Raindance Script Competition
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About
Now in its 31st year, Raindance Film Festival is Europe’s leading independent film festival showcasing feature films, short films, documentary films, virtual reality pieces and music videos from around the world and specialising in independent films and directorial debuts. The festival has a strong legacy of showing alternative, edgy films. Since 1993, Raindance Film Festival has uncovered the hottest new filmmakers to hit the cinematic scene.
Raindance-premiered hits include Pulp Fiction, Memento and the Blair Witch Project, to name a few. Listed by Variety as one of the world’s top 50 ‘unmissable film festivals’, Raindance aims to nurture, support and promote independent films and filmmakers from the UK and around the world.
Raindance is dedicated to fostering and promoting independent film in the UK and around the world. Based in the heart of London, Raindance’s ecosystem includes Raindance Film Festival, Raindance Open Courses, the higher education institute Raindance Film School, and the prestigious British Independent Film Awards.
At Raindance, we believe in championing independents in every way. As such, our new script competition is designed to develop upon Raindance’s network and community, and offer greater opportunities to emerging screenwriters.
Similarly, Raindance Film Festival has always been proud to offer a fantastic opportunity to network amongst both established and emerging talent, for those looking to develop their network of collaborators and peers.
Raindance is proud to have supported an array of successful artists in their pursuit of creative goals. Much of this stems from the success of Raindance Film courses, available to independent artists. Such success stories include, but are not limited to: Christopher Nolan, Guy Ritchie, Andrea Arnold, Matthew Vaughn, David Yates, Gavin Hood, Tom Hooper, Edgar Wright, Sacha Baron Cohen, Julian Fellowes and Nick Hornby.
For further enquiries, please email scriptcompetition@raindance.co.uk
Benefits
Our goal, through the Raindance Film Festival Script Competition, is to grant new opportunities and champion emerging screenwriters. Offering a culmination of support and prizes, Raindance hopes to champion true independence - a core principal of the film festival itself.
The path to a career in writing is a long and arduous task, which is why we have chosen to partner with some fantastic brands which have helped us in championing new, emerging screenwriters.
Our worth is in your success, which is why it is crucial to us that we support, nurture and help to develop true talent. As a result, we have put together what we believe is a great lineup of prizes, aimed at achieving this task.
The winner of our feature competition will receive the award for 'Best Un-produced Screenplay' at the official Raindance Film Festival Award Ceremony, hosted each year at the end of the festival in London, UK.
Each contest winner (Feature, Short, Episodic 30-min, Episodic 60-min) will additionally receive:
One year complimentary subscription to Celtx Writer Pro
Our friends and partners at Celtx will offer a one year subscription to their Celtx Writer Pro for free to the winner of the competition, which will help them unlock their inner pro with robust writing, episodic and story development tools.
- A place on our 10-week Raindance Script Fellowship Programme
The Raindance Script Fellowship Programme is a 10-week, online programme designed to afford writers the opportunity to further develop their craft and receive constructive criticism from an experienced industry tutor.
Additionally, all finalists will be invited to connect & network with fellow screenwriters at the exclusive Raindance Script Competition Finalists Reception during Raindance Film Festival in London, a year of Raindance membership and complimentary accreditation to Raindance Film Festival.
All Semi-Finalists will also receive a year of Raindance membership.
For a more detailed breakdown, please visit our competition page at www.raindance.org/script-competition/
For any more information, please email our team at scriptcompetition@raindance.co.uk.
Writer Success
Announcements
Rules
Before entering the competition, please read the following rules and guidelines. Submissions which do not adhere to the regulations set out below may be disqualified.
- - Writers from all countries are eligible to submit.
- - All entries must be in English, with entry fees in US dollars only.
- - Raindance employees, and immediate family members are ineligible to enter the competition.
- - Scripts must be the original work of the writer(s), where the writer(s) must have full legal ownership of the material and be allowed to enter the competition.
- - To ensure anonymity, scripts must be submitted without the writer(s) name on the cover page. Cover page should include only the title of the script.
- - There is no limit to the number of simultaneous script entries allowed, by a single author. Each entry however, is a separate fee.
- - Resubmissions of material is allowed, but requires a separate fee.
- - All submissions are electronic submissions only.
- - Pages for feature films should not exceed 120 pages, otherwise an additional fee will be required.
- - Scripts entered in previous years competitions, having placed in the top 3, are ineligible for the competition.
- - All entries are non-refundable, once submitted.
- - Feedback is not issued, unless requested and purchased at the time of submission.
- - All entries must be uploaded in PDF format, and adhere to industry standard formatting (Courier font, size 12).
- - Co-writers are allowed. Each writer’s name should be entered at the time of submission.
- - It is recommended that all scripts be registered prior to submission (Raindance, WGA, Copyright, etc), but this is not required.
- - All deadlines listed are at 11:59pm GMT, without exception.
- - Bibles created for the purpose of a Pilot/Series are not to be included, and will not be read.
- - Decisions of the winning scripts, made by the judges are final.
- - All prizes are awarded to scripts. Where scripts are submitted with writing teams, it is the responsibility of the team to divide the prizes amongst themselves.
- - Raindance reserves the right to delay announcements and results for any reason. Delay may last up tp 120 days, but will never exceed this. Such unforeseeable delays do not qualify submissions for refunds and do not alter the standing of the entry or contest.
- - By submitting to the competition, winners and finalists agree to having their name, script title and picture be used for marketing purposes or promotions by Raindance and its affiliates.
- - Raindance asserts no ownership of submitted entries, nor any option on this material. All ownership and rights to such material remains with the original rights holder(s).
- - By entering this competition, the submitter must have full permission to do so from any and all co-writers and attachments to the script.