Screenplay Contests that encourage minority authors or protagonists.
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Final Deadline: 01/23/2020
We are Women Who Write and our goal is to be the world’s foremost screenwriting competition for women. We want to support female writers and producers of all shapes and sizes, but we don’t just want to support female writers. We want to be a springboard for your success. We want to forge a festival that will discover and recognize the best emerging female talent and the most original female voices from around the world.
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Final Deadline: 01/23/2020
As one of the few screenwriting competitions for the LGBTQ community, our aim is to discover and recognize the best emerging talent and most original voices from our community in film and television writing from around the world. We are proud to be LGBTQ and even prouder to support the LGBTQ community. Members from our community have long been known for being the best artists in the world and we want to not only recognize them for that, but to support them in being talented as well as a member of our community.
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Final Deadline: 03/19/2020
We are a team of artists that want nothing more than to support the next generation of filmmakers and screenwriters from around the world. Specifically, those storytellers that passionate about telling stories about black communities in the U.S. and abroad, from inner city Atlanta, LA, New York, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee to Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean, to Wall Street and the streets of London to the NBA.
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Final Deadline: 03/25/2020
The Writers Lab, produced by IRIS and New York Women in Film & Television and supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, is open for submissions of screenplays by women over the age of 40 ABOUT THE LAB The Writers Lab brings 12 women screenwriters over the age of 40 with promising scripts together with outstanding professional female filmmakers for an intensive four-day screenwriting development retreat of one-on-one meetings, panel discussions and other activities designed to inspire the artists; to prompt rigorous creative exploration; and, through revision, to cultivate first-rate cinematic stories.
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Final Deadline: 04/01/2020
The Orlando International Film Festival, Inc (OIFF) is a nonprofit organization seeking to bring unique and diverse stories to the beautiful setting of Orlando. The festival will be taking place at the Orange County Convention Center May 23rd to May 26th.
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Final Deadline: 05/19/2020
The Diversity Film & Script Showcase recognizes and showcases screenplays featuring an Under Represented Lead Character OR Filmmaker (Writer or Co-Writer, or Director, or Producer).
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
Personal coverage and feedback from programmers and readers on your screenplay will be available to every screenplay entrant. Cash prizes are awarded in each of three categories: Best Screenplay, Best Voice of Color Screenplay (written by or about people of color), and Best Northcoast Screenplay (set in or about northern Ohio).
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Final Deadline: 12/02/2019 (expired)
The CAPE New Writers Fellowship discovers and nurtures emerging writers launching their careers in television and film. Founded and co-chaired by Emmy Award-winning Creator and Showrunner Leo Chu and veteran film and TV executive Steve Tao, CAPE is one of few programs created by a creative and an executive. This immersive Fellowship arms each writer with the practical and business knowledge they need to succeed as a professional writer in the entertainment industry.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
Nurturing emerging screenwriters and outstanding LGBT-themed screenplays.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
This festival is the first of its kind to put the spotlight on film comedies by women. Its goals are to raise the profile of female-generated humor, to give recognition and support to the women making it, and to be a locus of networking and community building.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance is pleased to announce the Lillian & Varnum Paul Screenwriting Contest. A $10,000 prize will be awarded in 2013 for a new screenplay based on Armenian themes. The award will be presented publicly at a special event. The award will be administered by the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance which has established a panel of noted theatre and film professionals to select the winning script.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
Pride Films and Plays' LezPlay Contest has Stage, Screenplay, and Shorts categories. We aspire to honor excellence in work written by women for film or stage with lesbian characters or themes.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
Media images represents the most recognizable commodity in the world. The implied messages of media form the world views of millions. In the United States and globally, African, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics and Latinos are severely underrepresented in mass media, and are most often shown in marginal roles when featured. As independent content creators, we can the talents and creativity to change the narrative of the diaspora stories.
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Final Deadline: 03/15/2018 (expired)
We are looking for standout screenplays by women. The competition awards the writer who pushes the boundaries of cinema with her original, nuanced characters and dynamic storytelling and dialogue. There are no limitations on content or genre. The main character does not have to be female, but the screenwriter does. Cash awards, as well as a Skype pitch with an executive and pitch preparation for the winning entry.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
TeaDance hopes to not only show really good independent film, but also educate and entertain the public with films that feature LGBT characters and stories. Our mission is to have LGBT cinema a part of everyday culture and we want to expose it to as many people as we can. For this reason our festival is free to the public. We are currently accepting submissions for our festival and are looking for films and scripts that: are made by LGBT filmmakers and/or feature LGBT characters and/or have subjects that may be of interest to the LGBT community.
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Final Deadline: 02/27/2018 (expired)
The TV ONE SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2018 is meant to encourage and promote the production of creative, contemporary, engaging and relatable screenplays that can be turned into original movies for television. The competition is meant to: Encourage filmmakers to offer a fresh perspective and submit contemporary stories with a focus on the American black cultural experience with wide audience appeal.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
If you are a filmmaker and would like to be a part of our film festival in Atlanta, Georgia then please submit your work for our consideration. Outlantacon is an Atlanta-based event for the Queer Geek audience! You'll find all the usual convention fare here, the difference is that it all has a queer 'bent' to it. Here you can enjoy all the convention trappings in an atmosphere where you're free to be yourself! Let it not be said that this convention is just for LGBT.
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Final Deadline: 09/17/2019 (expired)
The Vancouver International Women in Film Festival Screenplay Competition accepts English-language feature screenplays written by women. The festival is a forum for collaboration and networking with other screenwriters and filmmakers who contribute to the visibility of women through the ongoing practice of their craft. We encourage you to submit a feature film script of any genre, challenging the perceptions of what stories women write, and what we want to see.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
We are a a collective of producers, writers and union crew members who wish to see more content written by or about those under represented in American Cinema. The Little Screenwriters Competition was started by International Cinematography Union crew member Ms. Nubia Rahim. We are the industry. This is nepotism at its best. Our judges consist of industry executives, SAG actors and crew members.
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Final Deadline: 08/13/2018 (expired)
To continually showcase and celebrate commercially viable films Written, Directed, or Produced by women. A Femme International Film Festival is a premier festival that focuses on platforming women filmmakers "by women, for everyone". Our Festival was created in 2005, when it became apparent that there was a need to enhance women behind the camera as Directors, Producers, and Writers.
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Final Deadline: 09/01/2019 (expired)
The Athena List is an annual script competition that selects exceptional scripts with women leaders at the heart of the story. As the central program in the Athena Film Festival’s Parity Pipeline program, The Athena List’s goal is to raise the profile of the scripts and the writers within the industry with the purpose of getting these movies made and elevating their careers to the next level.
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Final Deadline: 07/20/2019 (expired)
The NHMC Television Scriptwriter’s Program is designed to familiarize participants with the format, characters and storyline structure of specific shows that are currently on the air. The five-week, *total immersion workshop is mentored and guided by former NBC V.P of Script Development, Geoff Harris and is conducted in Sherman Oaks, CA. A total of 10 writers are accepted nationwide from an established network of non-profit agencies, schools, universities, guilds and media organizations.
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Final Deadline: 07/01/2018 (expired)
A FutureFemme is someone who doesn’t ask for permission. A FutureFemme doesn’t need anyone to open doors for her. A FutureFemme ignores an irrelevant establishment. A FutureFemme knows her worth, her value, and her goals. A FutureFemme doesn’t take no for an answer. A FutureFemme creates iconic, inspirational content on no one’s terms but her own.
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Final Deadline: 02/28/2019 (expired)
Screenwriters of underrepresented backgrounds will have the chance to win mentorship meetings with our diverse lineup of industry pros. This mentorship will occur around April of 2019 via Skype or other forms of video conference. The purpose of the Diversity Mentorship contest is to impart knowledge on our grand prize winner through the advice and expertise of professionals in film & television industry in a time when diverse voices in media are sought after.
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Final Deadline: 07/26/2019 (expired)
Broadening its mission to cultivate opportunities for and about women, SeriesFest is proud to partner with Big Swing Productions (founded by Emmy®- and Golden Globe®-winner Kyra Sedgwick, Meredith Bagby and Valerie Stadler) for the Women Writing Competition to discover and celebrate bold new series with a distinctly female perspective. The script writing competition gives female artists the opportunity to share diverse ideas through visual media and create unique and powerful roles for women.
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Final Deadline: 10/15/2019 (expired)
This three-day lab consists of intensive script development with seasoned mentors. It is designed for women writers who have not yet had a feature-length fictional script produced. Screenplays must include one or more strong woman character(s) in leadership roles at the center of the story and must be feature-length narratives.
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