ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition
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Calling all family-friendly feature film screenplays!
Families are the most influential moviegoing audience, yet there’s a surprising lack of high-quality films that appeal to the WHOLE family.
This contest avoids the genre-bias of some other contests by seeking exclusively screenplays that are life-affirming stories of faith, courage, hope and love. Whether you have a family drama, comedy, animation, or action-adventure film – we have producers and executives who are hungry for high-quality “four-quadrant” projects to package and produce.
Will your script win?
Benefits
On top of a $2,000 cash grant and circulation to ScreenCraft producers, manager, and agents, all the top scripts will be read by this year's incredible jury:
Amanda Miess
Director of Develop at Pure Flix, an American production and distribution company for producing and distributing family-friendly films such as GOD’S NOT DEAD, I’M NOT ASHAMED and THE CASE FOR CHRIST.
Heather Overton
Programming and Development Executive at Hallmark Movie Channel and Crown Media, the single largest producer of family-friendly movies and TV series in the English language featuring nearly one hundred new titles every year.
The Wibberleys
The Wibberleys are an American husband and wife screenwriting team behind such four-quadrant successes as NATIONAL TREASURE, I SPY, THE SIXTH DAY and CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE.
Josh Nadler
Director of Development at Sony’s Affirm Films, the studio behind SOUL SURFER, COURAGEOUS, MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN and more successful and acclaimed faith-friendly films!
Plus, check out ScreenCraft history of helping writers take the next step in their career here.
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.
RULES: Submissions are accepted via electronic submission on this website only, between October 2nd, 2017 and Dec 30th, 2017. Entry fee for each screenplay is $49 until November 2nd early deadline and then $69 until final deadline on December 30th. Written feedback from a professional reader can be added to your entry for an additional $70. There is no limit to the number of projects you may submit. Entries must be received on or before 11:59pm Pacific Time on the deadline dates 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). 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 are allowed. Writers must upload new drafts via the link provided in their original submission confirmation email. It is recommended that original material be registered with the WGA or The Library of Congress before submitting to any competition, however registration is not required. All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this contest remains with the original rights holders. ELIGIBILITY: All writers 18 years of age or older 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.) All persons from anywhere in the world are eligible; however the material submitted must be in English. All material submitted to other competitions or contests are eligible. There are no requirements as to when the material was written. The material submitted must not be encumbered by any obligation to, or option held by, a third party prior to entering the competition. Any submitted work that becomes optioned, published, produced or purchased between the time of submission and the end of the judging period will no longer be eligible. Material should be submitted in its proper format, font, spacing and margins. We have no preferences regarding title page content. You are welcome to include contact info, but not required. Title and name of writer would suffice. Adaptations are ineligible unless the underlying rights are owned by the writer or the work is in the public domain. Feature Screenplays longer than 140 pages will not be eligible. The recommended length for feature film scripts is 100-120 pages. Scripts over 120 pages will be accepted, but there is a small page overage charge to compensate the judges for the extra time invested in reading longer scripts. All material must be submitted as a PDF or it will not be eligible. The judging panel, selected by ScreenCraft or its representatives in its sole discretion, may include screenplay development professionals from major studios, production companies, or their subsidiaries, however these studios and production companies are in no way official sponsors or endorsers of this contest. The top 10 finalists and winners will be chosen based on the following criteria: (i) originality; (ii) visual inventiveness; (iii) story; and (iv) overall impression. The top 10 finalists will be notified by email and may be contacted by interested industry representatives, such as managers, agents or producers. Entrants may be required to submit further information to assist in the judges’ verification of eligibility. Any entrant may be deemed ineligible at the sole discretion of ScreenCraft. Finalists may be required to sign and return within five (5) business days of receipt a notarized Affidavit of Eligibility and a Release and Indemnification and any other documents that ScreenCraft or any other partner may require before receiving prize payment. Failure to respond to the initial notification within ten (10) days or return of notification will result in disqualification. We reserve the right to amend these rules at any time.