Punch Out

This is truly what I wanna make. Heart all the way in this one.

I never can get past Quarter-Finalist. Who cares? I’m not obsessed with winning or anything.

I am.



Buried By The Dark | Finalist | Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards

LA Screenplay Awards

Dear valued writers,

Congratulations! Your script placed as a Finalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards December 2025 Competition!

All entries have been thoroughly read and carefully scored. 

You can now find all results posted on our website here (under 2025 December).

As a Finalist this round, you've shown considerable discipline and talent in taking on the challenge of writing a script--a very difficult writing form--and deserve our congratulations for that effort.

Finalists (the crème de la crème of the competition) have shown serious professional potential, and we hope you'll continue writing and submitting your material to The Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards as well as to the other reputable contests out there...because doing well in competitions like this one is the surest path to professional recognition.

You'll find your Laurel attached to this email. We hope you'll use it on your script cover and in your social media postings to let the world know what you've achieved!   

Everyone is always curious about "how many Quarter-Semi and Finalists were there?" Of all total entries, here's how the distribution generally trends in any particular contest period:


Finalists = 3%
Semi-Finalists = 10%
Quarter-Finalists = 30%

Wishing you great continued success with your writing,

Buried By The Dark | Semi-Finalist Vail Screenplay Contest.

I want to win at everything. That hasn’t changed.
But I’m genuinely proud of this one.

This wasn’t a genre festival. It was a straight screenwriting competition. And Buried By The Dark is a genre pilot.

That matters to me, because it means the work held up on the page without leaning on taste, tone, or category. It wasn’t rewarded for being horror. It was rewarded for being well written.

This is proof that the pilot works as genre and as craft.
That’s the win.

https://www.vailfilmfestival.com/television-pilot-results-2025

Buried By The Dark (Short Pilot Winner)

BURIED BY THE DARK

Filmquest 2025

Written By: Joe Mitchell

Synopsis: When two estranged sisters reunite in the desert to scatter their father’s ashes, they discover the land is cursed — the dead rise, memory rots, and their father is still walking, waiting for something far worse to crawl out of the dirt.
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Category: Short Pilot

Screenwriter’s Bio: Joe Mitchell is a comedy writer and director specializing genre blending. Specifically horror/comedy.

Buried By The Dark

Wrote a pilot that got into FilmQuest. Not easy to do.

I’ll get it funded.

I will direct and edit it.

It will become cultural phenomenon.

That is what I must do. The spirits say so.

Bottom of the Night

I almost quit filmmaking in the middle of making this. It was exhausting both physically and mentally. But fuck it, it’s all I want to do. It also helps that it’s crushing film festivals.

The Nutcracker

Took me 4 years to win “The Battle of the Sketches”. But in the end, all I needed was a little help from my friends.

Bottom Of The Night

Working on a new short. I think I got something good. Something weird. Something Joe Mitchell. Still more work to do but it’s got to be finished other wise it does not exist.

Livin After Midnight

I worked hard on this film and I think it is one of my best. It’s starting to finally gain some steam in the film festival circuit and I couldn’t be happier. Now if I only could get paid to do this.

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