Looking for feedback on your new screenplay? These contests offer the best feedback, according to MovieBytes readers.
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Final Deadline: 08/15/2018
The ISA Fast Track Fellowship will catapult the careers of TWO emerging writers with industry access, continued script development and career guidance. The Fellowship’s mission is to provide access to top industry professionals and the opportunity to build relationships that would normally take years to cultivate. Two selected fellows will be flown to Los Angeles to participate in a week of meetings with EIGHT top-level industry mentors, capped off with a party in their honor at ISA's Third Thursdays.
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Final Deadline: Monthly.
FULL FEEDBACK on the first moments of your screenplay from our committee of Professional Screenwriters, Production Heads and Script Consultants. Are you just starting off your screenplay and want immediate feedback on your first scenes/first moments of your script?
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Final Deadline: 11/02/2018
Cinequest voted Best Film Festival by USA Today Readers. The Cinequest Screenwriting Competition continues to empower global screenwriters through discovery, recognition and opportunity. Cinequest loves writers, and we welcome you to submit your screenplay or teleplay to our renowned competition. The Top 10 Finalists receive many empowering benefits including: All Access passes to the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and the exclusive Writers Celebration, plus exposure to leading industry players and inspiring luminaries.
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Final Deadline: 08/31/2018
The Cynosure Screenwriting Awards seek to expand the scope of mainstream cinema by recognizing and rewarding screenplays in two distinct categories: screenplays which feature compelling female protagonists; and screenplays that showcase diversity (ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc.).
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Final Deadline: Ongoing - submit anytime.
Submit a TV SPEC SCREENPLAY or ORIGINAL TV PILOT (monthly deadlines) and get the chance to see your script read out loud at our Screenplay Festival using professional actors. Shown online on the YouTube channel that garners 1000s of views. CLICK the website link for examples of past winners. A great way to get your words out there and obtain the Agent you're looking for or just get your script seen by more people.
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Final Deadline: Monthly.
WILDsound Monthly Screenplay Festival offers screenwriters at all levels the fantastic opportunity of hearing their scripts read out loud using Top Professional Actors and seen by 10000s of people online, including producers and agents. At least 5 winning readings done every single month. Click the website info and watch the winning videos.
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Final Deadline: 10/30/2018
The 8th annual Richmond International Film Festival (RIFF) is a competitive festival that accepts feature and short screenplays, teleplays, and screens more than 120 international cutting edge film premiers making it one of the Mid-Atlantic's largest international competitive festivals. RIFF provides six days of industry panels, Q&As, industry mixers, live music performances, the FLOW Creative & Pitch Conference, and entertainment mixers that bring the spirit of Hollywood to beautiful Richmond, Virginia at the Bowtie Criterion/Movieland and the historic Byrd Theatre.
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Final Deadline: Monthly.
With two cycles of our main competition clashing almost directly with the deadline dates of our Monthly Contest, we’ve decided to delay relaunching our Monthly Contest again until at least January 2017. Anyone who has submitted to our Monthly contest since the start of August will be offered a free entry to the main contest (representing a significant discount on its current entry price), which currently closes at the same time as the September competition would have done anyway! In place of the Monthly Contest, we’d like to introduce our new FEATURED SCRIPT OF THE MONTH.
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Final Deadline: 04/05/2019
The Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition leverages one of the oldest and largest film festivals in the U.S. Each year, NaFF draws hundreds of filmmakers, musicians and industry to ten days of films, panels, red carpet events, live music showcases and parties. NaFF draws more film entries than almost every other film festival in the country, in part, because it is an Academy® Award Qualifying Festival in three short film categories.
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Final Deadline: 09/26/2018
Stage 32's screenwriting contests have gained a reputation as some of the "most worthwhile screenwriting contests to enter." The reason for this is simple: We provide unparalleled access to industry executives and work directly with our winning writers in an never ending quest to help them find success.
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Final Deadline: 10/15/2018
Diverse Voices strives to provide a contest that is purely focused on promoting and encouraging diverse voices in Hollywood. The contest encourages stories that are told from perspectives that are often underrepresented in Hollywood today. This includes writers of color, women writers, writers with disabilities, writers over 40, writers in the LGBTQ+ community, and any other voices and stories that are currently underrepresented in Hollywood.
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Final Deadline: 08/31/2018
The objective of the Moondance International Film Festival is to inspire, motivate, promote and encourage the best writers & independent filmmakers, from every country in the world, and to inspire a greater understanding about the vital role of the arts in enhancing creativity, community spirit, and the preservation of our cultural heritage.
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Final Deadline: 10/29/2018
Our intention is to help open doors for the aspiring television writer. There are four categories you can submit to, which include 1 hour existing spec scripts, 1/2 hour existing sitcom spec scripts, original pilots, and reality programs. This competition is designed with the TV writer and crossover screenwriter in mind. The participants we have chosen to read the winning scripts are individuals from established production companies.
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Final Deadline: 08/31/2018
Discovering new screenwriting talent from around the world. Shore Scripts Screenwriting Competition is focused on finding the best scripts from around the world and getting them into the hands of the producers and production companies who have the ability to get them made. Patrick Tobin, the writer of CAKE starring Jennifer Aniston is just one of our successes.
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Final Deadline: 11/07/2018
Since 2009, Fresh Voices has distinguished itself as a screenplay competition designed to discover, empower and promote the next generation of storytellers, writers and filmmakers. As the name would suggest, Fresh Voices has done this by identifying writer's with a unique and memorable voice that demands to be read. Now in our ninth year, we have helped guide dozens of talented screenwriters to secure literary representation, option agreements and other work-for-hire writing assignments that have been the stepping stones to significant careers Will you be Hollywood's next success story? Enter now and let your voice be heard!
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Final Deadline: 12/16/2018
The BlueCat Screenplay Competition, now in its 21st year, is accepting submissions for its 2019 competition. Founded in 1998 by award-winning writer Gordy Hoffman, BlueCat has supported thousands of screenwriters through written analysis provided to all entrants, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in the film and television industry.
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Final Deadline: 10/31/2018
Open to writers of all levels and backgrounds, the StoryPros International's objective is to recognize, support and promote your work with financial rewards, software and services -- as well as providing an open door to industry professionals with guaranteed reads and promotion to our network of contacts. Past entrants and winners have gone on to representation, options, assignments and sales.
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Final Deadline: 11/01/2018
We are all about giving agents, showrunners, and executives exactly what they now are looking for: Spec pilot teleplays that showcase you, the new writer operating at your very best. If the suits love the writing of a spec pilot, they have the best reason in the world to trust the writer to come through in the development process. A strongly-written spec pilot shows you’re ready for the gig.
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Final Deadline: 10/10/2018
To introduce writers to the decision makers of traditional broadcast television, the cable market, and multi-media outlets. Competition winners will have the chance to get their material read by experienced production companies.
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Final Deadline: 10/09/2018
We don't offer any of the usual screenplay contest smoke and mirrors. No coverage from someone being paid $10 per script (please ask Mom). No cash (please ask Grandma) or writing clinics from gurus who have never sold a screenplay (Dad?). What our winners do receive is: INDUSTRY ACCESS AND INDUSTRY READS.
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Final Deadline: Last Day of any calender month
We pick the best and most marketable (in our opinion of course) CLIENT SCRIPT and announce it with shameless prominence on the MAIN page of our web site. Our winner will also be invited to POST their log line, link and even a scene or two (if you so choose) from your winning work to which we’ll add our GLOWING REVIEW and convert the whole thing into professional “COVERAGE” (FOR FREE) which can be used for submission purposes as well as being POSTED on our site.
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Final Deadline: 11/15/2018
Created by Dr. Ted Baehr, founder, publisher and executive producer of MOVIEGUIDE® and founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, and Dr. Jack Templeton, the primary purpose of the prize is to further the influence of moral and spiritual values within the film and television industries. Seeking to promote a spiritually uplifting, redemptive worldview, MOVIEGUIDE® announces the Kairos Prize that will help inspire first-time and beginning screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining, spiritually uplifting scripts that result in a greater increase in either man’s love or understanding of God.
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Final Deadline: 09/01/2018
The mission of the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest is to find and promote new and innovative voices in cinema. Every script is read closely by a select handful of professional readers, and Francis Ford Coppola selects a grand prize–winner from among the top ten finalists. The grand prize–winner receives a cash prize, and the scripts of all top ten finalists are sent by Zoetrope to leading production companies and talent agencies for consideration.
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Final Deadline: 12/21/2018
$15,000 in Cash Prizes. $10,000 1st Place Cash Prize for Feature screenplays! The Vail Film Institute launched the Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition in order to find and foster the next generation of the film world's most innovative and creative screenwriters. With the realization that every great film needs a great story, the festival is dedicated to supporting talented screenwriters by utilizing the resources of the Vail Film Festival to foster the winning screenwriters through networking opportunities, and film industry access.
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