A list of contests that accept or specialize in short screenplays, or any scripts that are less than feature-length.
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Final Deadline: 11/28/2019
Attend the 2020 Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals as the Table Read My Screenplay Grand Prize Winner! You'll receive cash, a trip to Park City, a table read of your winning script, and industry connections. Plus, an established director will workshop your script prior to your Table Read Showcase in Park City with professional actors.
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Final Deadline: 12/01/2019
For 21 years the San Francisco Independent Film Festival has developed a great reputation for filling theaters, getting press, and throwing great parties. Films at our fest regularly get Variety reviews, picked up at other fests, and find rabid groupies following the makers around town demanded autographs and buying them drinks. This is our third year hosting a screenplay contest with the goal of expanding our filmmaker reach.
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Final Deadline: 12/15/2019
The BlueCat Screenplay Competition, now in its 22nd year, is accepting submissions for its 2020 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: 12/15/2019
The Screenwriters Network presents, the 1st Annual Killer Shorts Horror Short Screenplay Competition! Prizes include guaranteed industry reads at Paradigm Talent Agency, Grey Matter Productions, Good Fear Content & Affirmative Entertainment! In the past few years, horror shorts have become a goldmine for Hollywood. Feature films such as The Babadook, Lights Out, Mama and Saw originated as proof-of-concept shorts.
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Final Deadline: 12/31/2019
The Oregon Short Film Festival is a showcase of independent short films from around the world. We accept short screenplays of all genres that are 40 pages or less. Action Comedy Dark Comedy Drama Experimental Family Fantasy Horror Romantic Comedy Science Fiction
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Final Deadline: 12/31/2019
Cinema is your passion? You've written a short film script that tells a meaningful and touching story with a few characters in plain settings? You can restrict yourself to the essentials? You want to see your ideas in a movie at last? Congratulations: You’ve just found the right opportunity! CHALLENGE Create pure narrative live-action cinema without extravaganza! Make the audience care! Only the awesome idea counts, because the film crew will have only a few days for the complete production from casting to cinema premiere.
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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: 01/24/2020
Winning screenplays recommended to leading Hollywood producers! The Colorado 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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Final Deadline: 03/08/2020
The International Horror Hotel fosters creativity within genre writers and filmmakers, providing a platform for them to share their work and gain recognition. Our main focus is in connecting those working within the horror (and sub-genre) community, helping them to expand their network and gain contacts to strengthen their work. The 2020 festival will be held June 11th-14th at Mentor Holiday Inn - 20 minutes from downtown Cleveland (OH).
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Final Deadline: 03/15/2020
The Scriptation Showcase is officially open for submissions! Emerging writers can now enter their best screenplay, teleplay, or short. The Scriptation Showcase is the screenwriting competition that circulates winners’ scripts to the directors, showrunners, and producers behind your favorite movies and TV shows. Why submit to the Scriptation Showcase? UNPRECENDENTED EXPOSURE Never before has a screenwriting competition made your script so accessible to working industry professionals.
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Final Deadline: 03/19/2020
Mission: Faith in Film is dedicated to forging a screenwriting competition that will launch the careers of filmmakers focused on adding the element of faith to their films and facilitate established filmmakers in transitioning into making more faith films. Our aim is to build a festival that will introduce faith based films to mass audiences, ultimately, giving them the same multi platform release schedules and revenue streams that traditional studio films and high end independent films enjoy; and to inspire, showcase, support, and develop filmmakers of all faith’s to make great faith based films that leave others touched, moved and inspired; and filmmakers and distributors empowered to make and distribute more faith and family films.
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Final Deadline: 03/31/2020
Creative World Awards (CWA) is an international screenwriting contest that is well known for having the writer's interest at heart when it comes to development and industry promotion. Production: CWA brings an exciting production opportunity to the Grand Prize Winner. This year’s winner will have the options of a short version of their script being produced by The MIX, and the film will then get a guaranteed premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival.
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Final Deadline: 04/03/2020
Honoring Stories Worth Telling. All Ages, All Cultures, All written formats. The rationale behind the festival is clear. New media continues to show its lasting power and potential to evolve - there is scope for truly groundbreaking and compelling work in the world of storytelling. The festival is designed to both discover and cultivate highly creative work from emerging and seasoned content creators.
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Final Deadline: 04/10/2020
New York International Screenplay Awards is an international screenplay competition for screenwriters who aspire to connect with the USA industry workers and explore the US markets. NYISA winners will be connected to the US film industry by InkTip Magazine, iPitch. tv, and Script Mailer. They’ll be registered for free at CreatersVault, and will receive free screenwriting courses from Script Reader Pro, plus, detailed analysis and free consultations by Coverage Ink… And much more! NYISA’s valued jury members are industry professionals such as Producers, Script Doctors, Directors, Actors and Screenwriters.
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Final Deadline: 04/13/2020
Scriptapalooza was founded in 1998 with the goal of helping as many writers as possible through the competition. We have over 90 production companies, agents and managers reading all the entered scripts. (A complete list of participants is on Scriptapalooza's website.) We actively push the Semifinalists, Finalists, Runners-Up and Winners for a full year with the intention of creating opportunities for the writers.
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Final Deadline: 04/14/2020
Seattle's burgeoning independent film community is home to artists, actors, writers, directors, producers, singers, dancers, musicians, storytellers, filmmakers, and multi-hyphenates of all shapes and sizes. People from all walks of life, from all over the world, call our city home. They come hear to learn, hone, and practice their craft. Unlike other major hubs, that are only interested in established talent, artists know they can come to Seattle and grow into their greatness.
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Final Deadline: 04/14/2020
Hollywood is where people have come to make it in the industry since the birth of the entertainment industry. We are not just the home of actors, writers, directors, and producers of all shapes and sizes, we are the home of the industry itself. Everyone who’s anyone has a presence here or wish they did. People from all walks of life, from all over the world, come here to make it.
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Final Deadline: 05/15/2020
To recognize excellence in screenwriting of shorts and features in a wide variety of genres.
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Final Deadline: 05/15/2020
The Holly Weird Film Festival (HWFF), founded by Festival Director Jack Truman, celebrates independent films of all genres that feature a distinct vision, a unique voice, or an avant-garde challenge to what is expected or accepted. HWFF provides a venue for narrative, documentary, experimental and avant-garde film and video. Holly Weird is dedicated to celebrating all types of creativity from the worldwide independent film community.
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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: 05/22/2020
HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) is an annual Academy Qualifying short film festival showcasing the best and brightest short films and short screenplays from around the globe. The festival showcases the top short films produced 40 minutes or less and is looking for the best short screenplays 30 pages or less.
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Final Deadline: 06/15/2020
The Capital Fund Screenplay Competition, now in its fifth year of successes, where your scripts are read direct by investors that buy projects and fund films at the studio level domestically and abroad. Our entrants have been optioned and sold at AFM, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Shanghai Film Markets. A Different Screenplay Contest Congratulations to the 2018 Winners at Universal 2019 Competition opens September 30, 2018.
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Final Deadline: 07/26/2020
The Scriptation Showcase is officially open for submissions! Emerging writers can now enter their best screenplay, teleplay, or short. The Scriptation Showcase is the screenwriting competition that circulates winners’ scripts to the directors, showrunners, and producers behind your favorite movies and TV shows. Why submit to the Scriptation Showcase? UNPRECENDENTED EXPOSURE Never before has a screenwriting competition made your script so accessible to working industry professionals.
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Final Deadline: 07/28/2020
Film is a unique medium, and the New Renaissance Film Festival’s mission is to support and champion the best upcoming filmmakers and screenwriters in this new era, to fulfill their dream in telling their stories. We focus on the ARTIST, on the STORY and on building an international COMMUNITY of inspiring storytellers. We are not interested in following current fashions or politically motivated content.
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Final Deadline: 08/15/2020
Founded by longtime residents and movie veterans alike, the Sherman Oaks Film Festival looks to showcase the best undiscovered movies in the heart of Los Angeles. The neighborhood that was home the mall in Fast Times At Ridgemont High deserves a world class film festival! The Sherman Oaks Film Festival has a category for unproduced screenplays of any length, feature or short or in between.
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Final Deadline: 08/31/2020
Introducing Season 2 / 2020 of “Your Script Produced!” International Film / TV / Short Film Screenwriting Competition sponsored by Doval Bacall Films. The sponsor will fully finance, develop, package and produce the Grand Prize Winning Feature Script for $250,000.00. We've raised the stakes! Season 2 will accept Features, TV Scripts, AND SHORT FILM SCRIPTS! Winners will be promoted in the Variety Magazine and/or THR! Grand Prize winners can direct their own script! (Feature grand prize winner must have valid experience and approved by our sponsor.
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Final Deadline: 01/07/2019 (expired)
The Nantucket Film Festival - unique in its dedication to supporting and promoting the art of screenwriting - launched the Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition in 1996. The Festival's screenwriting focus was inspired by Nantucket's rich history as a writer's retreat and is one of the main reasons for the event's distinction as an important cultural institution.
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Final Deadline: 07/29/2019 (expired)
The Slamdance Screenplay Competition is dedicated to discovering and supporting emerging writing talent. We welcome screenplays in every genre, on any topic, from anywhere in the world. A unique feature of the competition is providing constructive feedback for every entrant. In addition to this, we also offer a more intensive coverage service for a supplementary fee.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
Industry exposure, WGAw writer assistance in polishing winning scripts and $15,000 in cash prizes for up to 19 finalists.
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Final Deadline: 05/15/2019 (expired)
The Ultimate Runway Now in our 25th year, the Austin Film Festival has been catapulting writers into life-changing careers for over two decades. Whether your dream is to sign a contract, land an agent, learn from an industry icon, or take home the coveted Bronze Typewriter Award, it’s simple: you can’t win if you don’t enter.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
We champion the struggling independent Auteur who literally does it all or who gathers a close team who contributes what's needed to get their movie make. By having in attendance, mediamakers from all across the U.S. and Canada and by bringing in experienced and award winning directors, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and stunt professionals to conduct workshops and discussion groups, thus sharing their knowledge, we are paving the way for an independent movie explosion in Oklahoma.
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Final Deadline: 08/30/2019 (expired)
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: 10/20/2019 (expired)
WriteMovies has been helping writers succeed since 1999! Now in our 20th anniversary year, we are currently accepting entries to our Fall 2019 Screenwriting Contest! ONE WEEK EXTENSION! Submissions now open until Sunday October 20th. Grand Prize: $2000 A year of free script development worth up to $3200 Guaranteed pitching to industry Exclusive prizes from InkTip Get free entry to the contest when you commission a script report, with Judging Feedback from just $89 Through our exclusive arrangement with TALENTSCOUT INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT (TSIM) we can guarantee the contest winner representation.
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Final Deadline: 11/01/2019 (expired)
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: 07/30/2019 (expired)
To promote and support new talent by creating real and original opportunities. To make Hollywood more accessible than ever before to more aspiring screenwriters, American Gem Short Script Writing Contest: presented by Filmmakers Magazine and Write Brothers, is forming strategic alliances with the powers that be in Film, TV and Literary Publishing.
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Final Deadline: 07/10/2019 (expired)
CALL FOR ENTRIES! Shriekfest, the Los Angeles Horror/SciFi Film Festival continues its tradition as Los Angeles' Premier horror film event, presenting an exciting program of films each fall with beautiful Los Angeles as its backdrop. Now, in its 19th year, Shriekfest takes place at the legendary Raleigh Studios, which is the largest independent studio operator in the country.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
After several years of hiatus we are proud to bring back LA Shorts screenplay competition. Finalists are invited to attend a table reading of the script for a live audience during LA Shorts Fest. The readings are performed by professional actors and actresses in front of an audience, who will vote on their favorites. These votes, along with the scores of the readers, determine the winner.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
To assist the aspiring screenwriter in realizing his/her dream of becoming a professional screenwriter. To eliminate industry chokepoints that stifle creativity and impede screenplay access to managers,agents & producers.
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Final Deadline: 11/01/2019 (expired)
Cinequest voted Best Film Festival by USA Today Readers. Cinequest voted Best Film Festival by USA Today Readers. The Cinequest Screenplay Competition empowers global screenwriters through discovery, recognition, and opportunity. Cinequest loves writers, and we welcome you to submit your screenplay or teleplay to our renowned competition.
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Final Deadline: 05/15/2019 (expired)
The PAGE Awards competition was established in the fall of 2003 by an alliance of Hollywood producers, agents, and development execs. Our goal: to discover the most exciting new scripts by up-and-coming writers from across the country and around the world. And due to the success of our winning writers, the PAGE Awards competition has rapidly become one of the most important sources for new screenwriting talent within the Hollywood community and worldwide.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
The mission of the Screenwriter's Challenge is to discover and support a new wave of talented storytellers from around the world. The Challenge is organized by NYC Midnight Movie Making Madness, LLC. NYC Midnight aims to provide the prizes and exposure necessary for writers to take their next big step towards writing professionally.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
The Eerie Horror Screenplay Competition offers beginning, aspiring and veteran screenwriters in the horror genre a chance to have their work recognized by people in the industry and beyond and to provide recognition and exposure for screenwriters in the horror, science fiction and suspense genres. The finalists and top 3 winning screenplays will be announced on all Eerie Horror Film Festival websites and winner's information will be forwarded to industry professionals for consideration.
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Final Deadline: 08/03/2019 (expired)
The purpose of the Big Apple Film Festival Short Script Competition is to discover an engaging, innovative and purposeful scripts to support and promote to film industry professionals.
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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: 09/17/2018 (expired)
Each script must be written in the same genre and style that would have been suitable to conform with episodes for either THE TWILIGHT ZONE or NIGHT GALLERY. More specifically this means displaying traits of either a horror or a science fiction genre, while exhibiting strong traditional or contemporary social themes. Serling taught at Ithaca College from 1967 until his death in 1975.
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Final Deadline: 07/01/2019 (expired)
The Action on Film 15th Annual Film Festival celebrates and honors WRITERS of all genres and formats like no other festival does. $2000 in CASH PRIZES for TOP Winners. Now in our 15th year, our Film Festival has garnered a solid reputation as being one of the premier Writing competitions. The AOF MegaFest has created a solid community of Filmmakers and Writers from around the globe.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
The screenplay contest is part of the annual film festival run by the Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA - see www.giaa.us). The goal is to provide recognition to writers of top-quality short screenplays, as will as short movies.
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Final Deadline: 11/11/2019 (expired)
In 2019, the Omaha Film Festival was recognized as one of the 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee by MovieMaker Magazine. The Omaha Film Festival celebrates the artistic, educational, and historical importance of motion pictures. It gives independent film artists a platform for sharing their work and creating a dialogue with the community.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
The Canadian Short Screenplay Competition, administered by Year of the Skunk Productions (Regina), and established in 2008, is the premiere script contest for short film screenplays. With over $50,000 in prizing, CSSC is the single-most competitive, prestigious, short screenplay festival in Canada open to international writers, a champion for screenwriters everywhere and a launching pad for writers' professional careers.
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Final Deadline: Contact contest for deadline info.
The London Independent Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing new emerging film talent.
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