ScreenCraft Virtual Pitch
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- 1. Submit your best elevator pitch - a written, typed pitch of no more than 350 words.
2. Semifinalists will be asked to submit a 2-minute video pitch.
3. The selected finalists will pitch virtually to a panel of A-list industry professionals.
Benefits
The overall Grand Prize winner will receive a $500 prize, and receive personal introductions and phone calls with one or more top Hollywood industry professionals who are looking for talented emerging TV screenwriters.
Jury
Tess McGuinness
Creative Executive
Red Wagon Entertainment
Tess McGuinness is the Creative Executive at Red Wagon under Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher, where she runs point on and produces projects across Red Wagon’s film and television slates. Originally from New Jersey, she graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a BA in Art History and Classics and a minor in Theater. She worked as a production assistant for two seasons of “Saturday Night Live” as well as an Associate Producer for MIRMADE Productions — where she helped produce music videos for Danny Brown and Weezer and commercials for Michael Kors, the NBA, Robitussin, and Away Luggage. In 2020, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue scripted film and television, where she worked for Janet Yang and Inspire Entertainment prior to joining the Red Wagon team. Her most recent film credit will be as the executive on Ridley Scott’s GLADIATOR 2, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington. She will also serve as Co-EP on a television adaptation of Peter Swanson’s THE KIND WORTH KILLING for Hulu/A+E. Tess is also an award-winning playwright and has had her plays performed at Northern Stage, New York Fringe Festival and Off-Broadway.
Saúl Delcompare
Creative Executive
1Community
Born and raised in Mexico, Saúl started his career as an assistant at Endeavor Content and worked in International TV sales and the indie film group. Additionally, he worked at CAA media finance group specializing in projects with LATINX attachments and projects from LATAM and Spain.
Quincie Li
Literary Manager
Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment
Quincie Li is a literary manager at Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, where she represents writers and directors in film and television. Her clients work across all genres at all of the major studios and streamers. She began her career as an assistant in the television literary department at ICM Partners and worked at Thruline Entertainment before joining Kaplan/Perrone. Quincie grew up in Orange County, California, and graduated from Vanderbilt University.
Marc Manus
Manager and Partner
Persist Ent
Marc Manus is a former award-winning photojournalist who attended USC film school before entering the field of artist representation. His first job was with manager Cathryn Jaymes, who represented Academy Award-winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino, among others. Over the last twenty years, Marc has held positions at various management companies including Zero Gravity (Netflix’s OZARK) and, most recently, World Builder Entertainment (DreamWorks Animation’s TROLLS franchise) as a founding partner. Now at Persistent, Marc continues to guide a select roster of creators from around the globe who have book, film and television projects at the major networks, streamers and studios. His credits as a producer include JOSIE, starring Sophie Turner, and the forthcoming horror-thriller DON’T MOVE, alongside Sam Raimi (EVIL DEAD) and Hammerstone Studios (BARBARIAN).
Adrian Gonzalez
Manager
YakYak Mgmt
After graduating from the Radio-Television-Film program at The University of Texas at Austin, Adrian started as an intern at Culture Creative Entertainment and quickly worked his way up to EA, promoted to a literary coordinator, and then an agent at the agency. He was instrumental in developing the agency’s well regarded internship program, built a rapport with numerous execs across the industry, and has developed a passion for storytelling. Driven by his love for his clients and their material, he took a step back from the agent world and stepped into being a manager at Yak Yak MGMT; which has allowed him to immerse himself into the talent’s world and foster a community while redefining story telling for a global audience.
Moera Ainai
Director of Development
21 Laps Entertainment
21 Laps Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded and run by director-producer Shawn Levy. The company is best known as the producers of Deadpool & Wolverine, All the Light We Cannot See, Shadow and Bone, and Stranger Things.
Cynthia Adarkwa
Screenwriter
Cynthia Adarkwa is a Ghanaian American TV writer and producer. She’s written for Legacies (CW), Saint X (Hulu) and the Forrest Whitaker starring Emperor of Ocean Park (MGM+). You’ll next see her work on Max’s upcoming medical series, The Pitt.
Writer Success
Announcements
Rules
Rules & Info:
350-word pitch 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.
There is no optional feedback option from a professional reader applicable to this competition.
All participants must first submit a written, typed pitch of no more than 350 words. Your written pitch can include a brief description of characters, plot, themes, tone, writer background, comparable projects, etc. Any submission of more than 350 words will be disqualified from the competition.
Pitches should be for feature films, episodic series, or short film scripts only.
There is no limit to the number of projects you may submit.
All semi-finalists will be required to submit a filmed video pitch of themselves, via a private link.
Instructions for submission of video pitch will be sent only to Semifinalists. Only submissions with a filmed video pitch will be eligible to advance to the finals.
Semifinalists will be selected from the written submissions.
Video submission guidelines for Semifinalists:
Video can be hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or any public-access video hosting platform.
Video must be 3 minutes or less in total, including stop/start time and a brief introduction. We ask that the pitch itself be no more than 2 minutes, but if you go over by a few seconds you will not be automatically disqualified.
There is no judging criteria based on video quality other than the clear ability to see/hear the writer(s). Self-filmed pitches via your smartphone are fine.
No additional props, guests or support materials may be in the video, only the writer(s).
Writers should - and the judges will - consider this video pitch a rehearsal for pitching live.
The finalists will be invited to pitch live to the Panel of Judges, over Zoom.
Finalists must be available for the Pitch Finals online event. Finalists who are not available for the event will be disqualified.
Winners will be selected and announced at the Finals Event .
Pitch 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 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, both members of the writing team must be available to live-pitch at the Finals event.
It is recommended (but not required) that original material be registered with the WGA or The Library of Congress US Copyright Office before submitting to any competition.
Contact info may be included on the pitch, however, it is not required.
ScreenCraft claims no ownership nor option on your work. All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this contest remain with the original rights holder(s).
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.
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.
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 detailed terms and conditions, please visit ScreenCraft's Virtual Pitch Competition Page.