Austin Film Festival Recognition for Escorted

Some more lovely news for Escorted.

My TV drama has been named a Second Rounder in the Drama Teleplay Pilot category of the 2026 Austin Film Festival Script Competition.

More than 12,500 scripts were entered into this year's competitions, with Second Rounders representing the top 25%, so I'm delighted that Escorted is amongst them.

I've been working on this project for nearly three years now and, as anyone who writes will know, you constantly rewrite, tighten, change, rewrite again and are never quite 100% satisfied.

It follows Max Taylor, a struggling Yorkshire shoe shop owner who is mistaken for a paid companion and offered £500 for one evening. Desperate to save his failing family business, Max begins a secret second life escorting professional women to events, with devastating consequences for all involved.

The script has already been shortlisted for the All3Media New Writers Collective and reached the final of the Page Turner Screenplay Awards, so it's great to see it getting some more recognition, this time from across the pond too.