New Orleans Film Festival Screenplay Competition

For the first time this year, the New Orleans Film Festival is launching a screenplay competition to take place in conjunction with the festival October 17-25, 2018, and is seeking to discover bold, passionate writers telling the stories of our time.

The Academy-qualifying festival has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” for seven years in a row and was named one of the “Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” last year. Its growing reputation is built upon a commitment to discovering new and diverse voices. Paste Magazine praised the festival for offering “a platform to voices that still fight to be heard,” and last year, 53% of the film lineup came from female and gender non-conforming directors, and 45% from directors of color. Show More

For the first time this year, the New Orleans Film Festival is launching a screenplay competition to take place in conjunction with the festival October 17-25, 2018, and is seeking to discover bold, passionate writers telling the stories of our time.

The Academy-qualifying festival has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” for seven years in a row and was named one of the “Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” last year. Its growing reputation is built upon a commitment to discovering new and diverse voices. Paste Magazine praised the festival for offering “a platform to voices that still fight to be heard,” and last year, 53% of the film lineup came from female and gender non-conforming directors, and 45% from directors of color. For the past several years, the festival has played host to around 400 filmmakers who come to show their work and lend their artistic voice to the festival gumbo.

This year, the festival looks to expand our offerings to include more writers in the mix, seeking feature-length, short-form, and episodic screenplays, with cash prizes totaling $3,500.00 and festival passes available for finalists in each category.

The festival works hard to offer guests countless opportunities to connect with the industry presence at the fest, facilitating meetings with distributors like Array, Gunpowder & Sky, Paramount, and The Orchard; as well as funders, agencies, broadcasters, and other film organizations like Firelight Media, FX, Tribeca Film Institute, Women Make Movies, NBCUniversal, Cinereach, Vimeo, Kickstarter, Seed&Spark, and more.

Past attendees and speakers have included Gabourey Sidibe, Julie Dash, Rob Reiner, Lupita Nyong’o, Woody Harrelson, Alfre Woodard, Justin Timberlake, Steve McQueen, Sarah Paulson, and countless others.

The winner of the feature-length screenplay competition will receive $1000; the winner of the short-film screenplay will receive $500; and the winner of the episodic screenplay will receive $500. Additionally, the Louisiana Film & Entertainment Association are sponsoring a $1000 prize for the best screenplay from a Louisiana-based writer and a runner-up prize at $500.