Texas (KBTX) – Allison Sullivan, a wife and mother from Bryan, wrote her first screenplay, “Unleashed,” which has already won Best Comedy Feature at the Austin Spotlight <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/10/10/sitara-shines-in-kazakhstan-as-abhik-banerjee-wins-ai-film-festival-honour/" title="Sitara shines in Kazakhstan as Abhik Banerjee wins AI film festival honour”>film festival
Sullivan described “Unleashed” as a story about a woman who works hard to keep everything together and then starts falling apart herself.
“It’s a story about motherhood and marriage and emotional labor and codependency and the complicated ways that we love one another,” Sullivan said.
She said the main character eventually realizes that what makes her indispensable may also be what’s causing things to fall apart.
“So it’s a little bit dramatic, a little bit funny,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the film is not based directly on her own life, though it draws on emotional truths she has experienced.
“The details are different,” Sullivan said. “But there are some emotional truths that I tried to adhere to.”
She said those truths include universal experiences such as frustration, failure and “uncontainable love.”
Sullivan said the idea began after a bad experience at a veterinarian’s office. She went home and wrote a scene showing how she wished she had acted.
“It made me mad,” Sullivan said. “So here’s what I wish I would have said.
She said one scene led to another until she was telling a story she couldn’t let go of. Sullivan said she didn’t know anything about screenwriting at the time. She credited her mentor, Brian Cunningham, who supported and encouraged her while she took a writing class at NPT Network.
Sullivan said she didn’t write the film to deliver one clear message, and said there are no clear villains or heroes among the characters.
“I’ve worked really hard to write people as people,” Sullivan said. “We’re usually some holy mix of wonderful and difficult or loving and selfish or insightful and blind.”
She said she hopes people see themselves in the story.
“If I could strong arm one takeaway, it would be that women do not have to do everything on their own,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan is halfway through writing another project.
“I love the writing part,” Sullivan said. “Don’t have a clue about what to do next, but hopefully I can meet the right people at these festivals.”
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