christopher riley’s
No Time Off for Good Behavior
Christopher Riley’s new short is racking up accolades as it continues its festival run around the world. See the trailer below.
Logline
On the day a young black mother will be sent away, she must entrust her infant daughter to the care of her own disapproving mother. Both women struggle to find some small measure of connection at this terrible moment of forced parting
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gaining momentum
Christopher Riley’s short continues its successful festival run with a screening on February 10 at the 2024 Cambria Film Festival in Cambria, CA.
The short has screened as an official selection at more than 25 festivals around the world and earned many accolades.
The short led directly to Riley’s feature directing debut on the family revenge comedy No Reception, which shot in 2023 and is currently in post-production.
accolades
Winner, Best Drama, 2023 Malibu International Film Festival at the Directors Guild of America
Winner, Best Women’s Film, 2023 Momöhill Film Fair in Switzerland
Winner, Amir Locke Saving the Youth Award, Tylerman International Social Awareness Film Festival
Nominee, Best Drama, 2023 Burbank International Film Festival
Finalist, Golden Bridge Istanbul Short Film Festival
Books from Christopher Riley
THE HOLLYWOOD STANDARD
This third edition of The Hollywood Standard, by the industry’s foremost authority on formatting, is the essential storytelling guide for a persuasive presentation of your work. With hundreds of examples and style alterations by the masters, this great reference will help you put magic on the page with confidence and clarity.
the defining moment
Aimed at both the head and the heart, The Defining Moment plumbs the depths of the most memorable characters ever to appear on the screen, the stage or the page. The book focuses on those moments so pivotal in a character’s formation that they create a distinct boundary of before and after—moments without which the character couldn’t exist and moments through which characters can transform before our eyes.
Christopher Riley
Christopher Riley is a first-time director. He has worked as a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and author whose first film, After The Truth, a multiple-award-winning courtroom thriller, sparked international controversy when it was released in Germany.
Other writing credits include 25 To Life, a dramatic thriller written for Touchstone Pictures, The Other White House, a political thriller written for the late Sean Connery’s Fountainbridge Films, Aces, an action-adventure written for Paramount Pictures and Emmy-winning producer Robert Cort, and a screen adaptation of the book Actual Innocence for Mandalay Television Pictures and the Fox television network.
A 14-year veteran of the Warner Bros. script department, he has served as director of the acclaimed Act One Writing Program in Hollywood, executive produced the groundbreaking web series Bump, which Perez Hilton called “one hell of a social experiment,” and produced the feature film Red Line, an award-winning action thriller.