SCREENPLAY CONTESTS

Screenplay Contests offer everything from a first-look deal at a studio to more than $5 million in cash prizes. In recent years, more scripts have been found through contests than ever before. Stolen Summer, Finding Forrester, The Laramie Project, Blue Car, Boys Don't Cry, Love & Basketball, Requiem for a Dream, and Bottle Rocket were all made from scripts that won film contests. What is the reason for this trend?

The answer is simple. It takes one and a half to two hours to read a script and from $60 to $100 to critique it. Producers don't have time to read scripts themselves; they hire someone to do it. As a result, many Hollywood producers and entertainment companies simply don't bother with outside scripts. They already have relationships with writers, agents, and managers, so they get scripts through authorized channels. "But my script is better than those!" you cry. It may well be, but they can't afford the time and energy to read the hundred others to get to yours. Hollywood knows it can't afford to ignore new talent, so contests provide a buffer between them and the unknown writer. Contests may be the new writer's best route to getting noticed.

Pay close attention to the major contests marked with These are the most influential. A win or even high placement in any of them will likely get you an agent. Of course these are also the most competitive.

Acclaim Film

Mission Statement: Our affiliated production companies will have the chance to consider the scripts of the winners, runners-up, finalists, and semifinalists for our film and TV contests. The companies already affiliated with us include Good Machine (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Recorded Picture Company (Naked Lunch, The Last Emperor), and the Donners' Company (Lethal Weapon series, X-Men).

Deadlines: Early: February 8; Standard: March 19;

Final: April 23

Entry fees: Early: $45; Standard: $55; Final: $60

Categories: All genres

Prizes: First Place: $1,000 cash; Second Place: Up-to-date books on writing and selling scripts. All winners and finalists may receive consideration by established production companies and agencies.

Previous Winners: First Place: Ghost of the Crossroads by Michael Spohr Set in the Mississippi Delta circa 1940, it follows the friendship between a former Negro League ballplayer and a mysterious white wanderer. Second Place: Maybe in My Next Life by Doreen Orion To find the source of her disastrous love life, a young woman uses a forbidden artifact to travel to past lives — only to discover she's been making the same stupid mistake since time began. THIRD PLACE: T & A by Scott F. Butler In the summer of 1979, Billy O'Keefe, a romantic but ineffectual young man of privilege, is compelled to embark upon a bizarre odyssey to prove his manhood to his future father-in-law, an eccentric self-made billionaire.

Contact Information: 300 Central Ave., Ste. 501, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 (727) 502-9049 Phone

Web: www.acclaimtv.netfirms.com

E-mail: acclaimtv@go.com

Actors' Choice Awards

Mission Statement: Five talented attendees of the Screenwriting Symposium or Producers Seminar will receive an SCSFe (Screenwriters Conference in Santa Fe) Actors' Choice Award based on the first ten pages of their screenplays. These winning scenes will be presented in live readings by our actor-judges during the Annual Screenwriters Conference in Santa Fe. A brief critique session moderated by Karen Jones Meadows will follow each reading.

Writing scripts is very much like choreographing to music. There are measured scenes that go on for a certain amount of time, with a beginning, middle, and end.

–JOAN TEWKESBURY, screenwriter,Nashville

Deadline: April 28

Entry fee: $25 plus conference attendance

Categories: All genres; first ten pages of each script only

Prizes: Winners will receive Final Draft software and certificates of achievement from SCSFe. In addition, their winning scenes will be forwarded to the producers attending the Producers Seminar, and presented in live readings at the Actors' Choice Awards ceremony.

Previous Winners:

Drumsticks by Lyn Davis, Albuquerque, NM La Llorona by Kristin Goodman, Chicago, IL The Faith Equations by David Hames, Colorado Springs, CO Fast One by Paul Taegel, Los Angeles, CA Dead Alice by Charlie Tramontana, West Pittston, PA

Contact Information: The Screenwriting Conference in Santa Fe, P.O. Box 29762, Santa Fe, NM 87592

(866) 424-1501 Phone

(505) 424-8207 Fax

Web: www.scsfe.com

E-mail: writeon@scsfe.com

AFC Storytelling International Screenwriting Competition

Mission Statement: The mission of the African Film Commission (AFC) is to assist in the development of the African film industry. The AFC works with African governments and leaders to establish film commissions in their respective regions or countries, and promotes education, awareness, and collaboration throughout the continent of Africa.

Deadline: March 31

Entry fee: $30

Categories: Scripts with African content

Prizes: First Prize: $5,000 plus an all-expenses-paid one-week trip to Los Angeles to collect the AFC Screenwriting Award and to be officially introduced to the Hollywood international film community; Second Prize: $3,500 along with an AFC Award; Third Prize: $2,000 along with an AFC Award

Contact Information: 8306 Wilshire Boulevard #330, Beverly Hills, CA 90211

(310) 770-6246 Phone

Web: www.africanfilmcommission.org

E-mail: info@africanfilmcommission.org

Mission Statement: A.K.A Shriekfest is a festival dedicated to discovering new and overlooked artists. The point of the festival is to help filmmakers by letting as many people see...