Big Apple Film Festival
Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Fall 2020
Reads in Coverfly
Active Since 2003
Networking opportunities include Agents and Managers Pitch Festival, panels, receptions, and year round mentorship and pitch sessions.
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About

Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition (Fall Edition) takes place in the heart of NYC.

BAFF, named one of MovieMaker Magazine's top "25 Film Festivals Worth The Entry Fee,” top "25 Coolest Film Festivals,”, CBS New York's "Best Film Festivals in New York...,” and FilmFreeway's "Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals", is dedicated to showcasing, highlighting and supporting the most innovative, purposeful and influential filmmakers and screenwriters.

Credits of our screenplay competition readers/judges include:

  • Script analyst who has provided coverage for outlets including HBO, Sony International, Amazon and Sundance Feature Lab, instructor for UCLA MFA program, as well as mentor for CineStory TV writers program
  • Script analyst providing coverage for Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Academy Nicholl Fellowship, NBC/Universal Studios Writers Program, Writers Guild of America-West, Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Competition
  • script reader previously forWarner Brothers, assisted in creative development at New Line Cinemas and NBCUniversal, consulted writers who have placed as Academy Nicholl Fellowship semifinalists
  • Tribeca Film Festival Shorts Filmmaker Coordinator, Toronto International Film Festival Short Cuts Pre-Screener, Nashville Film Festival Lead Short Film Programmer, Palm Springs Internation ShortFest Film Programmer
  • writer/producer who has had films released by Disney, Starz Network and Warner Home Video
  • writer for ABC, who has previously written and developed projects for Spike TV and The Weinstein Company
  • writer/director who has had films released by Warner Brothers, Paramount and HBO
  • former producer for MTV, Showtime, Paramount, Viacom, Disney and reader previously for Fox Studios (Australia), and screenplay competitions including PAGE, Final Draft's Big Break, Screencraft, Nantucket.
  • script reader previously for Tri-Coast Worldwide and Rocksalt Releasing
  • script reader previously for Pantheon Entertainment
  • Tribeca Film Festival award winner
    and more...

PREVIOUS SCREENPLAY COMPETITION WINNERS AND FINALISTS INCLUDE: Shia LaBeouf (SAG Award, People's Choice Award and Independent Spirit Award nominee), Daniel Talbott (writer ABC's "The Conners", "The Mist" produced by The Weinstein Company and Spike TV), Michael Vaynberg (writer/director Cannes Film Festival selection "9.8 m/s²"), Shruti Tewari (member of the Sundance Collab Directing Program), Bill Brock (Semi-Finalist - Stage 32 Feature Screenwriting Contest), Ken Krauss (writer "Tom, Dick, & Harriet" - Hallmark Channel), Kevin Emerson (author of over twenty novels published by HarperCollins, Random House, Scholastic), Linda Shayne (writer/director "Undercover Kid" released by WARNER BROTHERS, HBO Family, "Little Ghost,” distributed by PARAMOUNT video airing on HBO), Chris Phillips (Finalist - Sundance Institute Development Track, Award for Overall Excellence in Playwriting-New York International Fringe Festival), Maia Henkin (Second Round Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, repped by Abrams Artists Agency), and many more...

ABOUT OUR FILM AND SCREENWRITING NETWORKING CONFERENCES:

All submitters to the festival, whether their project is selected or not selected, will receive COMPLIMENTARY admission to the Big Apple Film Festival Networking conferences, taking place November 13-15, 2020.

The purpose of the conferences is to provide an opportunity for filmmakers and screenwriters to receive valuable information from industry professionals through a series of panel discussions, as well as an opportunity for attendees to participate in Q and A’s, networking sessions and nightly receptions.

Past speakers include: representatives from HBO, NBCUniversal, Academy Award winning Killer Films, 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), StoneStreet Studios, Endeavor Content, Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning filmmaker, Emmy Award winning screenwriter, Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW alumni and more…

SPEAKERS TO BE ANNOUNCED IN NOVEMBER...

Benefits

In partnership with WeScreenplay, winning scripts will be reviewed by readers who have read for agencies, studios, management companies, and/or production companies. Each review will include: 4 pages of detailed notes, Character, Plot, Structure, Dialogue, and Concept Analysis, A Pass, Consider, or Recommend rating, An overall impression that will highlight extra factors like voice, Qualitative scores to help compare your progress, Your analyst’s bio. WeScreenplay has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, IMDb, TheWrap, and IndieWire.

Screenplay competition winners will receive the opportunity to pitch their script to 5 production companies, agents and other industry representatives through Virtual PitchFest, including NBC Universal, Warner Bros., UTA, The Gersh Agency, and many more.

Feature length screenplay winners will also receive an InkTip Script Listing to promote themselves and their scripts to InkTip’s entire network of producers, managers, and agents. Companies who are InkTip members include: ABC, Anonymous Content, APA, CBS Films, HBO Films, and many more.

Screenplay Competition winners will receive an all access badge to Big Apple Film Festival events, including screenings, networking conferences and receptions.

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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Spring 2025 Winners on Coverfly

Top 1%
Feature  · Family  · 91 Pages
When a youth orchestra is stranded in a small town during a snowstorm, they defy the local mayor's 'no music' law, sparking a powerful bond with the community and a shared journey of healing through music.
  • Verified WGA Member
Atlanta, GA
Ric is a member of AEA, the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, and the WGA. He has nearly 120 Film and TV credits as an actor and has been the head writer for two children's TV series, Reality Check and The Reppies, plus two musical plays in association with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The Journey of Sir Douglas Fir: A Reader's Musical, and Second Chance Christmas...
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Ernest Livingston and the Night's Ichor Diamond
Private
Podcast  · Adventure  · 32 Pages
In 1910s New York, radio serial-esque adventurer Ernest Livingston and his uptight business partner Malak Sharif discover a mysterious diamond that curses all who touch it. Now, strange, feathery demons are hunting them down. Their only hope of breaking the curse is to retrieve the diamond from its buyer, which takes them on a globe-trotting adventu...
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Los Angeles, California
Madelaine Guthrie is a proud San Franciscan (but conceived in Antarctica, where Frankensteins’ Monster died), and comes from proud generations of willfully ignoring reality and making the wrong decision on purpose. She may have driven through a house (ONCE), but at least she doesn’t throw fake funerals so the government doesn’t know when she’s actua...
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Top 1%
Feature  · Historical  · 115 Pages
England. 866 A.D. Amid Norse invasion, three Anglo-Saxon men and a woman, must confront the darkness of man, as they undertake a dangerous journey to deliver an ancient Christian relic to safety. A medieval 'Apocalypse Now'
London, GB
Richard Mundy is a British screenwriter and director. His writing has been recognised by Atlanta Film Festival, Outstanding Screenplays, The Finish Line Script Competition, The Black List, The Red List, Barnstorm Fest, ISA Fast Track Top 50, Big Apple Film Festival, Manchester Film Festival, Table Read My Screenplay and Final Draft Big Break. Ric...
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Announcements

Oct 23rd
Finalists
Oct 23rd
Semifinalists

Rules

1. Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition accepts feature length screenplays in the following categories(drama, comedy, action/adventure, historical, science fiction, women screenwriters, LGBTQ, and horror/thriller), as well as short scripts and TV/web series pilot scripts in the following categories(drama, comedy and horror/thriller). Feature length scripts must be a minimum of 60 pages and no longer than 150 pages. Short script submissions and TV/web series pilot scripts must under 60 pages.

2. Submitted screenplays can not 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.

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