Misc.Writing.Screenplays.Moderated (MWSM): Created January 2005.
 

Screenplay Contests

Screenwriting contests come in all shapes and sizes. Some have no entry fee, others charge by the script. Some restrict entries to those in a particular country, age or ethnic group. Others have no restrictions at all. Some offer handsome financial rewards and studio attention, while others offer little more than a laser-printed certificate you can put on a shelf with your bowling trophies.

Winning any of the major screenwriting contests would be a terrific feather in your professional writing cap, but there are costs and caveats to consider. First, note the "major" in the previous sentence. It's doubtful you're going to get a lot of traction with Hollywood studios for having won the Dry Tortugas Annual Television Screenplay contest. If you want to enter your local contest, or any of the smaller contests, consider what it will and won't do for you. A small, community screenplay contest won't get you any attention in Hollywood. It might, however, win you a little cash and help you get into film school, if that's your goal. Any contest might be worth the $40 or $50 or $100 to enter, if the rewards are meaningful to your goals as a writer. If your goal as a writer is to make it big in the Hollywood studio system, then only a few contests are worth entering -- generally, the Nicholl, Austin, Disney and Chesterfield are cited as the best, with the Nicholl being head and shoulders above the Austin and the Ausin head and shoulders above the others. Sundance is also worth considering, but it's a different sort of beast from the others.

Here are a few other considerations: Is the prize money and attention worth the entry fee? The Nicholl -- the premier screenwriting contest in America -- currently charges $30 per submission (for 2007). They get over 6,000 submissions, so they're making close to $200,000 on entry fees alone. But they also pay out up to 5 $30,000 fellowships, meaning that most of that entry money goes right back out to winners, and what little "profit" there is, is absorbed in reader fees and other costs. The only reason they can run the contest at all is because it's underwritten by a fund from Don & Gee Nicholl. This contest is a class act, and they truly are there to promote excellence in writing.

On the other hand, some contests collect similar fees on thousands of submissions, and pay out paltry 4-digit prizes, meaning the "contest" is run as a money-making venture for the contest runners. Some of these contest do NOT have the writer in mind.

And consider this. If your goal is to sell your screenplay, why not go out and try to sell it? Why take the contest route? If you ever get an agent's attention, one of his or her first concerns will be how much exposure your material has had. Excess exposure is very bad. It means your excellent idea is out there for others to make their own. It means the element of surprise is gone from your project. If you think you're onto a hot commercial idea, the last thing you, or the agent lucky enough to represent you in the future, wants is too many people knowing your concept before your pitch it.

Or are you going the contest route because you're afraid to pitch? Get over it. If you didn't want to get involved in pitching and Hollywood and all that jazz you could have spent the last 6 months writing Haiku. But you didn't. You wrote a screenplay, and now you need to consider its future. If you seriously think the contest route is the best one for you and your project, then the following list will be useful to you:

  • The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting The premier screenwriting contest/fellowship in the United States. Winning will get you money and attention, and even placing as a quarterfinalist or semifinalist will sometimes get you calls from agencies and studios. If you're only going to enter one contest, make it this one.
  • The Austin Screenplay Contest Part of the Austin Film Festival, winning and placing in this contest will get you heaps of attention, and also a trip to the film festival itself. Well worth considering. People always have nice things to say about the contest, and one of the best aspects seems to be that all the Hollywood folks who come to the contest don't just go home at night, so you can often meet them in the bar at the Driscoll or at other places around town. That has nothing to do with the screenplay competition, but still. Where The Nicholl pools all entries together, the Austin competition breaks out entries into a number of different categories.

  • The ABC Entertainment / Walt Disney Studios Writing Fellowship Commonly referred to as "The Disney Fellowship", this contest has no fee (as of this writing; 2007), but it is different from most other contests. The biggest difference is that winners of the fellowship are expected to pick up and move to Los Angeles, and to work for ABC/Disney for a year (your contest winnings are your salary). Some people also find the rules regarding ownership of your material a bit restrictive. Read the contest rules and decide for yourself.
  • The American Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition Only a few years old, Francis Copolla's contest got 2,500 entries last year. You don't need to be a member of the AZ site to enter, and the contest offers cash and the possibility of representation for those who win.
  • The Chesterfield Writers Film Project sometimes runs a screenplay contest, but it irregular intervals. There's a link on the website to put yourself on a notification list for the next contest, if you are interested.
  • Project Greenlight runs a variety of contests, most of which end up with the winning script being produced. Nice. But to get there you usually have to get through a peer-review process which has been criticized for being open to shenanigans from other reviewers. But it's run by smart people, and they adjust the contest occasionally. Check the site to see if there's a contest currently open for submission.
  • The Sundance Institute Screenwriting Lab isn't so much a contest as, well, a lab; a development environment. The application process seems like a contest, but in fact it's more like competing to get into a good grad school. Lots of information on the site.

Other Contests

There are hundreds of other contests out there. Every state, and many towns and regions, have film boards. Check with them to see what sort of local contests they promote, sponser or endorse. Check with local colleges for writing programs or film festivals and screenplay contests you can compete in. And before you get too caught up in any of the contests, remind yourself that contests are simply a step toward where you want to be -- a successful screenwriter -- and it's a step you might well choose to skip.