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Shore Scripts Short Film Fund

Shore Scripts Short Film Fund

Contact

171 Pier Avenue #145
Santa Monica, CA 90405-5363

Web:
Click here
Email:
contact@shorescripts.com

Contact: Julia Morizawa, Short Film Fund Manager

Report Card

Overall: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Professionalism: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.7/5.0)
Feedback: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.6/5.0)
Signficance: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Report Cards: 5    
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card

Objective

Turn your calling card script into an attention-grabbing short film with our $15,000 cash production grant!

As much as we love to read scripts, too many excellent shorts never progress beyond the written word, which is why we established the Shore Scripts Short Film Fund to help take those compelling stories off the page and onto the screen.

Many of our previous 19 funded short films have played at some of the top film festivals in the world, including Sundance, Tribeca, BFI London, Austin, Cannes, Encounters, and Palm Springs. They’ve even won BAFTA’s! Those writers have gone on to gain representation, sold screenplays, and been staffed on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, & BBC shows as a direct result of winning and producing their shorts with us. Show More

Deadline/Entry Fees

Expired. Previous Deadline: 10/31/2024

WinningScripts Pro $5 Off Coupon

Notification: Semi-Finalists Announced Nov 25, Finalists Announced Dec 04, Winners Announced Dec 16, 2024.

Rules

  • Scripts should be within 2-30 pages. Writers can exceed the recommended limits by up to 15 pages (for a total of 45 pages maximum) for an additional fee of $1 per page.
  • We welcome submissions from all countries. All scripts must be written in English. The winning short(s) can be filmed anywhere in the world.
  • We accept foreign language films (as long as the script is in English). The finished film will need to have English language subtitles.
  • You do not need to be a screenwriter to enter, however, whoever enters the script must have the prior approval and agreement to do so from the writer(s).
  • All submitted screenplays must be the writer’s original work or they own the copyright.
  • If a writing team enters, both/all writers must consent.
  • We accept scripts for narrative short films (live action & animation), web series pilots, half-hour TV pilots, and proof-of-concept shorts for features and TV series.
  • We accept scripts for short films that have already been filmed or are in the process of production and need additional finishing funds. Submissions for finishing funds must be entered as a Standard Entry but with the Format marked as “In Production Film.” Then include a password-protected link to a Vimeo or Youtube screener where we can view your work-in-progress film or footage in the text box provided. Please note that we do not offer feedback or coverage reports on rough cuts, shot footage, or finished films.
  • Finishing Funds submissions will be considered for both the Grand Prize and the 2nd Place Prize.
  • Previous Short Film Fund applicants may apply, including Finalists. Grand Prize and 2nd Place Winners are ineligible.
  • All ages can enter; however, the funds would need to be transferred to a legal adult’s account or business account if won.
  • You may enter a script that has been previously submitted to the Fund.
  • You may submit as many scripts as you wish.
  • We accept all genres. If your script is a combination of multiple genres or sub-genres, use the Coverfly Genre dropdown to indicate the main genre on your submission, and make a note of other genres, and any other information you feel will be relevant to the reader in the Comment to Reader field.
  • To help the environment, Shore Scripts only accepts electronic entries. We prefer scripts to be sent as a PDF file.
  • Please only include the Script Title on the cover page.
  • Scripts should be properly formatted according to industry standards at size 12-point Courier.
  • Each writer, or writing team, may not have earned more than $50,000 in screenwriting fees in the preceding 18 months. This clause is in place to help us support emerging talent. (Contest and Fellowship awards and writing fees received outside of fiction screenwriting do not count toward this total).
  • Shore Scripts staff and associates are unable to enter this fund.
  • You may enter a newer draft of an already submitted script. There will be a small fee involved. You may re-enter your script through the Resubmission page.
  • The decision of Shore Scripts is final. By applying to the Fund each participant agrees to hold Shore Scripts, our judges, and sponsors immune from any competition disputes, claims, liabilities, and expenses.
  • If Shore Scripts helps a writer gain representation, option, sell, or have their screenplay produced, then we are entitled to state this on our website and any other platforms whenever we see fit.
  • The Winners consent to Shore Scripts using their name, script title, and any other relevant information for promotional purposes on our website. This will be used to inform other contestants and the media of the results. We will also be unrestricted in how and where we promote the finished film once it is officially released.
  • The Winners agree to cut a trailer and provide a poster of the film for Shore Scripts to use on our website, social media, and other promotional platforms.
  • If the writer wishes to direct their own script, then it will be given serious consideration. A previous portfolio of work will help in making this decision. We are also open to working with first-time directors.
  • The Winner’s filmmaking team will have the final call on cast, crew, and edit. Shore Scripts will ask to see the audition tapes of the lead character(s) before they are cast.
  • Shore Scripts will be listed as one of the ‘Production Companies’ on the project and also receive an ‘Executive Producer’ credit. The Shore Scripts logo will need to be added to the end credits.
  • Winners who take advantage of the ARRI Rental camera package should also add the ARRI Rental logo to their film’s end credits.
  • The funds can be transferred to a freelance producer or production company attached to the project, or the winning writer or writer/director.
  • We are open to working with filmmakers known to the Winner. We are also open to co-productions and additional funding from outside sources.
  • Shore Scripts is flexible as to the production dates of the winning project(s). However, if said projects haven’t been filmed within 12 months of our winner’s announcement, Shore has the discretion to transfer the funds to another submitted project. If the project has been filmed but not completed within 18 months of our winner’s announcement, Shore has the discretion to take over and complete the project internally.
  • Please note that our sponsor ARRI may not be able to supply equipment if the project is to be filmed in a country where they do not operate. Production will also need to cover any logistics and costs of getting camera equipment to the set.
  • By entering a Shore Scripts fund or contest, you authorize us to use any trusted third-party online, cloud-based, and email services and databases for hosting, managing, and/or sending/transmitting your submission file(s).

Awards

  • Grand Prize Winner will be awarded a Cash Production Grant of $15,000, free camera equipment rental from ARRI rental for the duration of production (some restrictions may apply), a Film Festival Strategy Package from Tribeca programmer KIMBERLEY BROWNING, and a free online or in-person All Access Badge to HollyShorts 2024. Once the film is complete, the Winner will also have the opportunity to circulate the finished film to members of our Industry Roster of producers, agents, and managers.
  • 2nd Place Winner will be awarded a Cash Finishing Funds Grant of $2,500 and support from Shore Scripts through post-production and distribution. Both Winners will connect with two-time Oscar-nominated producer MARIA GRACIA TURGEON for production and career guidance. They will also have the opportunity to circulate the finished film to select members of our Industry Roster of producers, agents, and managers, as well as receive a free 30-minute consultation with Seed & Spark, and free access to a Stage 32 Webinar of their choice.
  • Top 5 Finalists will receive feedback on their scripts from one of our esteemed Judges and a free copy of “(Not Just) Another Book on the Craft of Screenwriting" by the International Screenwriters' Association's (ISA) Director of Education, Max Timm, Founder of The Story Farm, and a Free 6-month ISAConnect membership. Plus, one US-based writer will get on a call with Natalie Gergely (VP, Scripted at Gunpowder & Sky) and one European-based writer will get on a call with Kirstie MacDonald (Creative Director of TV at FilmNation) to discuss their projects and receive career advice.
  • Top 15 Finalists (including the Winners) will have the opportunity to have their scripts circulated to select members of our Industry Roster and Directors.
  • Semi-Finalists (and above) will receive a PDF of the Shore Scripts Film Festival Guidebook.

Shore Scripts Short Film Fund

Contact

171 Pier Avenue #145
Santa Monica, CA 90405-5363

Web:
Click here
Email:
contact@shorescripts.com

Contact: Julia Morizawa, Short Film Fund Manager

Report Card

Overall: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Professionalism: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.7/5.0)
Feedback: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.6/5.0)
Signficance: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Report Cards: 5    
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card

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Shore Scripts Short Film Fund

Contact

171 Pier Avenue #145
Santa Monica, CA 90405-5363

Web:
Click here
Email:
contact@shorescripts.com

Contact: Julia Morizawa, Short Film Fund Manager

Report Card

Overall: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Professionalism: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.7/5.0)
Feedback: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.6/5.0)
Signficance: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Report Cards: 5    
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card

Contest News

Shore Scripts Names Short Film Fund Finalists

Fifteen finalists have been announced for the 2020 Short Scripts Short Film Fund Competition. Winners will be announced on December 14th.

A.C. Lamberty, Miss Teen Dairy Minnesota
A transgender teen competes with her ruthless younger sister in their rural town’s annual dairy farming pageant.

Ann Marie Pace, Chualar
A 16-year-old Mexican teenager journeys to California through the Bracero Program in 1963 motivated by his desire to financially support his family back in Mexico, but quickly realizes the harsh realities of the program.

Anthony Florez, Two Bears
Life on the Rez is tough, but not as tough as underdog, Casey TwoBears, a veteran whose life has been a constant state of survival.

Becca Davis, The unNatural Order
A young housewife finds herself plagued by visions of the past that make her question the nature of her home, her marriage, and even her own existence.

Garret Walsh, The Thread & The Veil
Intrigued by the promise of a great scientific discovery, a Victorian doctor visits his reclusive former mentor but discovers instead a world of Gothic terrors he could never have imagined.

Harris Alvi & Connor Cahill Hayes, A Grey Matter
A Muslim surgeon struggles with his own moral compass when tasked with saving the life of a terrorist.

Jess Kohs & J. Batz, Little Anna
Third-grade teacher Anna Wheeler receives a new student with her same first and last name, triggering eerie similarities and traumatic memories when the girl’s father fails to pick her up from school.

Jay Reid, Prophylactic
A man obsessed with germs drives his partner to the brink of madness as he attempts to control their environment.

Joe Eatman & Stu Baker, Closers
Through a co-worker’s death, a dishwasher learns the value of hard work on his first day in this comedy.

Liam Hooper, Matilda Wild, Carol Van Hemelrijck & Vicky Wheeler, The Passion Protocol
Two women are given the chance to experience intimacy for the first time before being thrust back into their normality of epidemic isolation.

Lorna King, Her Midas Touch
Esther, a 2nd generation Ghanaian-Scottish teen with the power to absorb grief from others at a great cost to herself, struggles against her uncaring and controlling grandmother who forces her to work at funerals for money.

Merrit Schmidt, Suicide at Noon
When an organized list-maker puts her intention to commit suicide on her calendar, her husband and friends must find a way to dissuade her in this dark comedy.

Mika Watkins, Don’t Forget (忘れないで)
Don’t Forget (or Wasurenaide 忘れないで in Japanese) is a smart, grounded, bilingual horror, which tells the story of a half-Japanese woman who begins to see her mother’s early-onset dementia as a monster that haunts them both.

Richard Corso & Gregory Ferbache, “A Yeti Met A Mammoth”
Held up in an ice fishing hut on the eve of a storm, an old outlaw and his young caretaker have an unexpected visitor.

Rory Gibson, Nae Drama
A comedy about a beleaguered young man who stubbornly resists yet another inciting incident.

Updated: 12/01/2020

Shore Scripts Short Film Fund

Contact

171 Pier Avenue #145
Santa Monica, CA 90405-5363

Web:
Click here
Email:
contact@shorescripts.com

Contact: Julia Morizawa, Short Film Fund Manager

Report Card

Overall: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Professionalism: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.7/5.0)
Feedback: 3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars3.5 stars (3.6/5.0)
Signficance: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars (4.2/5.0)
Report Cards: 5    
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card

Submit Report Card

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First-time user? Register now to receive FREE email contest updates, news, results, deadline reminders and more. Rest assured, information submitted here is held in strict confidence. MovieBytes never sells or in any way distributes email names or addresses. We promise!

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