ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition
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About
What do Arrival, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Invisible Man, 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 Some of the best film and television has been adapted from short stories, both published and unpublished.
ScreenCraft is thrilled to include a one-of-a-kind mentorship opportunity with novelist/writer Julia Seales as a part of this year's Grand Prize. Julia is the author of A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER, which will be published by Random House in 2023 and was optioned by TriStar Pictures for film with 3 Arts producing and Julia adapting. This will be an invaluable learning experience for any writer!
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.
ScreenCraft’s past winners have gone on to sell their scripts to major studios and have been hired by companies like Universal, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, 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 275 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
Winners can expect:
- Personal Introduction to top literary managers and producers
- Accepted into the ScreenCraft Development Program
- $1,000 Cash
- An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
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.
- 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 $6 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.
For a full list of rules and eligibility please visit ScreenCraft.