is a great extension of our network’s commitment to showcasing uplifting, multicultural family-friendly stories."

In past years, the UP Faith & Family Screenplay Competition has generated films that UP has produced and aired on the network, including Somebody’s Child, written by Siddeeqah Powell and directed by Gary Wheeler. Two of the films – In the Meantime, written by Nzinga Kadalie Kemp, and Raising Izzie, written by David Martyn Conley – were produced and directed by Roger Bobb of Bobbcat Films, ABFF’s only two-time winner of the Best Film Award. Raising Izzie and Somebody’s Child are among the network’s most watched original movies.

Entries for UP's Faith & Family Screenplay Competition should be formatted for a two-hour television movie, or approximately 88 minutes of content excluding commercials; center around faith-friendly, family-friendly topics with a focus on the American Black cultural experience with a wide audience appeal. All submissions should be non-period pieces. Please visit ABFF.com for complete details. Submissions should be mailed to:

UP Faith & Family Screenplay Competition 2014
c/o Film Life, Inc.
Chelsea Piers, Pier 62, Suite 303
New York, NY 10011

All submission materials must be received no later than 5 p.m. ET on Friday, April 25.

About ABFF
Established in 1997, the core mission of the ABFF is to promote cultural diversity within the motion picture industry. Through its film showcases and special contests, it annually introduces the top echelon of emerging artists to the film and television industry. The ABFF is a property of Film Life, Inc., a New York-based event marketing, and production and film distribution company founded in 2000 by Jeff Friday (CEO). Visit www.ABFF.com for more details.

About UP
UP, America’s favorite network for uplifting entertainment, is a 24-hour television network that provides high-quality, diverse, family-friendly programming, including original and premiere movies, theatricals, drama and comedy series, music and holiday specials. UP can be seen in 67 million homes in high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) on cable systems including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Charter and Cox Communications as well as DIRECTV (Channel 338), DISH Network (Channel 188) and Verizon FIOS (Channel 224). As part of its mission to entertain and uplift, the network’s pro-social initiative “Uplift Someone” reminds and inspires people to do simple acts of kindness. UP is also a service provider to its sister network ASPiRE. Based in Atlanta, UP is a division of UP Entertainment, LLC, which also offers gMovies, the first faith-friendly streaming movie service. Follow UP on the Web at www.UPtv.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UPtv, Twitter on @UPtv and Instagram at UP_TV.