HollywoodIQ

News, opinions, interviews and more from Hollywood and the screenwriting contest scene.

• Interview with Author/Screenwriter Michael Weinreb

  Michael Weinreb studied journalism at Penn State, and creative writing at Boston University, and published a book of short stories and several books of non-fiction before trying his hand at screenwriting with The Big D, a sports drama based loosely on the SMU football scandal of the 1980s.

• Interview with Screenwriters Carlo and Erin Carere

  Carlo and Erin Carere are partners in life and in writing. Carlo was born in Naples, and published several novels in Italy before turning his attention to screenwriting. Minneapolis native Erin, meanwhile, was a playwright and singer-songwriter. The couple have been writing together since 2014, and their sci-fi TV pilot Dark Horizons has scored more than a dozen contest placements from some of the best-rated contests on MovieBytes.

• Interview with StoryPros Comedy Category Winner Thomas Leupp

  Comedy writer Thomas Leupp was born and raised in Los Angeles, and his sports comedy Tres Banditos was the comedy category winner of the 2019 StoryPros Awards, and a runner-up for the 2019 Inroads Fellowship.

• Interview with 2020 Fresh Voices Horror Division Winner Harry Aspinwall

  Harry Aspinwall is a writer and actor who grew up in Scotland, but has been living the U.S. - currently Brooklyn - since he was 16. His historical horror script Henrietta was the First Place Winner of the Horror Division of the 2020 Fresh Voices Screenwriting Competition.

• Interview with 2019 Shore Scripts Short Film Fund Winner James Gould-Bourn

  James Gould-Bourne, winner of the 2019 Shore Scripts Short Film Fund Competition, is originally from Manchester, England, but now lives with his wife in Malaysia after four years of living in Lithuania. His debut novel, Bear Necessity, will be published in U.S. on August 4, 2020.

• Interview with 2019 Creative World Award
  Winner Taylor Hopkins

  Taylor Hopkins was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2019 Creative World Awards for his screenplay, Stagecoach Mary, a true story about a hard-drinking, cigar smoking black woman in Montana in 1885, who uses her six shooter and tough as nails attitude to defend a convent of nuns from the perils of the Wild West.

• Interview with 2018 CineStory Second Place Winner Avishai Weinberger

  CineStory Co-Executive Director Carlo Martinelli catches up with the 2018 CineStory Fellowship second place winner, Avishai Weinberger.

• Interview with ScreenCraft Fellowship Winner Davia Carter

  Davia Carter was named a 2018 ScreenCraft Fellowship Winner on the basis of her TV pilot Double Time Dames, a one-hour drama set in the jazz age that tells the story of a brilliant female trumpeter who sheds her life of abusive men and attempts to start an all-female band as an Italian mob tries to stake their claim in her town.

• Interview with ScreenCraft Fellowship Winner Georgina Love

  Georgina Love was named a 2018 ScreenCraft Fellowship Winner for her sci-fi feature Pig, which follows an experimental scientist as he raises a sentient pig as a mirror image of his terminally ill son. When the pig learns his "father's" plans have a sinister bent, he fights to resist the inevitable.

• Interview with ScreenCraft Fellowship Winner Brock Newell

  Brock Newell was named a 2018 ScreenCraft Fellowship Winner for his feature screenplay Ravenous, a fresh take on the cabin in the woods horror genre, about a man who invites his new girlfriend on a camping trip with his friends, only to realize that she's a cannibal who intends to kill them all. Brock graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a degree in Creative Writing, and has been living in LA for 10 years by way of Chicago.

Screenplay Contest
Deadline Alert

Final Deadlines

(Displaying final deadlines only. Click here to display preliminary deadlines, as well.)

Cynosure Screenwriting Awards

Extended: 09/08/2020
WSPro Discount: $5.00

Emerging Screenwriters Genre Screenplay Competition

Extended Final: 09/08/2020
WSPro Discount: No

WeScreenplay Television Pilot Competition

Final: 09/15/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Women in Film & Television Vancouver

Late: 09/15/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Australian International Screenwriting Awards

Final: 09/17/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Dumbo Screenwriting Competition New!

Final: 09/18/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Future Film Writers (5-page Read) New!

Final: 09/18/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Future Film Writers (Title Challenge) New!

Final: 09/18/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Colorado Intl. SciFi & Fantasy Film Festival

Extended: 09/20/2020
WSPro Discount: No

WriteMovies Horror Award 2020 New!

Final: 09/27/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays

Final: 09/30/2020
WSPro Discount: No

ScreenCraft Pilot Launch TV Script & Series Bible Competition

Final: 09/30/2020
WSPro Discount: No

L.A. Neo Noir Novel, Film, & Script Festival

Extended: 09/30/2020
WSPro Discount: $5.00

Stage32.com 'THAT'S A MOVIE!' Logline Contest New!

Final: 09/30/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Script Pipeline First Look Project

Late: 10/01/2020
WSPro Discount: No

American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest

Final, Extended: 10/01/2020
WSPro Discount: No

WriteMovies Fall 2020 Screenwriting Contest

Late: 10/11/2020
WSPro Discount: No

trackingb.com Screenplay Contest

Really Late Extended: 10/12/2020
WSPro Discount: No

CineStory TV/Digital Retreat & Fellowship

Extended Late: 10/12/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Stage 32 Diverse Voices Springboard New!

Final: 10/14/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Diverse Voices presented by WeScreenplay

Final: 10/15/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Scriptapalooza TV Writing Competition

Final: 10/19/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Breaking Walls Thriller Screenplay Contest

Extended: 10/24/2020
WSPro Discount: $5.00

Chandler International Film Festival

Final: 10/25/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Stage 32 New Voices in Animation Screenwriting Contest New!

Final: 10/28/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Golden Script Competition

October Deadline: 10/29/2020
WSPro Discount: No

ScreenCraft Action & Adventure Screenwriting Competition

Final: 10/31/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Shore Scripts - Short Film Fund

Final: 10/31/2020
WSPro Discount: No

StoryPros International Screenplay Contest

Late: 10/31/2020
WSPro Discount: $10.00

L.A. Live Film Fest

Winter Discount Deadline: 10/31/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition

Final: 11/05/2020
WSPro Discount: $5.00

Destiny City Film Festival

Final: 11/06/2020
WSPro Discount: $10.00

Screenplay Awards: Elements of Story New!

Final: 11/08/2020
WSPro Discount: No

Trending: Contest Queue

The following screenwriting competitions are the "most queued" upcoming contests on MovieBytes:

1. Scriptapalooza Features & Shorts Competition

2. 2021 BlueCat Screenplay Competition

3. Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition

4. WriteMovies Fall 2020 Screenwriting Contest

5. Scriptapalooza TV Writing Competition

6. Cinequest Screenwriting Competition

7. Script Pipeline First Look Project

8. StoryPros International Screenplay Contest

9. trackingb.com Screenplay Contest

10. American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest