ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition
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About
Celebrating great books that have cinematic adaptation potential. Hollywood has a long history of creating film and television from books. Does your book have cinematic potential? Our judges are looking for great stories with potential to be adapted for the screen. We’re looking for novels, novellas, true stories and biographies. Submit your work for consideration today!
ScreenCraft’s past winners have gone on to sell their projects to major studios and have been hired by companies like Universal, Netflix, Amazon, Millennium, CBS and many more. ScreenCraft’s winners are also highly sought after by literary managers and agents who are open to signing new writer clients. Over 100 ScreenCraft writers have signed with top management companies and agencies like 3 Arts, Anonymous Content, CAA, WME, UTA, Paradigm, Lit Entertainment, Writ Large and many more.
Benefits
Judges
This year's judges include:
James Melia -- a Senior Editor at Henry Holt and Company, the publishing company behind many award-winning and bestselling books. Notable books Melia has edited include The People We Hate at the Wedding, Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, and The Dinner List. He also published #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Black Klansman, and instant New York Times bestseller, Do You Mind If I Cancel?
John Beach -- founder of Gravity Squared Entertainment, a Los Angeles based Management/Production Company. He currently manages writers, producers and directors for film & television, while also controlling media rights for well over 150 published books, including Pulitzer Prize winners and New York Times Best Sellers.
Mikki Daughtry & Tobias Iaconis - The screenwriting duo behind CBS Films FIVE FEET APART and Warner Bros.THE CURSE OF LA LLORNA fka THE CHILDREN, are currently penning the script to a new DIRTY DANCING film for Lionsgate, and also adapting Mikki’s novel ALL THIS TIME for Lionsgate. Additionally, they are writing NIGHTBOOKS for Netflix with Sam Raimi.
Katrina Escudero - An agent in the Media Rights department at United Talent Agency (UTA). Escudero takes compelling works and packages them into acclaimed films and TV shows including THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS (Hulu), PANIC (Amazon), LIGHT AS A FEATHER (HULU), KILL CREEK (SHOWTIME) and features AFTER (Netflix). Currently, she oversees a roster of accomplished literary clients such as Lauren Oliver, Pablo Cartaya, Maurene Goo, Hope Larson, and Loren Grush. Most recently, Escudero facilitated a deal for Netflix to develop Tanya Smith’s upcoming memoir The ghost in the Machine with Issa Rae and David Heyman producing.
Rachel Kahan - An Executive Editor at William Morrow, Rachel is a passionate advocate for new and diverse voices in both fiction and non-fiction, she has published many bestsellers, including THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL, THE SUMMER WIVES, EROTIC STORIES FOR PUNJABI WIDOWS and HIDDEN FIGURES, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film.
Grand Prize Winner
The grand prize winner will receive a cash prize of $1000.
Circulation and personal recommendation of the winning book to our network of literary agents, managers, Film/TV producers and studio executives.
Phone call with ScreenCraft Development team to discuss your project and advise on option/purchase offers.
Second Place
The second place winner will receive a $500 cash prize.
50% off 2021 ScreenCraft Summit
Phone call with ScreenCraft development team to discuss your project and strategize industry outreach.
Top Quarterfinalists
The top quarterfinalists will receive special mention on our website when we announce in early January.
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.
Submissions are accepted via electronic submission only, between September 1, 2020 and November 30, 2020.
Entry fee for each submission (regardless of pagecount) is $49 until the early deadline on September 30, 2020, then $69 until the regular deadline on October 31, 2020, and then $89 until the final deadline on November 30, 2020.
Books should be 150,000 words or less. Files should be in PDF format. Only the first 20,000 words will be evaluated in the first round.
There is no limit to the number of projects you may submit.
Entries must be received on or before the deadline dates by 11:59PM Pacific Time, and submission fee payment must be made in full at time of the submission. All entry fees are non-refundable.
All submitted material must be original, and all rights must be wholly owned by the writer(s).
Material must be submitted by the writer. Material written by writing teams must be submitted by one of the writers, with consent of the other(s). All writers must be credited on the title page.
If a writing team is chosen as a winner, prizes will be given to the person who submits the project. Each team is responsible for dividing or sharing the prize money.
Substitutions of either corrected pages or new drafts of the entered material will be allowed for free within the first 24 hours, and for a $5 re-entry fee through our submission management platform Coverfly at any time until the finalists are announced. Please proofread your script carefully before submitting.
It is recommended that original material be registered with the WGA or The Library of Congress US Copyright Office before submitting to any competition, however we do not require WGA or Copyright registration.
Contact info may be included on the cover page, however it is not required.
ScreenCraft claims no ownership nor option on your work. All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this contest remain with the original rights holder(s).
Eligibility
All material must be submitted electronically as a PDF or it will not be eligible.
Adaptations are ineligible unless the underlying rights are owned by the writer or the work is in the public domain.
Entries for this competition are managed on the submission platform Coverfly.
We have no preferences regarding title page content. Title and name of writer would suffice.
Material should be submitted in standard PDF format, with standard font, spacing and margin (Times New Roman is preferred font, but not required).
Work and intellectual property must be wholly owned and submitted by the writer(s).
There are no requirements as to when the material was written.
All material submitted to other competitions or contests are eligible for this contest.
All persons from anywhere in the world are eligible; however the material submitted must be in English (occasional dialogue in other languages is acceptable, if subtitle translation is provided).
All writers at least 18 years of age are eligible. However, a writer who has earned more than $50,000 (or equivalent currency) from professional writing services for film or TV in the preceding year is not. (Contest winnings not included.)