"Precious" screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher will be among the guests at a Pittsburgh panel tomorrow tackling thorny questions at the heart of Hollywood: "Getting Started: Where Do Good Ideas, Great Scripts and Talented Filmmakers Come From?"

It also will serve as the kickoff for a long-anticipated screenwriting competition with $25,000 at stake for one to three winners.

Carl Kurlander, successful screenwriter turned filmmaker with "My Tale of Two Cities," will moderate the panel with Fletcher, who adapted the novel "Push" by Sapphire; Lauren Elmer, from Sony Pictures Classics acquisition department; Pittsburgh native Rob Lieber, who has written for major studies and is adapting the popular "Septimus Heap" series; and Pittsburgher Stephanie Lord, who won a fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The panel, at the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland, starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday (admission $10 at the door, $5 for students with valid IDs and Silver Screenie pass holders, free) and will help to kick off the Steeltown Film Factory Filmmaking Competition.

A continental breakfast will be served starting at 10 a.m. and space is limited, so participants are encouraged to arrive early.

Organizers are calling the competition Pittsburgh's version of "Project Greenlight" and it's been years in the making.

Aspiring filmmakers will be able to submit screenplays of 10 to 12 pages from tomorrow through Dec. 31 with a prize package worth $25,000 at stake. It could be awarded to a single winner or split among two or three.

Film Factory advisers will read the submissions and, through workshops and panel discussions, narrow them to one, two or three scripts that will be produced in Southwestern Pennsylvania and screened at the 2010 Three Rivers Film Festival.

The judges and advisers are a prestigious group of 13-plus industry experts that has producers, writers, filmmakers, screenplay analysts and others. For rules and more information, go to www.steeltown.org or www.steeltownfilmfactory.org.

• Opening-night movies for the Three Rivers Film Festival are sold out. However, you can still buy tickets at the door for the party tonight at 9 at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in Oakland. Admission, $15, includes food, beer, wine and music.

• Mt. Lebanon's Michael Lies is headed overseas to the Florence International Film Festival with his film, "Experyment6." It's a sci-fi, avant-garde short that takes a whimsical look at how some of the other planets in the solar system might view the shortcomings of humanity.

The Italian event is designed to inspire, educate and promote filmmakers "who have a positive vision for our planet."

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