FEMALE Festival Best Scene Reading of THE EGG AND I, by Nicole Stuart

Genre: Drama

Natalie Monroe’s a neurotic 40-year-old, who hopes she hasn’t missed her window of time to have a baby, but her odds don’t look good. She put her personal life aside to follow her dreams but she’s unable to catch a break. Natalie’s younger boyfriend isn’t supportive of her having a baby; in fact, he’s one of the many people who tells her she’s too old. Along with her fertility doctor who tells her, “you have the same chance of winning the lottery as having a baby but if you find sperm in a week you might have a 1% shot to try IVF.” Natalie begins her uncanny search for sperm, finding an unexpectant donor. Meanwhile, his ex-girlfriend stops at nothing to block Natalie from getting his sperm, finding true love and freezing one good egg.

CAST LIST:

Roger: Charles Gordon
Annette: Katelyn Varadi
Narrator: Brandon Knox
Natalie: Carina Cojeen
Katherine: Angelica Alejandro
Steve: Gabriel Darku

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your screenplay about?

This is a journey that takes you inside Natalie Monroe’s life. She’s a neurotic 40-year-old, who hopes she hasn’t missed her window of time to have a baby, but her odds don’t look good. She put her personal life aside to follow her dreams but she can’t catch a break and fears her life and time-clock have passed her by. Even Natalie’s younger boyfriend isn’t supportive of her having a baby; in fact, he’s one of the many people who tells her she’s too old. Along with her fertility doctor who says, “you have the same chance of winning the lottery as having a baby. But you may have a 1% shot if you can find sperm in the next week.” Natalie begins her uncanny search for sperm, finding an unexpectant donor and a little more than she bargained for. Meanwhile, her sperm donors ex-girlfriend stops at nothing to block Natalie from getting his sperm, finding true love and freezing one good egg.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

Romantic Comedy

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

I think rom-com’s need to make a come back. That being said more romantic comedy’s like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY or ANNIE HALL. These films were great and the subject of my film needs to be seen because so many women and men are going through IVF AND INFERTITLY and I feel we’ve yet to have a great story about it. It’s light-hearted comedy nothing more and nothing less. It’s not trying to be something it’s not.

4. How would you describe this script in two words?

Sweet comedy

5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?

Annie Hall but so many from the 70’s and 80’s. Films in my humble opinion were so much better then.

6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

4-5 years
Over 9 drafts

7. How many stories have you written?

This is my second script that I’ve written. But in total I’ve told 4 stories now. Two features, a short film and the first story I told was a memoir about my life growing up in Las Vegas which I turned into my first feature. Then this The Egg and I was my second feature. 40ish is my short.

8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?).

So hard to narrow it down to just one song I’m a big fan of music from the 70s and 80s and I like everything from the Beastie Boys to Tupac and I love this guy I discovered Greg Laswell and think he’d have a perfect tone for this film.

9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

Where do I begin? I started this at the beginning of my journey with IVF but while going through that, it was such a painful journey, mentally, physically and financially it took everything out of me so I stopped. Then started again throughout the course of the three years I was trying IVF. Then I began again once I found out I was pregnant and stopped again hitting walls with what type of story I was telling. Then once I had the baby, I knew I needed to finish my story and share it with the world. I initially set-out to write a very dramatic , truthful story that shows how hard IVF can be…. emotionally, financially and physically. And what I discovered while writing, was this was deeply and painfully funny. Scene after scene it took its own turn.

10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

LIFE being a mom, wife, acting, exercise & fitness…

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?

It’s been pretty cool. The way it works and they are very on top of things!!!

******

Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Director: Matthew Toffolo

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: Kimberly Villarruel

Camera Op: Mary Cox

By femalefilmfestival

The irony of this festival is that its goal is to not be around in 5 years time. To eventually not be relevant because there is zero need to have a festival geared for female talent and female stories because the stories presented in Hollywood and around the world are a balanced showcase of the human experience from both sexes. Our goal is to achieve a lot of success and then fold into oblivion simply because there is no need for this festival. This festival was created by the FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival as a simple reaction to a strong need to showcase female talent from around the world in a more profound way. When putting together the weekly festival, the administration noticed a lack of a female presence in the stories being shown at the festival. A classic example and analogy to the frustration is how the festival noticed that even the smaller roles in a screenplay were written for a man to play. There was zero reason for this in many stories. How a police officer, or a political campaign manager, for example with 3-4 lines in a screenplay was a "HE" character. Why? And these are the screenplays written by the winners! The talented one who have obtained agents and have began/beginning their careers as a writer.

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