>> 2013 Winter Film Awards Official Selections

WINNER – BEST SCREENPLAY

United States / Screenplay
Written By:  Brian Lee Weakland

Based on a true story, a young chemist is drafted by Nazis to control the assets of Sigmund Freud after Hitler’s army overruns Austria in 1938.  But after becoming the unwitting subject of Freud’s psychoanalysis, the chemist disobeys orders, hides assets and pulls off Freud’s daring escape on the Orient Express.  “Last Waltz of Vienna” captures not only the cultural beauty of Vienna and the brutality that forever marred it but, more importantly, tells the compelling story of two men, political opposites, who leaned on each other to survive.

Brian Lee Weakland of Richmond VA, is an honors graduate of Penn State’s School of Journalism.  He won the Associated Press Community News Reporter Award and Keystone Press Award for investigative reporting as a staff writer and news editor for The Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania.  He has taught writing courses at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh.  He is the author of three mystery novels based upon the legends of Pittsburgh’s three rivers.  He received the 2012 Screenwriting Award from the Virginia Film Office, and is a proud member of the Virginia Screenwriting Forum.