Screenwriting contests have grown essential for screenwriters, from beginners to mid-career pros, because they are more accessible than festival labs, simpler to win than most studio writing programs, and more professionally lucrative than many scholarships. However, there are many misunderstandings about what they should do and uncertainties about what they can do.
Here is a detailed explanation of competitive screenwriting programs, including everything from what you can learn from them to how to avoid competitions that aren’t worth your time or money to how to turn placements and victories into professional advancement.
Establish Your Expectations
There are many reasons to compete in top screenplay competitions, as well as many reasons not to. There are hundreds of screenwriters who spend money every year hoping for a success to make it all worthwhile, for every Destin Daniel Cretton, whose career was started when his script for Short Term 12 received a coveted Academy Nicholl Fellowship in 2010. And repeating the procedure without making any changes when a victory doesn’t materialize.
The “golden ticket delusion” may be one of the most pervasive myths around screenwriting contests. This idea that winning a good competition is a career panacea is based on a misperception of how competitions operate. As though establishing those relationships, receiving that prize money or materials package, and answering that first rush of industry calls will prepare you for a career free of hustles. In actuality, most screenplay contests aren’t designed to help people start their careers.
Cretton is an ideal example. After receiving the Nicholl Fellowship, he moved from being a “unknown” director to an independent sensation overnight. In actuality, he had already completed film school, interned at Nickelodeon, created a short that took home the Sundance jury award, and hired a management by the time he joined the competition. All of these things helped him turn his victory into the job he has today.
The lesson is to know what you can anticipate when you join contests and to have strategies in place to turn possible victories and positions into gold, rather than to somehow be established before you enter.
Recognize the Facts
What specifically may screenwriters hope to gain from competing? The ways that competitions may help authors differ greatly. Each of its 150 qualifying events has a distinct profile that we maintain, complete with tabs on prices and deadlines, benefits, and the performance of the previous year’s winners. In general, screenwriting contests provide five different kinds of advantages:
Obtaining Representation
Being represented by a manager or agency is the greatest method to have access to opportunities in the business. Without a committed, well-connected industry specialist on your side, you would have missed a lot of possibilities. TV writer Amy Hartman signed with a literary management at Anonymous Content after finishing as a semifinalist in Final Draft’s Big Break competition.
Since managers and agents have different roles to play, it’s critical to consider the type of relationship you want to build and the direction you hope to achieve. All of the leading agencies and management companies participate in the industry-intensive ScreenCraft Fellowship, which supports screenwriters at every level of their careers. From Gersh to Zero Gravity and WME, all of the past Fellowship winners signed with representation right out of the gate.
A press release exposing you and your idea to their network of industry contacts—which includes thousands of Hollywood executives, managers, producers, and agents—is distributed by other contests, such as the TITAN Awards.
Choosing to
Getting their work optioned for development is the most obvious advantage a screenwriter may expect to obtain from winning a screenwriting competition. There are several exceptions, even though very few screenplay contests promise that winning scripts would be developed. For instance, you may earn a first look distribution agreement with Gravitas Ventures by winning the Narrative Feature Competition at the annual Austin Film Festival Writer’s Conference.
In general, though, keep an eye out for hints about a competition’s industry ties, jury composition, and the extent to which its finalists are promoted. All of them raise the likelihood that post-placement or victory buzz may be used to close a transaction.
Mentoring
Screenwriters may undoubtedly be conscientious about studying the art and the nuances of the business, but receiving mentorship makes the learning process much more impactful. You have the opportunity to work on your current project with someone who is not only knowledgeable about the field but also particularly interested in your work by entering competitions that provide mentoring chances with specialists in the field, such as development executives or well-known screenwriters.
This is something that many contests do. In order to assist authors in advancing their careers, Shore Scripts provides mentorship to its Feature, TV Pilot, and Short Film Fund recipients. “ScreenCraft First Look Bootcamp,” an optional add-on prize category offered by ScreenCraft, provides authors with the opportunity to improve their work under the direction of a specialist in the field.