Local Woman Wins Prize for 'Hooking Up' Screenplay

A top prize at the Austin Film Festival went to Redondo Beach resident Jacqueline C. Fitzgerald for her screenplay, Hooking Up, according to a news release from the festival.

Fitzgerald won the Enderby Entertainment Award, one of nine prizes given to screenplays in the 2013 Screenplay and Teleplay Competition. More than 6,000 individual scripts were entered in the competition.

In an interview at the Starz Digital Media Conference wrap party, Fitzgerald called her screenplay a "comedy feature."

"(It's) basically, two people … looking for somewhere to have a one-night stand," she said. "They've recently moved back home, so they're trying to find somewhere to hook up, and they can't go back home—so it's looking for locations over the course of a single night."

The Enderby Entertainment Award is given to a feature script of any genre "with an original concept and a distinctive voice that can be independently produced with a production budget under $5 million," according to a news release from the film festival.

As part of her prize, Fitzgerald received $2,500, reimbursement for her airfare and hotel for the Austin Film Festival, and the bronze AFF Typewriter Award.