The Ashtray Named Semifinalist in the 2026 Slamdance Screenplay Competition
The short screenplay The Ashtray, written by Robert Pierosh, has been named a Semifinalist in the 2026 Slamdance Screenplay Competition, advancing to the final 32 scripts from nearly 5,000 submissions from writers around the world.
The recognition places The Ashtray among fewer than 1% of scripts submitted to this year’s competition. In notifying semifinalists, Slamdance described the selected scripts as standing out to its team as “vibrant, memorable, and discussion-worthy.”
Founded in 1997, the Slamdance Screenplay Competition is dedicated to discovering and nurturing emerging screenwriters and has established a track record of introducing writers to members of the entertainment industry. Like the Slamdance Film Festival, the competition champions independent voices and scripts willing to take risks, with past participants going on to find representation and have their work produced.
The Ashtray is a queer comedy-drama about an anxious shut-in whose fixation on a rare Marilyn Monroe ashtray unexpectedly disrupts the carefully contained life he has built around himself. The story explores anxiety, adult relationships, chosen family, and the complicated meanings we attach to people, possessions, and what gets left behind.
“I usually write in a vacuum — keeping my work private until I’ve crossed a threshold of no going back — so you never really know if anyone else is going to respond to it. The Ashtray is a story idea that I’ve carried with me for more than 25 years. To see my characters connecting with people now, and to have the script make it this far in a field of nearly 5,000, is incredibly meaningful.”
The Slamdance recognition follows The Ashtray being named a Second Rounder (Top 25%) in the 2026 Austin Film Festival Script Competition.
Robert Pierosh is a writer and artist whose work blends dark humor, queerness, and emotional truth. His plays, essays, and screenwriting explore identity and memory through offbeat characters and quietly defiant moments, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times. He finds comedy in the uncomfortable and meaning in the mess — usually while trying to sleep.