AN Emersons Green-based writer has started this year’s movie awards season with two prizes for her screenplays.
Helen Rana won the Best Women’s Film Phenomenal Attainment Award at the Dreamz Catcher International Film Festival for A Good Return, and Best Feature Screenplay at the PyraMax Film Awards for Shelley Can’t Sing.
More of her screenplays are in consideration for film awards later this year.
A Good Return tells the story of a woman from an impoverished Caribbean island who spends years working in low-paid jobs in London to send money back to her family, only to return and find her community changed forever by tourism.
Shelley Can’t Sing is a romcom about a lonely teenager who unintentionally stirs up resentment at her new school, so pretends to be bad at things to fit in – only to learn that lying creates more problems.
Last year Helen won awards for film scripts including The Trouble with Superpowers, about world politics, A Proper Killing, about Death Row in an American jail, a historical comedy about 18th century English aristocrats called One-Upmanship and 70’s London crime caper Heist Counter Heist.
Helen said: “My aim this year is to get one of my screenplays made into a film.
“I’ve been working hard to develop my skills as a screenwriter, trying out different genres, attending film festivals and taking advice from professionals in the industry. These awards prove that I’m heading in the right direction, so I will keep going.”
Helen is a member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, her short stories have been published in anthologies, and has previously been a creative writing associate at Bath Spa University.
She also works as a strategy, research and fundraising consultant for museums, historic houses, heritage organisations and universities, and writes for the Downend Community History and Arts Project (CHAP).
More details of her work can be found at
www.helenrana.com