ScreenCraft Drama Screenplay Contest

Successful feature film dramas drive deep into the heart of what it means to be human, expressing universal themes with nuanced complexity. Our judges are looking for great stories with original voices and honest emotion.

All entries are eligible for optional feedback from a studio-trained professional reader.

Awards & Prizes
Get your screenplay to our 2017 jury! Grand prize is $1,000 cash and the top finalists all receive free Final Draft screenwriting software + professional feedback from our Hollywood studio-trained readers.

Featuring some of Hollywood’s best drama executives, producers and managers:

• Jordan Moldo, The Weinstein Company - Development Executive at The Weinstein Company which has produced such celebrated dramas as Academy Award-winner THE KING’S SPEECH, FRUITVALE STATION, Lee Daniel’s THE BUTLER, WIND RIVER, SNOWPIERCER, THE IRON LADY, LAWLESS, Academy Award-winner THE ARTIST, PULP FICTION, GANGS OF NEW YORK and many, many more.
• Jewerl Ross, Manager - Manager / Producer with clients including Academy Award-winning writer-director Barry Jenkins, the filmmaker behind Best Picture MOONLIGHT, and Matthew Aldrich who is currently writing OPENING BELLE for Warner Bros. and Reese Witherspoon. Aldrich also wrote COCO for Pixar Animation Studios and director Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) which is slated for a 2017 release.
• Andrea Dimity, Manager - Literary Manager / Producer with clients including Pete Barry who recently sold his spec script MARIAN to Amy Pascal/Sony with Margot Robbie attached. She is currently producing BURN RUN written by Mitch Lafortune that is set up at Thunder Road Pictures. She likes to spend time helping writers with their scripts and careers and she reads finalists for such screenwriting competitions as Austin, UCLA, and Page.
• George Heller, Brillstein Entertainment Partners - Literary Manager at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, the company behind such renowned Hollywood talent as Amy Adams, Brad Pitt, Charlie Hunnam, Vin Diesel, Eva Longoria, Timothy Olyphant and many more. George and his assistant Kelsi Fleming are looking for unique voices in dramatic screenwriting.
• Michael O’Sullivan, Broad Green Pictures - Director of Development at Broad Green Pictures, the financier and production company behind such award-winning and acclaimed films as 99 HOMES, SONG TO SONG, THE NEON DEMON and KNIGHT OF CUPS.

Rules & Terms

• Submissions are accepted via electronic submission on this website only, between June 1st, 2017 and September 12th, 2017.
• Entry fee for each screenplay is $49 until the early deadline on July 15th, and then $69 until final deadline on September 12th.
• There is no limit to the number of projects you may submit.
• Entries must be received on or before the deadlines 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). All writers must be credited on title page.
• 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.
• Substitutions of either corrected pages or new drafts of the entered material are allowed. See your special link in the submission confirmation email for re-entry procedure.
• 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.
• All ownership and rights to the scripts submitted to this contest remains with the original rights holders.

ELIGIBILITY:

• All writers at least 18 years of age are eligible. However, a writer who has earned more than $50,000 (or equivalent currency) from professional writing services for film or TV in the preceding year is not. (Contest winnings not included.)
• All persons from anywhere in the world are eligible; however the material submitted must be in English.
• All material submitted to other competitions or contests are eligible.
• There are no requirements as to when the material was written.
• The material submitted must not be encumbered by any obligation to, or option held by, a third party prior to entering the competition.
• Any submitted work that becomes optioned, published, produced or purchased between the time of submission and the end of the judging period will no longer be eligible.
• Material should be submitted in standard screenplay format, font, spacing and margin.
• We have no preferences regarding title page content. Title and name of writer would suffice.
• Adaptations are ineligible unless the underlying rights are owned by the writer or the work is in the public domain.
• Page limit requirements are between 75 and 140 pages. Feature screenplays longer than 140 pages will not be eligible. 
• All material must be submitted electronically as a PDF or it will not be eligible.