"The Emperor Has Arrived" Wins CAPE Foundation New Writers Award

Jay Paramsothy's and Catherine Torphy's feature screenplay The Emperor Has Arrived (which I attended a reading for back in April) has won a prestigious Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) Foundation New Writers Award in the Feature Film Category. The award is being sponsored by FOX. Paramsothy and Torphy will receive a prize of $4,000, as well as writing software and meetings with top industry executives. Past winners include Alice Wu, who wrote and directed her winning script, Saving Face.

CAPE will be hosting all of the Film and TV finalists for a dinner on September 10 in Los Angeles. A staged reading of last year's winning scripts in Film and TV will take place on Sept. 11 where the winners from this year's competition will also be presented.

CAPE is dedicated to advancing diversity and creating social change by actively developing, promoting and positioning Asian Pacific Americans for key artistic and leadership roles in the entertainment industry and media arts.

Jay Paramsothy completed a BA in Film and Theater with an emphasis on directing at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He also studied screenwriting and film production at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduation, he worked on various independent and studio films as a production coordinator and producer. In addition, he wrote and produced on-air promotions for HBO’s Cinemax Channel and Comedy Central. His first directorial effort was “Blinding Goldfish,” which premiered at the Pan African Film Festival in 2005 and continued to play on the festival circuit. In April of 2008, Jay directed a stage reading of “The Emperor Has Arrived,” a feature-length screenplay that he co-wrote with Catherine Torphy, at the Salaam Theatre in New York City. Jay and Catherine are currently collaborating on their next screenplay. He lives in New York City.


Catherine Torphy completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona in 2005 and received her BA from Colby College, where she majored in English with a creative writing concentration. She also studied film production and screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Art. She lived in Italy for several years, writing for Time Out and other publications, while continuing her work on fiction and screenwriting projects. Her stories have been published in various literary journals and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Most recently, “The Emperor Has Arrived,” a feature-length screenplay that she co-wrote with Jay Paramsothy, was performed at New York’s Salaam Theatre in April 2008. Catherine and Jay are currently collaborating on their next screenplay, and she is also at work on a novel set in Italy. She lives in New York City.