ScreenCraft
ScreenCraft True Story & Public Domain Competition
2021
Coverfly-exclusive
Reads in Coverfly
Active Since 2018
The True Story jury includes production companies, studios and literary managers behind some of the best true story entertainment out there, including The Wolf of Wall Street, King Richard, Woman of the Hour, Monsters, and many more.
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About

This unique ScreenCraft competition was launched after industry producers, executives and managers consistently asked for the same thing: screenplays based on pre-existing intellectual property. True stories and works in the public domain (published before 1923), have a long history of Hollywood success. 

Winners’ projects will be circulated to our wide network of industry professionals, with the goal of setting up the winners with production companies and studios, and introducing the top writers to literary managers and agents. 

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

THE JUDGES

Get in front of Hollywood judges who love true stories and public domain properties.


BLYE FAUST

Oscar-Winning Producer

Blye Faust is the Academy Award-winning producer of SPOTLIGHT, and partner in film and television production company, Based On Media, which focuses on authentic, inclusive portrayals of the human experience to reframe and widen our collective perspective.


ROBIN SWICORD 

Oscar-nominated Screenwriter and TV Writer

Robin Swicord is a screenwriter and television creator, of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, LITTLE WOMEN, (WGA-nomination), MATILDA and PRACTICAL MAGIC as well as THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Recently she co-Executive Produced and wrote episodes of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Emmy Award-nominated mini-series WHEN THEY SEE US.


JUSTIN WOLF

Manager, Lighthouse Management + Media

Lighthouse Management is a full-service talent management, production & media company. The production company behind BOMBSHELL and the TV show RATCHED, clients include Jason Bateman, Mark Ruffalo and the writers and filmmakers behind BOOKSMART, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS and THE BIG SHORT.


KAYLON HUNT

VP, Development and Production, JuVee Productions

Kaylon Hunt is Vice President of Development and Production at Viola Davis’s JuVee Productions. A film, television, documentary and VR production company with an overall deal at Amazon Studios, JuVee is behind EMANUEL, on the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church, co-produced by Stephen Curry, LILA & EVE, TROOP ZERO, and HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, among many more.


Prizes

On top of all top scripts being read by this incredible jury, the winners will receive prizes and industry outreach. Dozens of ScreenCraft winners have signed with managers, sold their scripts, option projects, been staffed, or been hired for open writing assignments. Check out some of the success stories here.


Grand Prize Winner
The overall grand prize winner in either feature, TV or short category will be welcomed to the ScreenCraft Writer Development Program and receive personal introductions and phone calls with one or more top Hollywood literary managers who are looking for talented emerging Film & TV screenwriters.
 
The top 3 winners’ project info and log lines will be circulated and recommended to our network of over 60 Hollywood managers, agents, producers and development executives.
 
ScreenCraft has a proven track record for getting writers signed with managers, agents, and staffed in writing rooms.
 
  • Personal Introduction to top literary managers
  • Accepted into the ScreenCraft Development Program
  • $1,000 Cash
  • Complimentary Badge for the 2022 ScreenCraft Virtual Summit
  • License to either of your choice: Final Draft or WriterDuet Pro screenwriting software

Feature Winner
  • $500 cash award
  • Accepted into ScreenCraft Development Program
  • 50% off 2022 ScreenCraft Virtual Summit

Pilot Winner
  • $500 cash award
  • Accepted into ScreenCraft Development Program
  • 50% off 2022 ScreenCraft Virtual Summit

Short Winner
  • $500 cash award
  • 50% off 2022 ScreenCraft Virtual Summit

Writer Success

ScreenCraft staff has been wonderfully helpful in our industry outreach. They are knowledgeable and energetic. Definitely one of the best contests going.
Mark Brown
2022 Finalist
Screencraft is one of the few screenwriting companies with contests that actually have a tangible benefit to the writers. As a finalist, I have met with (and continue to be assisted by) their development team, which has resulted in networking and exposure of myself and my writing that normally would require an agent, manager, or entertainment attorney. As a connoisseur of screenplay contests, being an active patron of most of them at some point over the past 10 years, I can say without fear of contradiction that this is one of the best out there.
Joshua Keller Katz
2021 Finalist
As a result of winning Grand Prize in the True Story Contest, one of the judges, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, reached out to me and unofficially mentored me as I worked on rewrites of the script which greatly improved it. She read multiple drafts and we spent 5 hours going over her detailed and astute notes; it was a master class from a veteran screenwriter who I've respected over the years and such a privilege and joyful experience that would not have happened without ScreenCraft.
Takeo Hori
2021 Winner
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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.

2025 Winners on Coverfly

Top 2%
TV Script  · Fantasy  · 57 Pages
Inspired by the classic Thomas Carnacki stories of William Hope Hodgson, DARK ARTS follows Ryland Carnacki as the secretive Order of Saiitii resurfaces with a bitter vendetta against him forcing Ryland to build alliances and pull out every tool at his disposal to unravel the conspiracy and confront his own secretive past.
Noah Lang & Harold “Blake” Hoss: Blake & Noah are screenwriters and filmmakers whose writing has appeared in publications such as Dark Horses Magazine, Chamber Magazine, Black Ink Fiction, and many more with podcast adaptations by the NoSleep, Kaidankai: Ghosts and Supernatural Short Stories, and Grim & Gilded podcasts. As producers their credits in...
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Show 1 more writers
Top 1%
Feature  · Historical  · 108 Pages
In the aftermath of World War I, sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld assembles an eclectic team to crusade for homosexual rights and overturn bigoted German law, founding the Institute of Sex and inadvertently discovering transsexual identity, until the rising Nazi Party threatens to destroy their pioneering work.
Brooklyn, NY
Ben is a two-time Nicholl Top 50 Finalist and TIFF Sloan Breakthroughs and Humanitas New Voices Semifinalist. His screenwriting has won Austin and Launchpad. He most recently wrote, directed, and co-starred in the ultrareal psychological thriller HIDE. The film is endorsed by the National Domestic Violence Hotline and toured America for DV Awareness...
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Top 1%
Feature  · Historical  · 109 Pages
To save his cash-strapped soccer club, the owner of SSC Napoli stakes his reputation and the taxpayers' dollars on a mercurial, drug-addicted superstar named Diego Maradona.
Leavenworth, Washington
Connor is a UK/US, Italian-raised, writer and director. He is a graduate of UCLA’s Film & TV Program. His projects include a TV Series with Echo Lake (The Great, Nebraska) and a feature with Automatik/Range (The Signal, Honey Boy). Other projects: Bunker (Studio71), Federal Offense (Crackle), and a Fritz Pollard biopic with David Permut. Connor ...
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Announcements

Jun 9th
Semifinalists
Jul 7th
Finalists
Aug 11th
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.

  1. Submissions are accepted via electronic submission only, between January 1, 2021 and March 31, 2020.

  2. Entry fee for each screenplay is $49.50 until the early deadline on January 31, 2021, then $69.50 until the regular deadline on February 28, 2021, and then $79.50 until the final deadline on March 31, 2021. 

  3. Optional feedback from a professional reader may be requested at the time of entry. Requests for feedback after an entry is submitted will not be accepted.

  4. Feature screenplays must be a minimum of 75 pages and a maximum of 150 pages. TV pilots must be between 25 and 75 pages. Any screenplay submission longer than 120 pages will incur a $1 per page overage fee for each page over 120.

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

  6. 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.

  7. All submitted material must be original, and all rights must be wholly owned by the writer(s).

  8. 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). All writers must be credited on title page.

  9. 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.

  10. 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 script carefully before submitting.

  11. 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.

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

  13. 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.

We want to set you up for success, and here are a few basic screenplay etiquettes that will help your screenplay.