ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition
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ScreenCraft
ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition
2022
Coverfly-exclusive
Reads in Coverfly
Active Since 2017
Our jury features professionals from across the entertainment and publishing industries. Past winners have signed with top agents and had their worked optioned.
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About
What do Arrival, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Minority Report all have in common? They're all based on short stories! Some of the best film and television has been adapted from short stories, both published and unpublished. If you think your short story has cinematic adaptation potential, we’d love to consider it for this year’s competition, which features a jury of professionals from across the entertainment and publishing industries. We’re looking for great prose - whether it’s flash fiction, novellas or true stories.
ScreenCraft’s past winners have gone on to sell their scripts 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 to 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, and many more.
Benefits
Grand Prize Winner
The overall Grand Prize winner will be welcomed to the ScreenCraft Writer Development Program and receive personal introductions and phone calls with one or more top Hollywood literary managers.
ScreenCraft has a proven track record for getting writers signed with managers, agents, and staffed in writing rooms. Plus:
- Personal Introduction to top literary managers
- Accepted into the ScreenCraft Development Program
- $1,000 Cash
- Complimentary Badge for the 2022 ScreenCraft Virtual Summit
- Invitation to the Finalist+ Networking and Development Event
Runner - Up
- $500 cash award
- Accepted into ScreenCraft Development Program
- Invitation to the Finalist+ Networking and Development Event
- 50% off 2022 ScreenCraft Virtual Summit
Finalists
- Invitation to the Finalist+ Networking and Development Event
- Consideration by the Industry Jury
Coverfly Program Insights
Coverfly vets all programs on its platform, but not every program is right for every writer.
Program Insights help you decide where to submit your work.
2024 Winners on Coverfly
Demo
Private
Short Story
· Sci-fi
· 35 Pages
In the near future, where people can create virtual spaces to interact with potential dates, Molly meets the love of her life.
Then she discovers this new world's dark secret.
Los Angeles, CA
Saleh Karaman is a writer, actor and performer. In the past year, he has been a Quarterfinalist for the Nicholl Fellowship, and Semifinalist for the Disney Writing Fellowship, the Sundance Film Development Fund, and the Emerging Screenwriters Competition. He most recently won ScreenCraft's Short Story Prize.
His prose has been published in Alfred H...
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Top 4%
Short Story
· Historical
· 16 Pages
A pre-adolescent girl whose mother is in perimenopause (angry about a sweet Brittany Spaniel in heat) has an existential moment in a basement crawl space hiding with her dog, wondering whether there is any reason to go on living.
Lawrence, KS
Leslie Reynard, a compulsive reader-learner from age 3, first earned a college degree as a 40-something widowed mother. She went on to earn graduate degrees, staying in college to afford health insurance and to be there when her sons came home from school
Thus, a difficult situation was a serendipity, the opportunity to expand her learning, tr...
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Announcements
Jan 19th
Quarterfinalists
Feb 16th
Semifinalists
Mar 16th
Finalists
Apr 20th
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.
- 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.
- Short Stories should be 20,000 words or less. Files should be in PDF format when submitted and should be double spaced.
- 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 $5 reentry fee through Coverfly. Please proofread your short story carefully before submitting.
- Contact info may be included on the cover page of the short story, however it is not required. ScreenCraft uses Coverfly to manage submissions and automatically removes cover pages before short stories are read by the judges.
- ScreenCraft claims no ownership nor option on your work. All ownership and rights to the short stories 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.
- ScreenCraft reserves the right to change deadline and announcement dates at any time.
- ScreenCraft reserves the right to amend these rules at any time.