Apeiron Films Screenplay Competition

Objective

Deadline/Entry Fees

Expired. Previous Deadline: 04/25/2023

Notification: 05/04/2023

Rules

REQUIREMENTS
This competition is aimed at writers who want to see their short scripts made into films by us and have no illusions about selling a product. We don't buy or sell anything.

PLEASE only submit screenplays, not finished films! Write films that can really be made without budgets! Most prior submissions failed these criteria. Be aware of all the rules and descriptions of this contest.

Apart from commercial music videos and advertising, there is no real commercial market for shorts. These two genres are excluded from our contest, anyhow. This is good, because you can try out new things as the audience of fiction shorts loves to visit film festivals.

Our submission fees symbolize the time we will spend on reading and maybe commenting your work. Long texts will cost us more time. Feedback will cost extra time.

Why should you care about our opinion? Our productions and distributions were screened over 1804 times at international film festivals in 67 countries and won 227 awards. So the programmers, audiences, and juries seem to like our popular works. Who am I? Filmmaker, producer, festival director, film association president, distributor, film critic: https://j.mp/D_Lojek

You should be of legal age (18+) and write texts in native German or English. Depending on our filming locations, the language of the dialogue might be translated into the native tongue of the actors.

Writing style and feasibility are paramount. Storytelling experience through classical film school or literature studies may be helpful, but is not mandatory. We simply expect talents.

SCOPE
The running time should not exceed 2 to 10 minutes. In exceptional cases 15 to 20 minutes are conceivable, but audiences are easily bored these days and such productions become very costly. One to three days of filming and up to three days for editing should be calculated while writing. Therefore it is necessary to reduce your ideas to the essentials.

ASK YOURSELF: What is the core idea? What is my story about? (Premise) Who is it about? (Protagonist) What is the genre and style of my screenplay? Who or what is giving the Protagonist grief? (Antagonist) What is the question of my story? Whose POV is the story told from? What happens in my story? (Plot) How does it happen? (Structure) What is my screenplay about thematically? How can I convey my plot, action and theme in images, sound?

CONTENT / GENRE
Thematically, these narrative short films have no limits. The choice of genre is free, although we prefer comedies, romances, fantasy, magical miniatures and light entertainment. Most festival audiences crave these. Observe the filming conditions below and focus on certain key areas! In addition, no illegal things should appear. We make films for fun and to explore the medium. Emotional cores, originality, suspense, and character development mark the good story. Consult books and websites about screenwriting, whenever you are lost. Ask many people to help you, if you are a beginner.

FILMING CONDITIONS
Only basic equipment of filmmaking will be available: Cameras (rarely also with steady cam and shoulder rigs, gimbals), tripods, various microphones, sound recorders, possibly minimal lighting, simple props, costumes and make-up, plus editing computers. There are probably DSLR cameras with video capture (+ lenses), maybe professional film cameras (RED, BMD, CANON C 200, etc.), vehicles, musical instruments, and catering. If you know make-up artists and set builders, bring them to the event! The cast and crew are recruited from enthusiastic assistant directors, producers, technicians, DoPs, rare boom operators, gaffers, actors, editors, musicians and all sorts of production assistants. They beg for good stories, doable scripts. So please them first!

LOCATIONS
Use easy-to-access settings that can be found everywhere! If you need landmarks or if your story requires a specific place, the movie should be set in or near any of the following European cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Graz, Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig, Jena, Mayence, Brussels, Munich, Cologne, Bratislava, London, Prague, Wroclaw, Dublin, Manchester, Moscow, Innsbruck, Geneva, Lublin, Naples, Paris, Linz, Lago, Rome, Lenzing, Weyregg, Helsinki, Budapest.

EXCLUSION
Your chances plummet if you clutter the screenplay with costly things or long pre-production phases, too many locations, unfilmable CGI. In particular, avoid the need for lengthy rehearsals, special effects, stunts, construction or carpenting work, stars or dream cast, dolly shots, crane shots, camera flights, complicated lighting or sound post production, crowd scenes, children, animals, elderly and retirees cast, elaborate costumes, mask effects, inaccessible locations or studios, filming permits for locations, trick shots, copyrighted music, green screen studio recordings, noise, time-consuming 3D compositions, boring content, historical themes, animation.

SUBMISSION FORMAT
Send a PDF document "YOUR_NAME__TITLE_OF_THE_SCREENPLAY.PDF" with a pitch and synopsis, (max. ½ page summary), the script in STANDARD formatting with numbered scenes and pages, the back story and looks for each main character profile, drawn storyboard (optional), your motivation and inspiration, your filmography and brief biography, contact information (which will be treated confidentially). Please use only printable, numbered DIN-A4 pages! Submit via filmfreeway.

The document size of the text must not exceed 10 MB.

DEADLINES / AUTHENTICITY
The ongoing competition is based on matching locations as we travel through Europe. So there can be many winners per year. Since 2009 we've had several winners* whose screenplays were made into 40+ movies.

The resulting films were seen by more than two million people at over 1800 international film festival screenings, won 227 awards, were broadcast on TV over 10.000 times and distributed online. Numerous talents from our cast and crews could use the footage for demo reels, show reels. Some of them were accepted at prestigious film and acting schools. Others created their own production houses.

Find many of the films and their festival circuits here: https://vimeo.com/channels/apeiron

TERMS OF USE / AUTHORSHIP
The screenplays are written exclusively for this competition. With the submission the author permanently and irrevocably transfers all film and exploitation rights in all existing and future media to APEIRON FILMS and associated production companies, institutions, groups, individuals etc.

The scripts must have a Creative Commons License on all pages (CC-BY ... your name), so that our producers / directors can freely dispose of them and are protected from any legal claims. The Creative Commons logo should be visible in the document. The resulting films are also released under the Creative Commons Licenses (CC-BY-NC-ND).

We will not sell the films, as there is no real short film market. So don't worry, just explore your writing talent.

Awards

AWARD
An extremely experienced and successful group of filmmakers selects the winners. We have produced over 178 shorts and enabled more than 2000 other directors to create theirs.

The PRICE is the adaptation of the script into a short film by director Dave Lojek or associates under the minimalistic micro-cinema no-budget conditions listed below. It is not a cash prize but has the value of $ 2000. It should be noted that directors and script doctors could make minor production-related changes in the script or dialogue. We see a screenplay as a working tool to incite the team work of film crews. The winners of he screenplay competition will be informed once the production has begun.

We will transfer the finished movie to the writer digitally and screen it in cinemas, broadcast it on TV, put it online with all credits after the festival circuit. If the film is selected for film festivals, we will publish this information on our facebook profile and tag cast and crew, so the writer and all cast and crew can amend their filmographies. If the writer is pleased with the resulting film, he or she can contribute to the festival distribution costs as well.

Screenplay awards from festivals are also shipped to the writers, of course. This has happened already.