HollyShorts
HollyShorts Screenwriting Competition
2020
Reads in Coverfly
Active Since 2012
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About

HollyShorts Film Festival is an annual, academy award qualifying short film festival showcasing the best and brightest short films and short screenplays from around the globe. The festival is looking for the best short screenplays 30 pages or less.

The 7th annual HollyShorts Screenplay Contest is part of the 14th annual HollyShorts Film Festival (August 13-22, 2020). 

All Semi Finalists will be announced and invited to the festival with an all access pass.

Top 3 screenplays will be announced/awarded at the HollyShorts Awards Ceremony and the winning scripts receives production deals courtesy of The Seattle Film Summit. Top 3 winners receive Final Draft software. The completed short will screen at the 2021 HollyShorts Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatres and receive automatic distribution on Bitpix!

Benefits

HollyShorts is an Academy Qualifying Festival

Best Short Screenplay -- Cash: $10,000 + Production and Film Festival Screening

  • The first place winning short screenplay will get produced by our production company sponsor Seattle Film Summit, to be completed and screen at the HollyShorts Film Festival in 2021.
  • The short based on the winning script will be Academy Awards Qualifying!
  • Finished film will get an automatic screening at HollyShorts!
  • Receive a meeting with Buffalo 8.
  • Sponsor: Seattle Film Summit Cash Award Value: 10,000 U.S. Dollar Value of Goods/Services: 10,000 U.S. Dollar
  • All completed winning scripts get automatic distribution on Bitpix.

2nd Place

  • Final Draft Software Sponsor: Final Draft Value of Goods/Services: 300 U.S. Dollar

3rd Place

  • Final Draft software prize Sponsor: Final Draft Value of Goods/Services: 300 U.S. Dollar Quarter and Semi Finalists 

Film Augusta Prize

  • $10,000 value in production to make the winning screenplay in Augusta, GA. Completed film will screen at HSFF.

Best Female Short Script -- Cash: $1,000

  • Cash Prize -- $1,000
  • Production and camera equipment to shoot the short film

All semi-finalists are invited to attend the festival, all access pass. Value of Goods/Services: 600 U.S. Dollar

Writer Success

I attended the festival and met several writers, directors and producers. It's one of a handful of film festivals that offers events geared to writers - so, thank you HollyShorts!
Michael Clifton
2024 Finalist
By placing as a finalist at HollyShorts, I was able to receive valuable credibility as a writer.
Robert Sartori
2023 Finalist
Oftentimes, I was intimidated to enter screenwriting competitions for a couple of reasons. I was a fiction author transitioning to screenwriting, and I'm a self-taught screenwriter who just started taking occasional virtual classes. I didn't have huge expectations when I entered a few competitions but Hollyshorts gave me the best reward -- validation. That's why I took the time to fly out and attend their awards ceremony and my first film festival. I felt like I could finally call myself a screenwriter and even put it on my new business card! Everyone at Hollyshorts was so friendly, professional, and they love movies! They told me my Finalist placement was a great start for a new screenwriter. I couldn't agree more and I am definitely less afraid when I press submit.
Monique Hayes
2022 Finalist
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2024 Winners on Coverfly

Top 1%
Short  · Drama  · 14 Pages
A young inventor turned her dad into a duck. By accident. Oops. Can she get him back before the big father/daughter dance at school -- and without mom finding out?
Portland, OR
Shaun is a thoughtful dreamer who loves to tell inventive tales that are character-driven with heart. In addition to screenplays, he also likes to write comics and picture books.
BABKA (Hollyshorts screenplay)
Private
Short  · Unknown  · 15 Pages
This logline was hidden by the writer.
New York, NY
Serena Dykman is a New York-based filmmaker and graduate from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Film and Television program. Her work, ranging from comedy to drama and documentary, has won her over 40 awards in the past four years. Her films THE DOORMAN, BED BUGS & COMPANY, and WELCOME have been selected in over 80 film festivals around the world, incl...
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Top 1%
Short  · Drama  · 14 Pages
13-year-old Elly's first real date takes a turn for the worse when the Iranian police show up to arrest her.
Born and raised in the middle of the desert in Iran, Sheida is a writer/director currently based in Prague. Like most Iranians, she has an obsession with the subjects of memory, freedom, captivity, and choice. She also has a background in Architecture, an MA in Film Studies from Tehran University, and a second MFA in Film Directing - Fiction from F...
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Announcements

Sep 25th
Semifinalists
Oct 23rd
Finalists
Nov 15th
Winners

Rules

At the program's request, Coverfly will automatically remove your title page for you if you include one when submitting to this program.

All entries submitted are eligible to win the top prizes. Employees (and their immediate families (parent, spouse, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) and those living in their same households, whether or not related) of HollyShorts and any of their respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and advertising and promotion agencies or festival sponsors, are not eligible to win. There is no limit on the number of short screenplays you can submit; however, each short screenplay submitted by you must be original and different from any other short screenplay submitted by you, submitted separately and accompanied by its own completed submission form and participant agreement. Short screenplays may be a maximum of 30 pages, must be in English and must be submitted in proper script format. HollyShorts reserves the right to reject any short screenplay that it determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, contains prohibited content or is offensive, inappropriate or otherwise unacceptable. All eligible entries received by HollyShorts will be judged by the HollyShorts selection committee and the production company sponsoring the contest. By submitting your script for consideration for the HollyShorts Screenplay Contest, you agree for HollyShorts and its contest sponsor to produce your short screenplay if selected as the overall winner. The completed film(s) will premiere at the HollyShorts Film Festival and on our distribution platform Bitpix.