Short film script The Timekeeper, written by Cookie Boyle and Walter Sawadsky, is the winner of the sixth annual Hot Shot Shorts contest.

The project will receive around $10,000 cash and $30,000 in in-kind sponsorship towards making the short film.

The contest, founded by William F. White International’s Ed Brando, the Celluloid Social Club’s Paul Armstrong, and filmmakers Aaron Houston and Scott Campbell, provides sponsorship and financial support to Vancouver short film scripts to move them forward into production.

Out of 82 entries, five scripts were selected to be read at a Cold Reading Series event, a Vancouver-based live original script reading event that takes place regularly throughout the summer.

Key crew from the five projects pitched the films to a panel of judges, which included Continuum creator Simon Barry, Robin Chan of Like Minded Media, Synergy Cinema’s Robyn Weiner and editor and VFS instructor Mark Lemmon.

The Timekeeper tells the story of a watchmaker who pawns time from people who waste it, so that he can give it to other people who value it.

Along with The Timekeeper, the other four finalists were Gord’s Brother, by Ben Rollo and Jeremy Lutter; The Lifeguard by Matthew MacCaull; The Marijuana Party by Reid Morgan; and No Return by Rosyln Muir.