Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition
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About
We’re currently in a clear Golden Age of TV. With audiences’ increasing desires for escapism and purely bingeable TV, it has never been this good. And there have never been as many opportunities for screenwriters to write for TV. There were a record 599 original scripted drama, comedy, and limited TV shows aired in 2022. That’s a lot of pages of TV that need to be written.
Some of the best writing happens for TV. Some of the best stories being told are being told on TV. When it comes to television, it’s a writer’s world. Writers become producers and showrunners of TV shows.
Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ are eager to find TV writers with unique voices. That is what our competition is for. We want to find undiscovered talented TV writers and connect them with the industry, so one day they’ll be able to write for their favorite TV Show. So, finish your TV Pilot script, submit it to our competition and let us do the rest.
Benefits
Our Judges who have won Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and Writer's Guild Awards will decide this year’s TV Pilot Winner. These are all writers and producers who have written and produced and are still writing and producing for some of the best Outstanding Tv Series available today.
The Jury:
Top TV Pilot scripts are considered by our unprecedented Emmy Award-winning and Writer's Guild Award-winning writers, creators, producers, managers and literary agents. Our jury includes:
Warren Littlefield - Former PRESIDENT of NBC Entertainment. Two Time Emmy Award Winner with The Handmaid's Tale & Fargo
Warren Littlefield is an American television executive. A protégé of Brandon Tartikoff, Littlefield developed Cheers, Seinfeld and The Golden Girls as senior and executive vice president of NBC Entertainment under Tartikoff. During his time as President of NBC Entertainment (1991–1998), Littlefield oversaw the creation of many shows for the network throughout the 1990s such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Mad About You, Frasier, Friends, ER, Homicide: Life on the Street, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Will & Grace and The West Wing.
In recent years, he’s enjoyed an unusually productive second act as an independent producer, winning Outstanding Drama series Emmys for “Fargo” (FX) and “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu). His latest triumph is the Hulu limited series “Dopesick,” which garnered 14 Emmy nominations in 2022 and won two, including one for star Michael Keaton. The year also brought the debut of his FX action drama “The Old Man,” starring Jeff Bridges.
Susan Soon He Stanton - Producer and Writer on HBO’s Succession - Emmy Award Winner - Susan Soon He Stanton on IMDB
Susan is a playwright, television writer, and screenwriter based between New York and London. Susan is a producer/writer on HBO’s Succession, for which she has won an Emmy, a WGA and Peabody Award. Upcoming television work includes HBO/Sister Picture’s THE BABY, Amazon’s Modern Love, Amazon/Annapurna’s Dead Ringers, Hulu/Element Pictures/BBC’s Conversation with Friends adapted from the novel by Sally Rooney, as well as several projects in development. She has worked on projects for Amazon, Annapurna, Netflix, and Pixar, among others.
Her plays have been produced internationally and regionally across the United States. In film, she is a co-writer for the award-winning feature film Brooklyn Love Stories. She received a Feature Film Development Grant and Screenwriting Award from the Sloan Foundation.
She has taught playwriting at UT Austin’s MFA Program, SUNY Purchase, New York University, Yale University, as well as various other institutions regionally and internationally.
Erik Bork - Producer and Writer on HBO's Band of Brothers - Two Times Emmy Award Winner & Two Times Golden Globe Award Winner
Erik is a Two-Times Emmy Award-winning & Two Times Golden Globe Award-winning screenwriter, producer, script consultant, and blogger best known for his work on the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. He got his start in Hollywood as an assistant to Tom Hanks, who gave him the opportunity to help write and produce From the Earth to the Moon, after reading some sitcom spec scripts he had written. Bork has sold series pitches and written pilots at NBC and FOX worked on the writing staff for two primetime dramas, and written feature screenplays on assignment for companies including Universal Studios, HBO, TNT, and Playtone.
He also teaches screenwriting for UCLA Extension, National University and The Writers Store, and offers one-on-one consulting to writers. His multi-category Amazon best-selling book THE IDEA: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage, or Fiction was released in 2018. For more info check his webpage https://www.flyingwrestler.com.
Ron Leshem - Executive Producer on HBO’s Euphoria - Emmy Award Nominee & Academy Award Nominee
Ron Leshem is a writer, Emmy-nominated producer, TV executive, and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. He is best known for serving as executive producer on HBO's Euphoria and for the film Beaufort, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
He co-created and co-wrote the original version of Euphoria (2012) which HBO’s Euphoria (2019) is based on. In 2018, he joined the American production of HBO’s Euphoria as an executive producer.
He co-created and wrote the television series No Man's Land (Hulu), Valley of Tears, Euphoria, The Gordin Cell, and the film Incitement, in addition to his career as a television executive.
As head of programming and content for Keshet TV, he commissioned and oversaw the development and production of some of the most popular and successful Israeli TV series, including Prisoners Of War (the Israeli original version of Homeland), the A-word, Traffic Light, and Arab Labor.
He is also a bestselling author. He won Israel's top literary award, the Sapir Prize for Literature, and has been published in 22 languages.
Olivier Sultan is a Theater Literary Agent at the leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Olivier represents both established and emerging writers, directors, composers, and designers including Emmy Award Winners and Academy Award Winners. His clients include:
Stephen Daldry - Two Times Emmy Award Winner for The Crown and Three Times Academy Award Nominee
Danny Strong - Two Times Emmy Award Winner for Game Change (2012) and Two Times Emmy Award Nominee for Dopesick (2021)
Florian Zeller - Academy Award winner for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Father
Alexander Dinelaris - Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay for Birdman
Nikole Beckwith - 2012 Nicholl Winner, 2012 Black List for Stockholm, Pennsylvania.
Olivier Sultan also represents Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks and Martyna Majok and Tony winners Stephen Daldry, Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, David Yazbek, Bill T. Jones, David Rockwell and Derek McLan
Greg Hunt - Literary Agent at Independent Talent Group
His current clients include:
Peter Morgan (Two time Academy Award Nominee, Two time Emmy Winner, THE CREATOR of The Crown),
Jed Mercurio (Two time Emmy Nominee, THE CREATOR of Bodyguard & Line of Duty),
Declan Lowney (Emmy Winner with Ted Lasso),
David Seidler (Academy Award winning screenwriter for The King's Speech)
Michael Winterbottom (Bafta Winner, 24 Hour Party People),
Julian Farino (Four time Emmy Nominee for TV Series Entourage and Ballers)
The Prizes:
TWO Grand Prize Winners:
1HR Grand Prize Winner will receive:
- $1,000 CASH AWARD
- MENTORSHIP with Emmy Winner ERIK BORK (writer on HBO's Band of Brothers)
- The Idea - an exclusive Online Course from Erik Bork ($500 value)
- Your script will be sent to our Judges & specially chosen members of our Industry contacts
- Script development with Outstanding Screenplays, with our help and suggestions on how to get your TV Pilot produced
1/2HR Grand Prize Winner will receive:
- $1,000 CASH AWARD
- MENTORSHIP with Emmy Winner SUSAN SOON HE STANTON (writer on Succession)
- The Idea - an exclusive Online Course from Erik Bork ($500 value)
- Your script will be sent to our Judges & specially chosen members of our Industry contacts
- Script development with Outstanding Screenplays, with our help and suggestions on how to get your TV Pilot produced
Top 15 Finalists:
The top 15 Finalists will receive:
* Each of the 15 finalists will receive an EXCLUSIVE one page written feedback report from one of our 6 Emmy Award Winning and Writer's Guild Award Winning/Nominated judges!
* Each of the 15 finalists will receive a collection of 5 Audio classes by Erik Bork (including Story Concept, Main Character, Act One, Act Two, Act Three) (15 x $49 value).
Quarter-Finalists:
* All quartefinalists, semifinalist, finalists and winners will be published on our Instagram and all our other social media accounts. We currently have more than 1.4 Million followers combined and this will be an important exposure for you and will create more opportunities for your screenplay and your writing career.
* Your script will be sent to our Judges & specially chosen members of our industry contacts. You don’t need to be one of our finalists to have your script sent out. If we notice an interesting script that we know a certain producer, agent, or manager will be interested to read, we'll contact you and ask if we can send it to a certain industry contact.
All Entries:
We’re on a mission to help and support ALL screenwriters who enter our competitions, not just the finalists and winners. If you have written a TV script and submit to our competition, this shows your intent that you are serious about your screenwriting career. We value that intent. Just with entering you will immediately get on our radar and we will monitor your development from script to script and how your writing is improving.
In addition, EVERYONE who enters will receive:
* FREE eBook THE IDEA by Erik Bork - Regularly listed on the top 10 lists of the best Screenwriting books, The Idea, written by Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning writer/producer Erik Bork (HBO’s Band of Brothers) takes a different approach to the craft of screenwriting. It's all about selecting that initial idea. A clever, well thought out initial idea is what will motivate Hollywood “gatekeepers” to read your script.
Writer Success
Announcements
Rules
At the program's request, Coverfly will automatically remove your title page for you if you include one when submitting to this program.
TV Pilot Scripts should be within 15 - 60 pages.
All scripts must be written in English.
We welcome submissions from screenwriters and filmmakers from all countries around the world.
Material submitted must be written and owned by the person submitting.
There is no age limit. All ages can enter.
There is no limit on the number of scripts a writer may submit. You are allowed to submit as many entries as you like.
Outstanding Screenplays claims no ownership of your work. All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this competition remain with the original rights of the person(s) that submitted.
All decisions of Outstanding Screenplays are final. By applying to this competition each participant agrees to hold Outstanding Screenplays, our judges and sponsors immune from any competition disputes, claims, liabilities, and expenses.
Please contact us via info@outstandingscreenplays.com if you have any further questions.