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So You Want To Enter a Screenwriting Contest?

by Jason Hellerman on November 18, 2014

It has never been easier to get someone to read your screenplay. I repeat, it has never, in the history of mankind, been easier to get someone to read your screenplay.  The Internet has truly changed the game in entertainment and now, more than ever, it's the ideal place to get discovered. In the last 25 years thousands of screenplay contests have popped up, all with the same idea that they'll bee able to break a writer into Hollywood, forever changing the course of events in that special person's life. Even more of them promise industry reads, contact with agents, managers, and producers.

With so many choices out there who can you trust?

When I left Boston University with my MFA in Screenwriting and came to L.A. I was on the same journey as many of you - desperate to find representation and people to try to sell my ideas. I was told there were only three contests that were truly worth their weight when it came to across-the-board industry prestige.

1. The Nicholl Fellowship

I applied to the Nicholl Fellowship once and made it into the quarterfinals with my screenplay, Shovel Buddies. It was a script I was really proud of but in the end, despite receiving positive reviews, it never made it further. Plenty of great scripts have won the Nicholl and gone on to great things. One thing is for sure, the contest gives out a ton of money and certainly has the most prestige to go along with it. To place you need to be in the top ten . . . usually out of over seven thousand entries.

2. The Austin Film Festival

I never entered Austin so I can only speak through the positive effect it had on our most recent comedy winner, Jared Frieder. Jared won ScreenCraft's Comedy Contest and the next month won Austin. He was able to find management right out of the gate and Austin went a long way toward getting him meetings at all the top agencies.

3. Any TV Network's Workshop

We're talking WB, NBC Universal, CBS, and you can really loop in the Humanitas Prize here as well. These contests usually focus on finding diverse writers but when I entered Humanitas it was when I was a student (they have a student-only section). These contests are incredibly competitive and have thousands of entries. It's important to have great samples but a lot of these require recommendation letters. It's nice to have a coach or a relative write them, but it matters even more if you've worked in Hollywood for a few years and can get a boss with some clout to be your advocate.

So what about the rest? 

If you've spent any time researching, you'll see that there are a ton more contests out there. Personally speaking, I've done the Final Draft Big Break contest, where I made the Top 25 for Shovel Buddies. I've had close friends who swear by Trackingboard.com's contest and I spent enough time working and reading scripts to know most of those writers get reps and see their work hit the town.

After spending a lot of money on contests, Shovel Buddies found its home on The Black List website. I put it up and paid for a reading. After it got rated highly I paid for two more. Eventually it became one of the most downloaded scripts on the site and when it was named a "Script Of The Week" I signed with agents and managers. It was great but all in all I paid for 11 months of hosting it on the site plus 3 reads, adding up to $425. It was money well spent in retrospect, but a cost still worth considering, particularly for budget-conscious writers (in other words, all of us).

What's the ScreenCraft Fellowship?

At ScreenCraft we're trying to help writers from all over the globe not only get read but achieve success within the industry. We're flying up to four of them to Los Angeles, setting them up with a hotel, meetings, and a dinner with industry experts where they can ask questions and gain insight on to the way things work. Plus, there's CASH!!!

One of the things that's important for people to succeed is not only having a great screenplay but also the right connections to get read. With this contest we're handing the scripts over to people that can make a difference and take you to the next level. Last year all of the recipients signed with managers /agencies and are well on their way to success.

What's this all mean?

Regardless of where you enter, you need to have the best script possible AND you have to have and idea of what you're working on next. Many writers score big with the contests above and never go anywhere. The only true way to succeed is to continue producing great material that no one can ignore!

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