Welcome to SYS’s Fifth Annual Six-Figure Screenplay Contest.

As the contest has matured and found some success, we’re eager to continue to build on our momentum and find more homes for quality, low budget screenplays. We’re happy to announce that this year we will be running a full fledged, in-person film festival running concurrently with the contest. So if you know of any great low budget films, please send them our way.

Our inaugural contest winning screenplay, Killer Profile, written by Richard Pierce, was found through the contest by one of our industry judges, Ted Campbell, who took the project to MarVista Entertainment where it was purchased and shot and is currently airing worldwide. Richard and Ted were both gracious enough to come on the SYS Podcast to talk about the experience and how it all came together. Click here to listen to Richard Pierce’s episode and click here to listen to Ted Campbell’s episode.

We’ll be continuing to accept short films this year as well. Many producers are looking for quality short film scripts, so we’re excited to try and find a home for them as well.

What’s this contest all about?

Do you have the next great low budget screenplay? SYS is trying to find great screenplays in any genre that could be produced for less than $1,000,000USD (one million). In other words, scripts that could be produced on six-figures or less.

Our goal with this contest is simple: find the best low budget screenplays on the planet and present them to the industry, which will hopefully lead to options, sales, and productions.

We’ve assembled a great group of seasoned writers, directors, and producers (see list below) to help judge the entries, as well as a great group of readers to handle the first round of reads.

How’s it going to work?

Each script submitted will be read by a minimum of two professional readers in the first round. The scripts that stand out in the first round will move into the second round (roughly 20% of all screenplays entered). The second round screenplays will be vetted further with more assessments from the SYS readers. The top scripts from the second round will be selected and moved into the quarter finals, where we will pitch those screenplays to the industry judges. Finally, after all the scripts have been graded by the judges, we will choose a winner and make the announcement.

How will scripts be graded?

Each professional reader will fill out an SYS Script Assessment form for each screenplay that they read. The SYS script assessment is a quick way for the reader to grade the screenplay. Each screenplay will be graded based on seven key criteria: Ability to be produced for less than $1M, Concept, Characters, Structure, Marketability, Tone, and Craft. For a small additional charge ($10) you can receive the two assessments from the first round readers (and possibly a 3rd assessment from a second round reader). Click here to see an example of the script assessment form that gets filled out by the readers.

Prizes (Features)

For this contest shorts are screenplays that are less than 30 pages, while features are screenplays that are longer than 75 pages.

Winner:

• $1,000 cash
• 1 SYS Email/Fax Blast to our list of agents, managers, and producers
• 1 SYS 3-pack screenplay analysis
• Highlighted in a special newsletter that goes to hundreds of working producers
• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year

Runner up:

• 1 SYS Email/Fax Blast to our list of agents, managers, and producers
• 1 SYS 3-pack screenplay analysis
• Highlighted in a special newsletter that goes to hundreds of working producers
• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year

Semi-finalists:

• Highlighted in a special newsletter that goes to hundreds of working producers
• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year

Quarter-finalists:

• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year

Prizes (Shorts)

Short film scripts (less than 30 pages) will be judged using the same method and criteria as features. We’re looking for low budget short scripts. Our readers will grade the scripts in the first round and then the highest rated scripts will be passed along to our industry judges in the later rounds.

Winner:

• $100 cash
• 1 SYS Email/Fax Blast to our list of agents, managers, and producers
• Highlighted in a special newsletter that goes to hundreds of working producers
• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year

Runner up:

• Highlighted in a special newsletter that goes to hundreds of working producers
• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year

Semi-finalists:

• Featured in The Budget List at the end of the year