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Apr 30th
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May 31st
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Jun 30th
Final
ScreenCraft
ScreenCraft Film Fund
Fall 2024
Reads in Coverfly
Active Since 2016
Receive up to $30k in grant funds! Open to a wide range of projects and formats. Winners have screened at Cannes, Sundance, & SXSW.
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About

This unique grant program is designed to help fund your vision. We consider a range of projects, from treatments to standalone screenplays, to fully-packaged projects seeking finishing funds and will choose 1 - 4 projects to fund.  Grant amounts will vary up to $30,000 depending on the scale and merit of each project.


ScreenCraft will offer production grants to talented creators for narrative features, short films, TV pilot series scripts, and documentaries that display originality, vision & exceptional potential.

Benefits

GRAND PRIZE WINNER(S)

Between 1 and 4 projects will be selected, depending on the quality of applicants as determined by our judges, for grants up to $30,000 in finishing funds.

Winners will also have the opportunity to work with the Writer Development Team for creative development and guidance for the projects needs.

ScreenCraft has a proven track record for helping writers generate career changing success.

FINALISTS

Finalists will receive a guaranteed meeting with an industry professional and also be invited to an exclusive ScreenCraft Finalist+ only workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry.

Judges

The top submissions are evaluated by our incredible industry jury with wide-ranging experience across film and television!
Buchwald

Daniel Perry

Literary Agent, Buchwald

Daniel is a Film & TV Literary Agent at Buchwald, representing prolific, iconic, and award-winning writers, directors, producers, and multi-hyphenates. Buchwald was launched in 1977, and is an industry leader in representation.

ACE Content

MJ Grogan

Director of Development, ACE Content

MJ is the Director of Development at Ace Content. ACE Content develops and produces premium original content for studios, distributors, media networks and brands including feature film, episodic television, such as THE WAY I SEE IT.

Sarah Marie Flores

Creative Executive, Anarchists United

Sarah Marie Flores (she/her) holds an MFA degree from UCLA’s Producers Program. Sarah worked for over a decade in film exhibition and publicity, and film-based non-profits like The Roxie Theater, and Frameline Film Festival in the Bay Area. Sarah now serves as Creative Executive at Anarchists United, the latest creative venture of Lilly Wachowski, a newly found company focused on Artistry, Diversity and Equity in Film and Television.

Cold Iron Pictures

Julia Stier

Development Associate, Cold Iron Pictures

Julia Stier is the Development Executive for Cold Iron Pictures. This award-winning indie production company is best known for producing the Daniels’ SWISS ARMY MAN, Spirit Award-winner THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL, James Gunn’s SUPER, and most recently JAZZY – a follow-up to Spirit Award-nominee THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY – alongside Oscar-nominee Lily Gladstone and the Duplass Brothers. She is an alumnus of The University of Southern California.

Energy Entertainment

Nelson Cole

Manager and Producer, Energy Entertainment

Nelson Cole is a literary manager whose clients have projects with Wondaland, Llewellen, Silkmass, Sugar 23, Chronology, August Point, and more. Nelson began his career at Energy Entertainment, a management and production company founded by Brooklyn Weaver, the producer of RUN ALL NIGHT with Liam Neeson, and OUT OF THE FURNACE with Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson. Brooklyn's past clients included Brad Ingelsby (MARE OF EASTOWN), Rob Liefield (DEADPOOL) and Mickey Fisher (REVERIE and EXTANT).

Writer Success

Spring 2024 Finalists on Coverfly

See Other Placements

Announcements

Aug 14th
Semifinalists
Sep 11th
Finalists
Oct 2nd
Winners

Rules

At the program's request, Coverfly will automatically remove your title page for you if you include one when submitting to this program.

Please submit with:

  • A Script or Treatment —  this doesn’t have to be a completed screenplay if you’re applying for a documentary or if your film is already in production. It can be a treatment, a PDF with links to footage, or any other pitch document that shows the project’s potential. 

  • A Cover Letter —  A letter that expresses your vision for your project. Help the judges get a sense of your creative vision and professional experience. Let us know if you’ve begun production and what you’d be able to use the funding for. We recommend 1-2 pages in length.


Accepted formats for Film Fund include Narrative (Features, Series, Shorts), Documentaries (Features, Series, Shorts), and Unscripted (Features, Series)

  • For Narrative format submissions, screenplays must be submitted in industry-standard formatting as a PDF file, along with a Cover Letter. Because different formats are accepted, scripts and submissions may be any page count. However, any submission longer than 120 pages will incur a $1 per page overage fee for each page over 120.

  • For Documentaries, instead of a screenplay, a treatment about the project will be accepted, which can include links to video footage (YouTube, Vimeo, etc), along with the Cover Letter.

  • For Unscripted format submissions, please submit a treatment about the project and highlight any exclusive access to intellectual property or a public figure.  Links to video footage can be included, along with the Cover Letter.


  • Optionally, you can include a PDF document that includes any other information. This can be anything from a full series bible to a line-item budget, to links to footage or a sizzle reel. We recommend only including information that gives a better sense of the specific project, but please include anything that will help our judges understand the creators and the project.


  • When reviewing your submission we will consider your primary document (which varies depending on your project format) and your cover letter. Additional optional materials, will be reviewed as needed.

  • Grants shall vary in size up to a maximum of $30,000 (USD) per project. Grant amount will be determined by the jury consisting of executives from ScreenCraft. Any grant funds disbursed may be subject to conditions predicated upon the Recipient's fulfillment of specified requirements, whereupon disbursements shall be made in distinctly outlined installments.

  • Applications are accepted via electronic submission only.

  • There is no limit to the number of projects you may submit.

  • Applications must be received on or before the deadlines and application fee payment must be made in full at time of the submission.

  • All application 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 author or owner of the material. 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.

  • 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 work carefully before submitting.

  • In the event a juror, partner organization, mentor, 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.

  • Contact info may be included on the cover page of the screenplay, however it is not required.

  • ScreenCraft reserves the right to change deadline and announcement dates at any time.

  • ScreenCraft reserves the right to amend these rules at any time.

  • Grant funding is conditional upon the selected recipient(s) going into production on selected project within twelve (12) months of when the grant was awarded.


Eligibility

  1. All writers at least 18 years of age are eligible.

  2. 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).

  3. All material submitted to other competitions or contests are eligible for this contest.

  4. Projects must be owned and submitted by the writer or owner.

  5. There are no requirements as to when the material was written.

  6. Scripted material should be submitted in standard screenplay format, font, spacing and margin.

  7. We have no preferences regarding title page content. Title and name of writer would suffice.

  8. Adaptations are ineligible unless the underlying rights are owned by the writer or director or the work is in the public domain.

  9. All material must be submitted electronically as a PDF. Broken files or non-PDF files may be accepted, but if the file cannot be read ScreenCraft will not judge the submission.

  10. Prize winners may be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility and proper tax documentation before prizes are released.

  11. By entering the competition, user acknowledges their eligibility for the competition. ScreenCraft will verify all eligibility requirements at the finalist stage of the competition and before distributing any prizes.

  12. ScreenCraft reserves the right to amend these rules at any time.


    Please see ScreenCraft website for full rules.

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Fall 2024