Vail Film Festival
Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition
2020
Reads in Coverfly
Active Since 2004
THE VAIL SCREENPLAY COMPETITION IS A VEHICLE FOR ASPIRING SCREENWRITERS TO HAVE THEIR SCRIPT READ BY ESTABLISHED PRODUCERS, MANAGERS, AND AGENTS.
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About

"Winning 1st Place at the Vail Screenplay Competition helped us get the film made."

Andrew Kightlinger, Vail Screenplay Competition Grand Prize Winner


The Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition is a vehicle for aspiring screenwriters to get their scripts recommended to established film producers, managers, and agents who are actively working at the top level of the film industry. The Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition welcomes unproduced feature screenplays between 60-130 pages in length and unproduced short screenplays between 4-50 pages in length.

Benefits

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be included in a national press release and have their scripts read by key decision-makers at leading entertainment companies.


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2024 2nd Places on Coverfly

Top 1%
TV Script  · Sci-fi  · 60 Pages
In a near-future world where thoughts shape reality, a compassionate scientist and a group of extraordinary empaths must fight a covert, militarized faction bent on controlling humanity's consciousness. Think INCEPTION meets BLADE RUNNER 2049.
Denver, CO
Steve Brown, a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting, holds dual degrees in Journalism and English from the University of Arizona. In 2023, he transitioned from corporate copywriting (for popular brands such as Nintendo and Kaplan Test Prep) to pursue his passion for film and TV. Today, he dedicates his time entirely to screenwr...
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Top 1%
Feature  · Action  · 103 Pages
A father will stop at nothing to save his dying daughter after a drug cartel hijacks her transplant heart.
Growing up under the wing of a CIA chemist, Will inherited a knack for mixing explosive ideas with unexpected twists — perfect fuel for his high-octane action screenplays. A detour into the corporate jungle saw him steering 20,000 souls in 95 offices across 27 countries, soaking up cultures and chaos that now bleed into his work.
Top 1%
Short  · Horror  · 15 Pages
A teenage boy is hired to house sit for a wealthy couple whose young daughter has just died. The grieving parents have only one request for the night: Stay out of Maya's room.
Denver, Colorado
Andrew is a screenwriter who specializes in offbeat horror, dark comedy, and genre scripts with a strong emotional core. Most recently, he was a 2024 WeScreenplay Short Script Lab Fellow and a winner of the 2024 Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Andrew has a degree in Creative Writing from Middlebury College and worked for many years as a j...
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Announcements

Jun 2nd
Today

Rules

The Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition welcomes unproduced feature screenplays between 60-130 pages in length and unproduced short screenplays between 4-50 pages in length. For full information and rules please go to: http://www.vailfilmfestival.com/