LA Airfare and Lodging
Round-trip airfare to Los Angeles* and a two-night stay in the historic Culver Hotel, host to Hollywood legends from Judy Garland to Frank Sinatra!
WE WILL START ACCEPTING ENTRIES ON OCTOBER 1st, 2015.
The ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship is designed to jumpstart and continually develop the careers of talented screenwriters through ongoing consultation and a special trip to Los Angeles filled with meetings and introductions to key entertainment executives, producers and representatives. Applications accepted for feature film scripts and original television pilot scripts. With this fellowship, we aim to cultivate a growing community of visionary screenwriters with meaningful connections to Hollywood mentors.
Mentors
Scott Neustadter |
Screenwriter – Scott’s critically-acclaimed box office hits include The Fault In Our Stars, The Spectacular Now, and (500) Days of Summer. |
Jordan Horowitz |
Producer – best known for Academy-award nominee for Best Picture The Kids Are All Right as well as Are You Here (starring Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis) and Save The Date (Sundance Grand Jury nominee, starring Lizzy Caplan and Allison Brie). |
Michael Costigan |
Producer – the founder of COTA Films and the longtime president of Scott Free, Michael’s storied credits include Brokeback Mountain, American Gangster, Smart People, Body of Lies, The Taking of Pelham 123, Cyrus, Robin Hood, Prometheus, The East, and Out of The Furnace. |
Jen Grisanti |
International speaker Jen Grisanti is an acclaimed story and career consultant with her own firm, Jen Grisanti Consultancy Inc., and a writing instructor for Writers on the Verge at NBC. She spent 12 years as a studio executive, including working as VP of Current Programming at CBS/Paramount. She also blogs for The Huffington Post and is the author of Story Line: Finding Gold In Your Life Story; TV Writing Tool Kit: How To Write a Script That Sells; and her new book, Change Your Story, Change Your Life: A Path To Your Success. Jen’s clients have sold 27 pilots, with four going to series. She has helped several writers sign with top agencies and she has helped staff over 55 writers. |
The 2014 ScreenCraft Fellowship is presented by Celtx screenwriting and pre-production software. From your first draft to your last shot, you can do it all in Celtx, with over 3,000,000 users worldwide.
See news in IndieWIRE about last year’s winners here. We are pleased to report that all three recipients of last year’s Fellowship have secured top level representation at such companies as Paradigm Talent Agency, Anonymous Content, Resolution Agency and the Melinda Jason Company. Watch the video interview with last year’s winners here!
Up To Four Winners (TV and/or Film) Will Receive:
A $1000 Writing Grant
One-on-One Consultation
Six months of one-on-one consultation and creative development with the ScreenCraft team and network of entertainment industry mentors.
Meetings with Lit Agents
Meetings with literary agents from the big five agencies (WME, CAA, UTA, ICM, Paradigm).
Mentor Meetings
Mentor dinner with screenwriter Scott Neustadter (The Fault In Our Stars, The Spectacular Now, (500) Days of Summer) and producer Jordan Horowitz (The Kids Are All Right, Are You Here, Save The Date) and acclaimed consultant Jen Grisanti. Plus a surprise guest! You will also have a lunch meeting with Michael Colleary, UCLA screenwriting professor and writer of such blockbusters as Face/Off and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
GreenLightMyMovie.com
Our official Fellowship sponsor, GREENLIGHTMYMOVIE.COM, is offering an account with 40 free submissions included for each of the Fellowship winners. Hollywood’s Official Submission Platform for Filmmakers. Greenlightmymovie puts you and your project directly in front of Hollywood’s top agents, managers, producers, studio/cable/network executives, actors’ and directors’ companies, financiers and distributors. Submit a synopsis, video pitch, short or web series. Responses Guaranteed.
*Round trip flight is covered up to $1,000. In the event that the winner is local to southern California, winner will receive a $500 travel stipend. In the event that the winner cannot or does not wish to travel, the meetings and consultations will be coordinated via phone and/or Skype. The trip will be sometime in late March or early April 2015. All travel details will be coordinated with the fellowship recipients’ schedules, as much as is reasonably possible.
ScreenCraft Fellows are accepted into the program to develop the specific script with which they apply, but the Fellowship is designed to allow for development of additional projects.
Applications will be evaluated based on overall craft, including story, voice, originality, characterization, structure and dialogue. The judging panel, selected by ScreenCraft, will include consultant Jen Grisanti, as well as executives from Warner Bros, Lionsgate and MGM.
Testimonials
CLOSED FOR ENTRIES UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2015
TERMS:
- Applicants anywhere in the world are eligible; however the material submitted must be in English
- Early applications are due by November 1st, 2014 with entry fee of $39. Regular entries are due by December 1st, 2014, with regular application fee of $49. Late entries must be received before the final deadline on December 15th (at 11:59PM Pacific Time) with application fee of $69. The application fee must be paid in full at the time of the application submission. The application fee is non-refundable.
- Applicants must be at least 18 years of age.
- There is no application fee waiver for re-entry of new drafts or corrections (so double-check your script and application materials before submitting!) A new draft may be submitted as a separate application, to go through the evaluation process separately on its own merits.
- All submitted material must be original, and all rights must be wholly owned by the writer(s).
- Material must be submitted by the writer. Material written by writing teams must be submitted by one of the writers, with consent of the other(s). In the case that a writing team is chosen, all writing team members are eligible for the Fellowship.
- It is strongly recommended that material be registered with the WGA and/or the U.S. Copyright Office.
- Writers who have earned more than $20,000 (or equivalent currency) from professional writing services for film or TV in the preceding year are not applicable.
- There is no limit to the number of projects you may submit. If you want to submit multiple projects, they must be submitted separately with separate entry fees.
- Applicants are not required to live in or relocate to Los Angeles but must be readily accessible via phone, email and Skype for meetings at the conclusion of the Fellowship.
- Any submitted work that becomes optioned, published, produced or purchased between the time of submission and the end of the evaluation period will no longer be eligible.
- Material should be submitted in industry-standard format, font, spacing and margins.
- Adaptations are ineligible unless the underlying rights are owned by the writer or the work is in the public domain.
- Feature Screenplays longer than 140 pages, Drama Television Pilots longer than 70 pages and Comedy Television Pilots longer than 40 pages (or 70 pages double-spaced sitcom pilots) will not be eligible.
- All material must be submitted in PDF format or it will not be eligible.
Between 2 and 4 recipients will be awarded (at the sole discretion of ScreenCraft and judges). The selected Fellowship recipients will be notified by e-mail on or about January 30th, 2015. Finalists may be required to sign and return within five (5) business days of receipt a notarized Affidavit of Eligibility and a Release and any other documents that ScreenCraft or any other partner may require before receiving the award. Failure to respond to the initial notification within ten (10) days or return of notification will result in disqualification. ScreenCraft reserves the right to amend these rules at any time. Entrants may be required to submit further information to assist in the judges’ verification of eligibility. Any entrant may be deemed ineligible at the sole discretion of ScreenCraft.
COPYRIGHT AND OWNERSHIP
ScreenCraft or any other partner, employee or agent associated with this Fellowship claims no ownership nor first right of option to any original screenplay submitted to this Fellowship. All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this Fellowship remains with the original rights holders until and unless other agreements are made.
PUBLICITY
Except where prohibited by law, participation in the Fellowship constitutes each entrant’s consent to ScreenCraft and its agents’ and Fellowship sponsor’s use of entrants’ names, likenesses, photographs, and/or personal information for promotional purposes in any media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration. All uses of a entrants’ information are in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
REFUND POLICY
All entries are non-refundable.
ENTRY CONDITIONS AND RELEASE
By entering this fellowship screenwriting contest, each participant agrees to release and hold harmless ScreenCraft LLC, ScreenCraft.org, its subsidiary, parent and affiliated companies, Prize contributors, Sponsors, judges, mentors and any other organizations responsible for administering, advertising or promoting the Contest and Promotion, and every one of their respective members, directors, employees, agents and representatives (collectively, the “Released Parties”) past and present from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liability, including but not limited to damages and negligence to property and persons, including but not limited to invasion of privacy, defamation, slander, libel, violation of right of publicity, copyright, infringement of trademark or other intellectual property rights relating to a participant’s Entry, participation in the Promotion and/or acceptance or use or misuse of Prize; provided however, that such release will not apply to any commercial exploitation of the script by a Released Party in violation of your rights under applicable copyright law; and (c) indemnify, defend and hold harmless the ScreenCraft.org and its Sponsor, agents and employees from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liabilities (including reasonable attorneys fees) relating to an entrant’s participation in the Contest and/or entrant’s use or misuse of Prize.
