ScreenCraft Comedy Competition
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About
Whether your comedy is romantic, dark, slapstick, animated, broad or dry, we want to read your film or TV script!
Benefits
FUNNY OR DIE
Grand Prize Partner
This year's Grand Prize Winner will be invited to mentorship meetings with top-level execs at Funny or Die. Funny Or Die (FOD) is a premier entertainment brand and independent comedy studio that creates award-winning, premium comedy with today’s biggest stars and tomorrow’s freshest voices. Funny Or Die reaches a global audience of more than 40 million people across all our social platforms. The company has produced the critically-acclaimed Brockmire for IFC, Emmy-nominated Billy on the Street, the Peabody award-winning American Vandal for Netflix, the Emmy-nominated Sarah Silverman series I Love You, America for Hulu, and the feature films, Between Two Ferns: The Movie for Netflix, and Impractical Jokers: The Movie for Warner Media.
TZE CHUN
Writer, Director, Producer, Showrunner
We welcome award-winning film and TV writer, director, producer and showrunner Tze Chun as our Industry Expert. Tze will host an exclusive Q&A conversation with this year's semi-finalists. Tze (pronounced “Z”) Chun is Executive Producer and Showrunner of the Gremlins animated prequel GREMLINS: SECRETS OF THE MOGWAI on Max and served as Showrunner and Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed I’M A VIRGO on Amazon Prime. Previously, he wrote and directed an episode of Apple’s BAFTA-nominated anthology show LITTLE AMERICA based on his mother’s life. He was Supervising Producer and writer on Fox’s GOTHAM and wrote on ABC’s hit primetime drama ONCE UPON A TIME.
THE JURY
JOSH ROEMER-INGLES
Literary Manager, Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment
As a literary manager, Roemer-Ingles represents a variety of creative voices across genres in television and film. He began his career in finance before transitioning to entertainment. He joined Odenkirk Provissiero as Marc Provissiero’s assistant and later become the coordinator for the literary department. OPE is a management-production company that has produced PEN15, NOBODY, NO HARD FEELINGS, among several other titles for streamers and networks.
MARSHALL TURNER
Director of Current Programming, Lionsgate
Marshall Turner is the Director, Current Programming at Lionsgate, who was previously Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs executive assistant and development associate to Manager. Lionsgate is the force behind projects like JULIA Season 2, GHOSTS Season 2, NURSE JACKIE, and more.
MICHAEL JEFFREY DAVIS
Manager, Citizen Skull Productions
Michael Jeffrey Davis is a Manager with Citizen Skull Productions and a prior Coordinator at Elevate Entertainment. A Master’s graduate from UCLA, Michael was the recipient of the Judges and Audience Awards at its annual Producers Marketplace. This spring, Michael was a producer on Tyler Taormina’s CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT, a spirited indie featuring Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, Maria Dizzia, Francesca Scorsese, and more. Drawing from his own lifelong experiences as a creative, Michael’s passionate about advocating for artists everywhere.
JORDAN RUBIO
VP - Comedy/Kids & Family, Film & TV, 3 Pas Studios
Jordan Rubio is the VP - Comedy/Kids & Family, Film & TV at 3Pas Studios, working in both English and Spanish language TV and film. Jordan has been a part of the development, sale, and production of features and TV series at places like Amazon, NewLine, HBOMax, Pantaya, Apple, Netflix, Pantelion, and Lionsgate. Previously Jordan worked at the National Hispanic Media Coalition helping shepherd writers into their "Latino TV writers program", a prestigious TV writing incubator sponsored by NBC Universal and ABC/Disney. Jordan started his career as an intern at The Daily with Jon Stewart and also once co-produced a Star Trek documentary because why not?.
DAN BODANSKY
Manager, Dixon Talent
Daniel Bodansky is a manager at Dixon Talent, Inc., a boutique talent management company based in New York City with offices in Los Angeles that specializes in all aspects of the entertainment industry including television, film, publishing, new media, live appearance, and commercials. The firm represents such comedic and broadcast talent as Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Bill Simmons, Carson Daly and Michelle Wolf among many others. Bodansky started as James Dixon’s assistant in 2006, and over his 17 year career with the company has focused on working with multi-hyphenate talent in building out their careers across all mediums.
THE PRIZES
Grand Prize Winner
The overall grand prize winner will be welcomed to the Writer Development Program and receive personal introductions and phone calls with one or more top Hollywood literary manager(s) who are looking for talented emerging Film & TV screenwriters.
They'll receive:
- - Personal Introduction to top literary managers
- - Accepted into the Writer Development Program
- - $1,000 cash award
- - An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
- - Virtual Q&A with Tze Chun
Feature & TV Winners
- - $500 cash award
- - Accepted into the Writer Development Program
- - An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
- - Virtual Q&A with Tze Chun
Finalists
- - An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
- - Virtual Q&A with Tze Chun
- All finalists will receive personalized written feedback and a call with an industry professional
ADD-ON PRIZE OPPORTUNITY
Mentorship Prize with Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum
This optional add-on prize category will identify one winner to learn, workshop, and strengthen their project with guidance from an industry mentors. This year's mentors Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum will select one writer/writer team that includes this unique add-on benefit with their entry.
Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum have been a film and television writing team since 2012. The pair first met as reporters at The Wall Street Journal and use their journalistic background to write high-energy stories deeply rooted in time and place but with urgent contemporary resonance.
Their first feature, Dumb Money, chronicles the January 2021 GameStop short squeeze and stars Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, America Ferrera and Nick Offerman. Upcoming projects include Cruella 2; a feature biopic of first-rate talent agent Sue Mengers starring Jennifer Lawrence set up at AppleTV+; an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ New York Times Bestselling book, The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, with filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller attached to direct; and the theatrical feature adaptation of Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated series “Murder, She Wrote”.
For television, they are currently developing a show with Adam McKay for Netflix. Their previous writing credits include the Emmy-winning series “Orange Is The New Black”.
Only projects submitted to the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition AND that select this add-on are eligible for consideration in this category. Additionally, all projects that place in the Top 10 of the competition will automatically be considered.
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.
Entry fees are as listed on the site and checkout form. No coupon or discount is applicable on a previous entry.
Optional feedback from a professional reader may be requested at the time of entry. Requests for feedback can be done through Coverfly.
Entries may be any length -- the standard 1/2 hour is between 20 - 40 pages, and the standard hour long is between 40 - 70 pages, and the standard feature is between 85 - 120 pages. Any script submission longer than 120 pages will incur a $.50 per page overage fee for each page over 120 if it does not include feedback and $1 per page if the entry does include feedback.
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 owned by the writer(s), however the material may be based on other works not owned by the writers.
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).
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 any prizes awarded as they deem fair (whether there is a cash value or not).
Substitutions of either corrected pages or new drafts of the entered material will be allowed for a limited time with a $6 reentry fee through Coverfly. Please proofread your script carefully before submitting.
It is recommended that original material be registered with the WGA or The Library of Congress before submitting to any competition, however we do not require registration.
Contact info may be included on the cover page of the screenplay, however it is not required. ScreenCraft uses Coverfly to manage submissions and automatically removes cover pages before scripts are read by the judges.
ScreenCraft claims no ownership nor option on your work. All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this contest remains with the original rights holders.
The decision of the judges will be final and cannot be contested in any manner. There is no score on a scorecard that guarantees advancement to the next level as advancement will be based on all scores in the competition.
In the event a juror, partner organization, or prize partner is no longer able to serve in their specified capacity, ScreenCraft will make its best effort to secure a replacement. ScreenCraft is not responsible for the failed delivery of any prize package by a juror, sponsor, or partner organization.
ScreenCraft reserves the right to change deadline and announcement dates at any time.
ScreenCraft reserves the right to amend these rules at any time.
For a full list of rules and eligibility please visit ScreenCraft.
