THE PHANTOM COUNCIL

Joe Leone: Award-Winning American Screenwriter and Film Industry Professional

Occupation: President/CEO – Write Now Productions LLC

Biography: Joe Leone is a highly accomplished American screenwriter and esteemed figure in the film industry. He is the President/CEO of Write Now Productions LLC, a successful and growing production company focused on producing compelling cinematic experiences.

Education: Joe Leone is a proud alumnus of Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, a prestigious institution recognized as the #4 film school in the United States by The Hollywood Reporter. Notable industry icons such as The Duffer Brothers, Justin Simien, and Ben York Jones, creator of 'Everything Sucks!,' are among the distinguished alumni of this esteemed institution.

Awards and Recognitions: Mr. Leone's exceptional talent and outstanding contributions to the art of screenwriting have garnered him over 60 prestigious awards. His remarkable scripts have been officially selected by more than 300 film festivals and screenplay competitions worldwide, solidifying his reputation as a master storyteller.

Professional Experience: Joe Leone brings a wealth of industry experience to his craft. He spent six years with Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Marketing Administration, where he honed his skills and gained valuable insights into the marketing and promotion of films. Additionally, he served as a Story Analyst for Prelude Pictures and Kamin & Howell Entertainment, further deepening his understanding of storytelling and the intricacies of the filmmaking process.

Joe Leone's passion for storytelling, combined with his exceptional talent and extensive industry experience, has established him as a leading voice in the world of screenwriting. His dedication to his craft and remarkable achievements continue to inspire and shape the future of the film industry.

Agent Representation:
Lisa Simpson - Elevated Artists Entertainment LLC
Elevated Artists Entertainment LLC
Clearwater, FL 33764
(727) 350-2665
contact@elevatedartistsent.com

Screenwriter of THE PHANTOM COUNCIL (pka: TRUE DESTINY) - FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY - (19) award wins out of (79) Film Festival / Screenplay Competition selections from more than a dozen Countries.
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SCREENPLAY COMPETITION RECOGNITION/AWARDS (as of 10/5/23): FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY - THE PHANTOM COUNCIL (pka: TRUE DESTINY)

AWARD WINNER(S):
International Screenwriting Competition (OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT) - Top 24 out of 1,840 submitted entries (January, 2022)
San Diego Movie Awards - MERIT AWARD WINNER - (September, 2021)
SoCal Film Awards - AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE - AWARD WINNER (Aug, 2021)
BLASTOFF Film Festival - WINNER - MASTER OF THE LOGLINE (May, 2021)
Redwood Shorts & Scripts - AWARD WINNER - BEST SCI-FI SCREENPLAY (March, 2021)
After Hour Film Festival - AWARD WINNER - BEST THRILLER SCREENPLAY (May, 2020)
Space and Time Film Festival - AWARD WINNER - BEST FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (March, 2020)
LA Live Film Festival - AWARD WINNER - BEST FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (Nov, 2019)
Show Low Film Festival – AWARD WINNER - SCREENPLAY - DRAMA category (October, 2019)
Hollywood Screenplay Contest - SILVER AWARD WINNER - THRILLER Category (October, 2019)
New York Screenplay Contest - PARK AVENUE AWARD WINNER - THRILLER Category - over 1,000 submitted entries (September, 2019)
Depth of Field International Film Festival – AWARD WINNER – SCRIPT WRITING GOLD (July, 2019)
Milan Film Awards - WINNER - BEST WRITER - this competition had over 2,340 film and screenplay submissions (July, 2019)
Block Island Film Festival - WINNER - BEST FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY - FICTION CATEGORY (June, 2019)
Las Vegas Screenplay Contest - FINALIST/AWARD WINNER - THRILLER/SUSPENSE (April, 2019)
Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest – SILVER AWARD – THRILLER COMPETITION (Feb, 2019)
Olympus Film Festival Los Angeles – WINNER – BEST FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (Jan, 2019)
Back In The Box Competition – WINNER - BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (Dec, 2018)
Queen Palm International Film Festival - SILVER AWARD - BEST CONCEPT, FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (Oct, 2018)

HONORABLE MENTION:
Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards - HONORABLE MENTION (Nov, 2021)
BLASTOFF Film Festival (Season 6) - HONORABLE MENTION (Sep, 2021)
WIKI The Fastest Screenplay Contest - Full Script - HONORABLE MENTION (June, 2021)
WIKI The Fastest Screenplay Contest - First 10 Pages - HONORABLE MENTION (March, 2021)

FINALIST:
Sunvale Film Festival - FINALIST (August, 2022)
Florida Script Challenge - FINALIST (May, 2022)
4th Dimension International Film Festival - FINALIST (Feb, 2022)
Sunvale Screenplay Contest - FINALIST (Oct, 2021)
Austin After Dark Film Festival - FINALIST (Oct, 2021)
4theatre Selection - FINALIST (August, 2021)
PixelsGARAGE Awards of Excellence - OFFICIAL SELECTION (March, 2021)
Red Flight Pictures Screenplay Awards - FINALIST - Top 100 Selection out of more than 3,500 entry/submissions received (Feb, 2020)
FilmMakers International Screenwriting Awards Competition - FINALIST - out of a total of 1,203 scripts received worldwide (Oct, 2019)
Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay and Music Festival - FINALIST - FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY - Top 12% finish out of 638 submitted entries (August, 2019)
Austin Revolution Film Festival - AWARD NOMINATION - FEATURE SCREENPLAY, GENRE CATEGORY (July, 2019)
Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Competition - FINALIST - SCREENPLAY - DRAMA, FEATURE (July, 2019)
Filmmatic Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship - FINALIST - FELLOWSHIP SCREENPLAY/PILOT ENTRY (May, 2019)
"Euro Fest" European International Film Festival - FINALIST - FEATURE SCREENPLAY - Top 10 finish out of more than 600 submitted entries (May, 2019)
Bedford International Film Festival - FINALIST - SCREENPLAYS (May, 2019)
Northeast Mountain Film Festival - FINALIST - BEST SCREENPLAY (May, 2019)
Oaxaca Film Fest X - FINALIST - BEST GLOBAL SCRIPT - competition had received nearly 10,000 film & screenplay submissions (April, 2019)
Pasadena International Film Festival – FINALIST – BEST FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (March, 2019)
Manchester Lift-Off Film Festival - TOP 3 SELECTION - FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (March, 2019)
Olympus Film Festival Los Angeles - FINALIST – BEST ORIGINAL CONCEPT, FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (Jan, 2019)
Olympus Film Festival Los Angeles - FINALIST – THRILLER CATEGORY, FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (Jan, 2019)
2019 Pitch Now Screenplay Competition - FINALIST - THRILLER CATEGORY (Jan, 2019)

SEMI-FINALIST:
Chicago Screenplay Awards - SEMI-FINALIST - (Jan, 2022) – Top 10% out of over 1,200 submitted entries
San Francisco International Screenwriting Competition - SEMI-FINALIST (Jan, 2022)
Portland Screenplay Awards - SEMI-FINALIST - FEATURE SCRIPT - Top 10% - over 1,000 Entry/Submissions (Nov, 2021)
Reno-Tahoe Screenplay Contest - SEMI-FINALIST (Nov, 2021)
-Final selections are upcoming-
Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition - SEMI-FINALIST (Oct, 2021)
Zed Fest Film Festival & Screenplay Competition - SEMI-FINALIST - FEATURE SCREENPLAY COMPETITION (Nov, 2019)
Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival - SEMI-FINALIST - SCREENPLAY COMPETITION - Oscar Qualifying Festival (July, 2019)
6° Firenze FilmCorti International Festival - SEMI-FINALIST - SCREENPLAYS (May, 2019)
Circus Road Screenplay Contest - SEMI-FINALIST - SCREENPLAY (April, 2019)
Edinburgh Screenwriting Competition - SEMI-FINALIST - SCREENPLAY (March, 2019)
Independent Talents International Film - SEMI-FINALIST - SCREENPLAY COMPETITION, FULL-LENGTH, FEATURE FILM SCENARIO (Jan, 2019)

QUARTERFINALIST:
Miami Screenplay Awards - QUARTERFINALIST - FEATURE SCRIPT - Top 10% - over 1,000 Entry/Submissions received (Dec, 2021)
Austin Screenplay Awards - QUARTERFINALIST - FEATURE SCRIPT - Top 25% out of 1,104 Entry/Submissions (May, 2020)
New York City International Screenplay Awards - QUARTERFINALIST - FEATURE SCRIPT (June, 2019)
Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards - QUARTERFINALIST - FEATURE ENTRY (Top 10%) over 3,400 total entries - Judges are Members of DGA, PGA, WGA and SAG (Jan, 2019)
StoryPros International 12th Annual Screenplay Contest - QUARTERFINALIST - SCREENPLAYS (Top 19%) of over 1,000 submitted entries (Nov, 2018)

OFFICIAL SELECTION(S):
New York Script Awards (OFFICIAL SELECTION) over 1,000 submitted entries received - July, 2021
Marina del Rey Film Festival (OFFICIAL SELECTION) - July, 2021
San Angelo Revolution Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION (March, 2020)
Gold Canyon Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION (Jan, 2020)
Austin Spotlight Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION - SCREENPLAY (Oct, 2019) - over 1,000 film & screenplay submissions received
TalNexus Screenplay Competition - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (Oct, 2019)
Orlando Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION - SCREENPLAY COMPETITION: FEATURE (September, 2019)
Lucky Strike Films Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION - SCREENPLAY (August, 2019)
Indie Visions Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FEATURE SCRIPT (August, 2019)
KAPOW Intergalactic Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION - SCREENPLAYS (August, 2019)
Austin After Dark Film Festival - TRUE DESTINY - OFFICIAL SELECTION - DRAMA SCREENPLAY (August, 2019)
Rome Independent Prisma Awards - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (August, 2019)
Anabelle Munro's Most Important Films and Scripts In The World - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FEATURE SCREENPLAY (July, 2019)
Action on Film MegaFest 15th Annual Film Festival and Writers' Competition 2019 - OFFICIAL SELECTION - WRITTEN WORD/SCRIPTS FEATURES (June, 2019)
Crash Landed - OFFICIAL SELECTION - SCREENPLAY (June, 2019)
Hollywood Dreams 3rd Annual International Film Festival and Writers' Competition - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY (June, 2019)
CARE Awards - OFFICIAL SELECTION - BEST SCREENPLAY (May, 2019)
L.A. NEO NOIR, NOVEL, FILM, AND SCRIPT FEST 7 (LANNEFF)! - OFFICIAL SELECTION - SCREENPLAYS (TOP 10%) out of nearly 1,000 entries (April, 2019)
Life After Life Film Festival - OFFICIAL SELECTION - FEATURE FILM SCRIPT (March, 2019)

READER COMMENTS:
"The Phantom Council" has enormous potential. I hope you find the producer who'll appreciate the script. Very best wishes, Rowan Sutherland, M.F.A. – Blastoff Film Festival (2021).

4theatre review (2021)
THE PHANTOM COUNCIL
Screenplay by Joseph Leone
Genre: Dystopian thriller, Sci-Fi
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRW353wCYY3

“A complex script that keeps you reading from start to finish”

"The Phantom Council" begins "in medias res", catapulting us directly into history. A good choice, as this allows us to be fascinated by the multifaceted world that Joseph Leone created specifically to set a story that seems to draw inspiration from the great classics of science fiction literature and beyond. "The Phantom Council", in fact, seems to oscillate perpetually between the dystopian world of "The Man in the High Castle" and the adventurous one typical of the Hollywood cinema of the eighties (in fact, over and over again he seems to be a typical character of the "Indiana Jones"), not to mention the references to the highly successful videogame series "Wolfenstein". The protagonist is characterized very well allowing us to feel empathy for her and to share her choices, ready to do anything to stop the Nazi advance in a world facing an imminent catastrophe. The greatest credit we can attribute to Joseph Leone, however, is that of making a story that moves on multiple temporal planes and with multiple characters easy to understand, which is not easy considering that he relied solely on the reader's imagination. A particular focus must in fact be done on the temporal division. The story jumps over and over again in time, precisely to quickly highlight the consequences resulting from the actions of the various protagonists. A real shame that a story like this has not yet been adapted from a cinematic point of view, considering the enormous potential it has. So, to conclude, "The Phantom Council" succeeds in renewing the dystopian science fiction genre, thus bringing a fresh breath that hasn't blown for a long time now.

" Feature Length Screenplay, Written by Joseph Leone (Arizona) has been named an official selection of Austin After Dark Film Festival 2019. This Political Drama with Futuristic Science Fiction flavor, caught the eyes of our Texas based judges on the Film Festival Circuit

“You’ve written an intense and well-paced opening. Isabel is an excellent protagonist, she’s fully rendered and pops off the page. There is a lot of enjoyable intrigue and suspense built into this script. It's obvious that you have a lot of screenwriting skills at your disposal.” – Barnstorm Media (2018)