May 21st
Early Discount
Jun 10th
Coverfly Discount
Jun 30th
BAFF Discount
Jul 22nd
Final Discount
Jul 31st
FINAL Entry
Big Apple Film Festival
Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Fall 2025
Active Since 2003
Networking opportunities include Industry Pitch Festival, panels, receptions, and year round mentorship and pitch sessions.
Accepting Features, TV Pilots, Shorts, and Web Series
Enter Now
Enter on or before May 21st to save $5

About

2025 Big Apple Film Festival & Screenplay Competition (Fall Edition)



Festival Dates: November 10–13, 2025
Location: Look Dine-In Cinemas, NYC


Launch your writing career in NYC.

Now in its 22nd year, the Big Apple Film Festival (BAFF) is a vibrant celebration of bold, original storytelling. Our Screenplay Competition connects emerging writers with a network of industry professionals, mentors, and decision-makers through live events, pitch opportunities, and year-round programming.

Whether you're looking for feedback, exposure, or representation, this is your chance to be part of New York City's premiere screenwriting community.


Screenplay Competition Benefits

All submitters receive:

✔️ Complimentary access to select BAFF virtual networking & mentorship events
✔️ Eligibility for inclusion in the Fall 2025 BAFF Awards Presentation
✔️ Year-round career development opportunities
✔️ Opportunity to register for virtual pitch sessions


Accepted formats: Features, Pilots, Shorts, Episodic, TV/Web Series, as well as SPOTLIGHT CATEGORIES: Women Screenwriters and First Time Screenwriters


Industry Pitch Festival (Optional)

Writers have the opportunity to upgrade to a discounted All Access Pass for our Virtual Industry Pitch Festival, held in November 2025.

Includes:
✅ 4 Small-Group Pitch Sessions with execs, reps & producers
✅ Hosted by professionals from top-tier companies (past hosts: The Gersh Agency, WME, 3 Arts, Magnolia, Zero Gravity, and more)
✅ Direct pitching. No screen required to advance.

Even if your script doesn’t place in the competition, you keep your pitch access.


Connected to Industry. Grounded in Opportunity.

Throughout the year, BAFF hosts virtual networking and mentorship sessions designed to help writers build relationships, get advice, and grow their careers.

Previous speakers and mentors have included representatives from:
Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Apple TV+, Sony Pictures, Hulu, NBCUniversal, Anonymous Content, Gersh, WME, A3 Artists Agency, and many more.

See the upcoming schedule ➝


Festival Alumni & Featured Work

Over the years, BAFF has showcased the work of talented filmmakers and screenwriters—many of whom have earned major industry recognition.

Big Apple Film Festival has been proud to feature or select projects such as:

  • I’M NOT A ROBOT – BAFF selection and Oscar® winner for Best Live Action Short

    ●IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU  BAFF selection and Oscar® winner for Animated Short

  • ●THE LIVING WAKE – Starring Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Jim Gaffigan

  • ●SWEETWATER – Released by Universal Pictures, starring Golden Globe Award winner Jeremy Piven and Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss

    ●AMERIKATSI – Armenian Oscar submission, Nationwide theatrical release

    ●THE SHEPHERD – Shortlisted for Oscar, distributed by Disney+, produced by Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón

While these projects were not developed through BAFF, we’re honored to have supported their creators early in their journeys.


✍️ Past Screenplay Participants Include:

Writers with credits at Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Warner Bros., Lifetime, Paramount+, and more, including:

  • ● Shia LaBeouf – Honey BoyThe Peanut Butter Falcon

    Ron Friedman - Emmy nominee and WGA Award winner

  • Elizabeth Page – 6x Emmy & 3x WGA Award Winner (All My ChildrenGeneral Hospital)

  • ● Caytha Jentis – The Other F Word (Amazon), Bad Parents

  • ● Mike Gerbino – Freelance (Apple TV, Gravitas Ventures)

  • ● Emily Lansbury – Story of a Girl, directed by Kyra Sedgwick, starring Kevin Bacon

  • ● Leonora Pitts – For All MankindTogethernessRoom 104

  • ● Geoffrey Colo – Emmy-nominated producer (House M.D., Marvel Television)

  • Linda Shayne – Writer/Director (Undercover KidLittle Ghost, Warner Bros./Paramount)

    Kent Moran - Feature films have been released by Warner Brothers, Netflix, Showtime, Paramount+, Starz, Apple, Hulu, Amazon, Hallmark, Lifetime, LMN, Regal Cinemas

    ● Matt Giacheri - produced projects for NETFLIX, Amazon

… and many more with award-winning credits across film, television, streaming, and publishing.


What Writers Are Saying
“Since being a finalist with Big Apple, I was signed by A3 and have taken meetings with Starz, Lionsgate, and Anonymous Content.”
— Maia Henkin

“My script became a Coverfly Red List finalist after BAFF and helped me land a literary manager.
— Janet J. Lawler

“I met my agent through a BAFF pitch session. This festival was career-changing.”
— Andrea Careri


Submit Now. Be Seen. Be Heard.

Whether you’re seeking exposure, reps, or your first industry meeting, BAFF gives you a platform to be taken seriously.

✨ Every submission is a step toward opportunity—no matter where you are in your career.

Prices & Deadlines

May 21st
Early Discount
Jun 10th
Coverfly Discount
Jun 30th
BAFF Discount
Jul 22nd
Final Discount
Jul 31st
FINAL Entry
WOMEN SCREENWRITERS (any format)
$55.00
$60.00
$65.00
$70.00
$75.00
WOMEN SCREENWRITERS+PITCH FESTIVAL REGISTRATION
$175.00
$180.00
$185.00
$190.00
$195.00
FIRST TIME SCREENWRITERS (any format)
$55.00
$60.00
$65.00
$70.00
$75.00
FIRST TIME SCREENWRITERS+PITCH FESTIVAL REGISTRATION
$175.00
$180.00
$185.00
$190.00
$195.00
FEATURE SCREENPLAY
$55.00
$60.00
$65.00
$70.00
$75.00
FEATURE SCREENPLAY+PITCH FESTIVAL REGISTRATION
$175.00
$180.00
$185.00
$190.00
$195.00
SHORT SCRIPT
$50.00
$55.00
$60.00
$65.00
$70.00
SHORT SCRIPT+PITCH FESTIVAL REGISTRATION
$170.00
$175.00
$180.00
$185.00
$190.00
EPISODIC/SERIES PILOT SCRIPT
$50.00
$55.00
$60.00
$65.00
$70.00
EPISODIC/SERIES PILOT SCRIPT+PITCH FESTIVAL REGISTRATION
$170.00
$175.00
$180.00
$185.00
$190.00

Benefits

1. Screenplay winners in each category will receive small group meetings with established producers and other industry representatives. These industry professionals will be selected from BAFF alumni and other members of our industry network (screenplay winners will receive information on this year's selected industry reps in the weeks following the festival).


Our network of professionals from previous years have included representatives from: HBO, NBCUniversal, Academy Award winning Killer Films, William Morris Endeavor Agency, The Gersh Agency, APA Agency, Magnolia Pictures, Film Rise(distributor of numerous Oscar Award winning and Emmy Award winning films), Emmy Award winning Gigantic Productions, Cinepointe Advisors(legal counsel on numerous Oscar nominated films), Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning filmmakers, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning screenwriters, Filmmakers with projects released through Sony, Disney, Lions Gate, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Amazon Studios, Hulu, and theatrically, as well as staff writers for CBS, ABC, Lifetime, and more... 


These meetings are designed to provide winning screenwriters with direct access and live interaction with industry professionals to provide strategies, guidance and mentorship to emerging screenwriters. 


Conferences take place virtually allowing participants to join remotely. 


2. Winning screenplays will be promoted to Big Apple Film Festival's list of alumni filmmakers, many of which include filmmakers who have had film released theatrically, as well as on numerous major distribution platforms, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Apple TV, NBCUniveral and more...


3. Winners will receive a complimentary all access badge to Big Apple Film Festival film screenings, access to select industry networking and mentorship sessions and receptions.


4. Winners will receive a complimentary InkTip listing, which will provide access to InkTip's entire network of producers, filmmakers, agents and managers. Producers have made over 400 films discovered thru InkTip.

Writer Success

My feature script The Tenant recently became a finalist in the Big Apple Film Festival. This accolade moved my script onto Coverfly's Red List. This helped in querying representation and getting signed by a literary manager.
Janet J. Lawler
Spring 2022 Finalist
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Coverfly Program Insights
Coverfly vets all programs on its platform, but not every program is right for every writer. Program Insights help you decide where to submit your work.

Spring 2025 Honorable Mentions on Coverfly

Top 4%
TV Script  · Comedy  · 60 Pages
"The Office" meets Marvel Studios in this backstage satire of the superhero industry. A homeless grad student finds herself and saves the studio, by calling on superheroes of the Ancient World.
Jay Rath is a cartoonist and writer, known for his contributions to The Onion and MAD magazine. He's also worked in indie film and theater, notably his world premiere of Orson Welles' only stageplay, "Bright Lucifer." Besides special projects for The Onion, as cofounder of The Radio Pirates comedy troupe he's created comedy-variety series and countl...
Show more
Night and Descartes
Private
TV Script  · Sci-fi  · 56 Pages
Emily is a crippled psychologist with PTSD, and she's about to discover that the world she ran away from might be better left repressed.
Mitchell, SD
Steve Epp studied film production at the Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2016, his first completed feature, Dream Screen, was optioned by Bohemia Group Originals out of Los Angeles, for whom he adapted the graphic novel, Gearz, of Bluewater Productions, into an action/comedy feature, SUPERficial. Steve has since created numerous original ...
Show more
Top 18%
Feature  · Horror  · 90 Pages
At prom, perfectionist Caroline ’Caz’ and her friends follow an old superstition of wishing for their dreams, at the bust of the mysterious former student Octavius. Now they must confront distorted versions of their dreams before the ghost of Octavius ​​kills them one by one, while the world looks on outside.
Copenhagen, DK
Philip is a Danish-Canadian writer-director with a gritty Scandivian genre sensibility, but a large empathetic Canadian heart. Nominated for both a Danish ACADEMY AWARD (Robert) and EMMY (TV-prisen). Director of the first Danish film on Disney+, Amblin-esque Halloween film 'The Seekers: Thrill Night (Forsvundet til Halloween)', and the Alf-like su...
Show more
See Other Placements

Announcements

Oct 17th
Quarterfinalists
Oct 24th
Semifinalists
Oct 30th
Finalists
Nov 5th
Winners

Rules

1. Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition accepts submissions as feature length screenplays, series/episodic pilot scripts and short scripts. Feature length scripts must be a minimum of 60 pages and no longer than 120 pages. Series/episodic and short scripts must under 60 pages. 


2. Submitted screenplays cannot have been optioned, purchased, or otherwise produced at the time of submission. 


3. Writers may submit as many screenplays as they’d like to the competition, however each script requires a separate application and payment.


4.All entries must be submitted in English. 


5. Submissions must include the title, author(s) and any relevant registration or copyright information. 


6. Screenplays must be submitted in PDF or MS WORD.


7. All screenplays are considered complete once they are received by the Big Apple Film Festival. No revisions or updated copies will be accepted.


8. Submission fees are non-refundable.


9. Please be sure to read all rules and regulations prior to submitting your project.


10. SUBMITTERS MUST HOLD ALL NECESSARY RIGHTS AND CLEARANCES TO ALL  MATERIAL SUBMITTED TO BIG APPLE FILM FESTIVAL, LLC


11. The organizers of the Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition wish to make it clear that while we welcome and appreciate all submissions, we are unable to provide individualized feedback on entries. Furthermore, the selection process is subjective and may involve various factors. BAFF is under no obligation to provide feedback or comments regarding submitted projects to any applicant. As such, Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition is not obligated to explain why a particular project was not selected for inclusion in the festival, or why a particular project did not advance in our screenplay competition. Our decisions are final and not open to negotiation or appeal.


12. All submitters who register for a prepaid All Access Pitch Festival Pass at the time of entry, will automatically receive their pass in the fall of 2025, regardless of whether or not their project advances in the screenplay competition.


13. Entrants hereby acknowledge and agree that the identities, business affiliations, and contact information of script readers shall remain strictly confidential and will not be disclosed under any circumstances to the submitter.


14. Big Apple Film Festival reserves the right to withdraw any project from our festival program or entry pool at any time for any reason we deem necessary.


15. All information provided on this page may be subject to change, including but not limited to: event dates, event details, networking opportunities, event format, guest speakers, jurors, awards, venue, etc. 


16. All questions or concerns may be forwarded to general@bigapplefilmfestival.com.

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