Ari Donnelly Wins Back-to-Back Awards for Screenwriting
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 30
Ari Donnelly, a 2026 inductee to the Independent Writers Caucus, has won two screenwriting awards in a month.
Ari’s pilot, POWER COUPLE, won Best TV Pilot at the inaugural SlateList Screenwriting Competition. The contest is hosted by CastCru, a new platform for actors, filmmakers and writers to find jobs, book mentors, and build their careers. CastCru also offers a leaderboard for unproduced screenplays, which POWER COUPLE has topped for three months. This prize marks the fourth award for POWER COUPLE, after previously winning top prizes at HollyShorts, Filmmatic Comedy Awards, and Get Repped Now. POWER COUPLE is a subversive romcom about a supervillain and superhero who have been happily fighting since high school. But when their devotion starts damaging their careers, they are forced to start fighting other people. Ari wrote the script as a tribute to childhood sweethearts and superhero farce. POWER COUPLE is also in consideration for Best TV Pilot at the upcoming Burbank International Film Festival.
Ari also won a Best Script award at the inaugural AuSpec Awards. The contest is hosted by The Autism Scene, a nonprofit devoted to spotlighting authentic autistic representation in popular culture. The Autism Scene was founded by Britton Payne and the AuSpec Awards is their flagship screenwriting competition. The contest invites writers to craft a spec script of a current animated series, which featured the main cast meaningfully interacting with an original, explicitly autistic character. The Awards Ceremony was held at Nickelodeon, with awards presented by industry veterans such as Tom Kenny, Jim Krieg, and Jeremy Adams. ADA TWIST producer, Kerri Grant, presented Ari’s award for his spec script, KIFF: “PROS AT CONS”. Based on the hit Disney animated series, Ari’s script finds series leads Kiff and Barry hyped to attend their first comic con, only to get stuck in a miles-long line just to get inside. As they start to die of sheer boredom, their only hope resides in a stranger and her very strange board game. The judging panel lauded Ari’s script for being as entertaining as it was teachable, a manual for making friends.
Check out Ari's member profile at iwclist.com/team/ari-donnelly.
