Announcing the Winner of Alma’s Hanukkah Movie Pitch Challenge

This movie needs to be made ASAP!!!

We asked you to send us your best ideas for cheesy Hanukkah movies. We chose our top eight. You voted. And now we are so excited to announce the winner of Alma’s Hanukkah Movie Pitch challenge.

Not coming soon to any theaters near you — because again, we are not a movie studio but merely a Jewish website — is Katy Paul’s original Hanukkah rom-com, Let It Beshert.

let it beshert alma hanukkah movie winner

Here’s Katy’s winning plot:

Amy Shoneberg and Jennifer Levine have been pitted against each other since birth by their well-meaning and overbearing mothers. From Girl Scout cookie sales to bat mitzvah themes to valedictorian, Amy and Jennifer have been at each other’s throats for years. After moving away from home to pursue their respective careers as legal council for a Fortune 100 company and world renowned neonatal heart surgeon, they’re both finally guilted enough by their mothers to return home for Hanukkah. On a last minute gift trip to the mall, they bump into each other at the Estée Lauder makeup counter searching for the only shade of lipstick their mothers will wear. As their conversation gradually turns from competitive to compassionate, Amy and Jennifer discover that what they truly wanted to win all along was each other’s hearts.

Katy, who lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband Erich, two dogs (Dakota and Bailey), and two cats (Sirius Black and Winston), was inspired, like all good Jews, by Rachel Bloom, telling Alma, “I’ve been a fan of Rachel Bloom’s for a long time and was somewhat inspired by her Crazy Ex-Girlfriend character’s rivalry with Audra Levine.” She went on to say, “I have always been a fan of a good ‘meet cute’ and started envisioning Amy and Jennifer’s hands reaching for the same tube of lipstick as a cute way to bump into each other after many years. And of course the stereotypical elements of the guilt tripping mothers and overachieving daughters had to be there.”

And perhaps it goes without saying, but at a time when the existence of LGBTQ couples is still seen as inappropriate by *some* folks, Katy asked herself the very important question: “If there’s going to be an inclusive holiday film, why not take the opportunity for it to be inclusive in every respect?”

Thanks again to everybody who participated in our Hanukkah movie challenge. You all deserve all the fame and glory this Hanukkah season (and probably a writing job with Hallmark). And congratulations again to Katy Paul, who tells us, “Now I will have an answer to, ‘what’s new with you?’ at my family Hanukkah gathering.”

Happy Hanukkah!

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