CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2026 TV CONTEST SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS!

CineStory is pleased to award six scholarships for the 2026 TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. These scholarships are made possible by generous donations from members of the CineStory community.

Many thanks to our donors, and congratulations to our scholarship winners!

(Pictured above, from left to right: Gina Garcia, Original Comedy TV Scholarship Winner; Sam Robson, Original Drama TV Scholarship Winner; Amelia Watson, Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship Winner; Ise White, Bellem Scholarship Winner; Ray Gettman Bush, King Bob TV Scholarship Winner; Alexander Bernstein & Dunja Vitolic-Djokovich, Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship Winners [tied])

Gina Garcia – CineStory Original Comedy TV Scholarship

The CineStory Original Comedy TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer whose TV pilot reached the semifinalist level or higher in the Original Comedy Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s CineStory Original Comedy TV Scholarship is Gina Garcia for her original comedy pilot UPHILL. In it, a flailing, middle-aged actress crashes back into her close-knit mountain hometown to “support” her far more capable sisters with disabilities, her chaotic life forces them into being her unlikely caregivers. Together, they’ll navigate their uphill battles, one co-dependent, existential pit stop at a time.

Part Mexican and Cherokee on her father’s side, ALL the white countries on her mother’s, and perpetually the new kid everywhere, Gina writes heartfelt comedies that center unfiltered, nomadic women navigating identity, family, and their desperate need to belong while smuggling in the kind of social commentary that makes us laugh at ourselves.

She sharpened her comedy writing chops at The Groundlings and ASU, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the finest trailer parks in Arizona. Her work has been recognized by The CineStory Foundation, The Writers Lab, The Austin Film Festival, The Inroads Fellowship, The Breakthrough Reading Series, and Final Draft’s Big Break. Her short film DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH—inspired by her addiction to dating stand-up comics—was an official selection of LA Shorts Fest. Her dark comedy one-acts, as well as sketches, have been produced at Theatre of NOTE, where she’s been a proud member for over twenty years. She’s a frequent contributor to BITS, a Moth-style storytelling evening, host of The Annual Hollywood Performance Marathon, and an irregularly-working actor for roughly one hundred and seventy-five years—playing a surprising number of characters with advanced degrees considering her lack of any. Her favorite roles are wife to a Virgo, helicopter-mom to a very patient teen, and snack patsy to an impatient Australian Kelpie.

Sam Robson – CineStory Original Drama TV Scholarship Winner

The CineStory Original Drama TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer whose TV pilot reached the semifinalist level or higher in the Original Drama Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s CineStory Original Drama TV Scholarship is Sam Robson for his original drama pilot WORK/SHOOT. In it, a fallen NCAA wrestling star enters the world of pro wrestling to pay for his father’s care, but when he’s forced to team with the rival who ended his career, their scripted partnership turns into a real-life war.

Sam was trained in story and screenwriting by a senior development executive from two Oscar-winning production companies who developed projects with Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott. He then served as a script consultant at Screenplay Readers, the industry’s longest-running coverage service, consulting with CAA, WME, Warner Bros, Hulu, Disney, HBO, Paramount, and Universal. He partnered with a 2x Emmy-nominated producer, packaging and consulting on both TV and feature projects, and developed material with executives at Sony and Paramount.

Then his body broke.

A rare neurological condition and multiple brain injuries forced him out of the industry for nearly a decade. He learned to walk, think, and type again. And he came back with something to say.

Sam writes broken men in impossible situations, fighting to survive so they can protect the people they love. Men whose identities have been stripped away, who have to figure out who they are when everything they thought defined them is gone. He knows these characters because he’s been them.

His pilot ON THIN ICE is a 2026 CineStory TV Finalist. His pilot WORK/SHOOT is a 2026 Semifinalist. Both were written in the last year.

Amelia Watson – CineStory Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship Winner

The CineStory Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer whose TV pilot reached the semifinalist level or higher in the Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s CineStory Original Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Scholarship is Amelia Watson for her original sci-fi/fantasy pilot SPARKS. In it, in a realm where the strength of one’s magic Spark determines their lifelong societal ranking, best-in-her-class Etta Whitlock wakes on the day her power will be measured with no magic at all—her Spark stolen.

Amelia writes female-led fantasy stories with whimsical worlds and magic systems, rooted in journeys that are utterly human. Tales of incantations and humiliations, found family and family curses, first kisses and first kills.

In settings like a realm of luck and chaos, a secret vampiric island, a sentient forest, or an angsty magic academy, she explores themes of self worth, challenging authority, and grappling with a lack of control. Her characters are thrown into worlds designed to work against them, and yet, ones still worth fighting for.

Off the page Amelia is likely pretending to be a halfling cleric in her current Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Or maybe curled up with her dog and a good book, or searching for a blueberry flavored pastry. You could also check the renaissance faire, pottery painting studio, ski slopes, or her sister’s closet.

Most recently Amelia worked as the lead story producer on A HERO’S JOURNEY: THE MAKING OF PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS on Disney+, VICE TV’s CALIPARI: RAZOR’S EDGE, and HO’OMAU with National Geographic. She has a BFA in Motion Pictures with an emphasis in Screenwriting and is a current student of Celtic Mythology. She has also worked as a script analyst, story consultant, and script supervisor, and is currently collaborating with her partner on a graphic novel.

Ise White – Bellem Entertainment TV Scholarship Winner

The Bellem Entertainment TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding woman writer with an engaging story to tell who is 40 years of age or older and whose TV Pilot reached the quarterfinalist level or higher in the Original Drama or Original Comedy Division of the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner is awarded a $500 tuition reduction for this year’s TV retreat.

Bellem Entertainment seeks to empower women and support their stories.

The winner of this year’s Bellem Entertainment TV Scholarship is ISE WHITE for her original drama pilot SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE. It takes place in 1976 Rome, a world in turmoil, a nation at war with itself. Flynn Kane, the sarcastic head of the covert CIA/NATO organization, OPERATION GLADIO, is in a race to stop a nuclear war with Russia. Hidden counter intelligence everywhere sow seeds of misinformation, including from Soviet undercover agent Evelyn Kane, Flynn’s wife. No longer sanctioned by the Italian government due to the political changes under the new Prime Minister, Flynn is forced to go underground, putting his marriage and his unborn child at risk. The clock is ticking, the stakes are high, and the body count begins to stack.

Ise is a New York Based Director, Producer, and Writer. After working for the FLOTUS, Michelle Obama, and being featured in IT Vanity Fair, Ise White became one of the top luxury fashion editors in the world working for Conde Nast Italy and Hearst China, directing celebrity and cinema projects with a focus on narrative storytelling and winning awards for cover projects partnered with major studios.

Ise White is a veteran producer. She founded Lost and Found Production to serve commercial and advertising clientele in NY and abroad. In 2019 Lost and Found partnered with Scheimpflug including their VFX department and produced the cutting edge NBA Oculus project. Ise now spearheads and is the founding CVO of a generative AI company that focuses on ethical integration with film making. Lost and Found continues to focus on production for the independent film community while Scheimpflug serves major motion picture studios as well as upcoming film makers. Ise White is a member of NYWIFT, WIF, and GOLDHOUSE.

She has directed Robert Deniro, Robert Redford, Jeremy Renner, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ewan Mcgregor, Serena Williams, Rhianna, Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Kit Harrington, four US Presidential families, Jake Gyllenhaal, Orlando Bloom, Liam Neesen, Selma Hayek, and many more.

Ise is of Cherokee/Choctaw/Scots/Singaporean descent.

Ray Gettman Bush – King Bob TV Scholarship Winner

The King Bob TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer who reaches the semifinalist level or higher in the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner receives free tuition (valued at $2,800) for this year’s CineStory TV Retreat.

The winner of this year’s King Bob TV Scholarship is Ray Gettman Bush for his original drama pilot PRINT. In it, in the late 1970s when newspapers flourish, an ambitious, cocky executive works to outsmart and outcharm his colleagues and adversaries and navigate a messy marriage as he vies to seize control of a media empire. (Think the nostalgia world-building of MAD MEN mixed with the cutthroat characters of SUCCESSION)

Ray Gettman Bush grew up on the east coast of Florida watching rocket launches from the comfort of his front lawn. When he wasn’t watching mankind reach for the stars, he was often dreaming about it. Inspired by shows like STAR TREK and THE TWILIGHT ZONE, Ray spent much of his childhood writing his own far out stories and trying them out on his neighborhood friends.

Screenwriting has always been a passion of Ray’s. But, when he informed his parents of his desire to “write for the movies,” it wasn’t something they could exactly wrap their minds around, considering the family lived on the opposite coast from Hollywood, USA. Instead, Ray became a “newspaper man,” starting off in sports writing, then gravitating to news and feature writing and later working his way into business and digital development.

Many of Ray’s screenplays are written in what he calls the Quadrants of Geekdom – sci-fi, classic horror, supernatural and fantasy. However, in recent years, Ray has turned his writing focus to the little-known worlds of journalism and newspapers; topics he’s well-versed in. Under the onslaught of digital platforms and social media, newspapers have become as unknown as the surface of a far-off planet or a distant universe. What better world in which to tell stories than one that is new to current readers and audiences? Ray’s newest TV pilot script PRINT takes place in the late 1970s and follows an ambitious executive as he vies to take control of a newspaper empire.

Alexander Bernstein & Dunja Vitolic-Djokovich — Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship Winners (Tied)

The Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding writer who belongs to a community that has been historically underrepresented in Hollywood – particularly BIPOC writers, AAPI writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, women writers who are 45 or older, and writers with disabilities – and whose TV pilot reaches the quarterfinalist level or higher in the TV Retreat & Fellowship Contest. The winner receives a $1,500 tuition reduction to attend this year’s TV retreat.

There is a tie for this year’s Sartor Underrepresented Voices TV Scholarship. The winners are Xander Bernstein and Dunja Vitolic-Djokovich, who will split the award. Xander and Dunja co-wrote the scholarship winning original drama pilot BOUNDARIES. In it, a talented but rigid family therapist’s life implodes when her well-meaning but intrusive family moves in, upending her burgeoning career as a TV shrink and pushing her to finally accept the chaos she has spent a lifetime intentionally avoiding.

Xander Vitolic-Bernstein is an LGBTQ+ neuroscientist, essayist, poet, philosophy geek, and one-half of an award-winning writer duo. He’s written dozens of podcast episodes for Spotify, Parcast, and PAVE Studios on a ridiculously wide variety of topics such as Bigfoot, ghost cars, serial killers, buried treasure, and a real-life Freemason plot to take over the world (just ask.)

Although science fiction is his favorite sandbox to play in, Xander loves to experiment with genres and styles – which is another way of saying he has to reinvent the wheel with every screenplay. But whether he’s writing about biohackers or 20th-century revolutionaries, each work carries the same themes of love, loss, forgiveness, and personal discovery that have defined his own journey through life. A journey he now proudly shares with his insanely talented wife and writing partner.

When he’s not putting pen to paper, Xander lobbies politicians for more climate action, makes sandwiches for unhoused Angelenos, practices Zen Buddhism (i.e., sits in time out voluntarily for hours at a time), and plays manservant to his three furry/feathery overlords.

Currently he’s developing a scripted mythology podcast and organizing a panel discussion on mythic archetypes for writers. He’s also learning the difference between hot-dipped and electroplated roofing nails – an unfortunate omission from any high school education.

As a youngster, Dunja Vitolic-Bernstein excelled at lip sync contests and the team-based party game Taboo. She was also an above-average first-base player and go-to sacrifice bunter for her softball team (neither of which required much running, which she has always hated).

That lazy non-athlete grew up to be a multi-hyphenate, multi-Emmy-winning powerhouse. (Her husband made her write part of that sentence… we’ll let you guess which part.) At different stages of her life, she has been an actress, Broadway casting director, development exec, creative producer, marketing exec, and, most recently, a writer. An immigrant from Eastern Europe by way of New Jersey, her passion for storytelling stems from growing up inside a metaphorical Chekhov play.

Not surprisingly, she tends to write about complicated families with big personalities, long memories, and parental guilt so thick you can cut it with a knife. She began writing with her husband almost as a dare – newly married and locked together 24/7 during the pandemic, they thought “How much do we like each other really….?” Their first script won a contest, and no one mentioned divorce, so they thought – hey, let’s keep doing this.

Currently, she is an AV Producer at Netflix, working on trailers for Netflix original films. In her free time, she enjoys passionately debating the moral quandaries raised in the Trolley Problem episode of THE GOOD PLACE with her husband and writing partner, Xander, and snuggling with the fuzzy tyrants they call pets.