Screenwriting : Competitions: Yes or no? by Brian Lajeunesse

I've never won a screenwriting contest and my best finish has been the semi-finals of a couple of the smaller contests. I've made the first cut of some of the bigger contests. But no contest has led to anything for one of my scripts, so I expect you'd have to do better than me to obtain a contest benefit in the way of selling. What has helped me has been contacting producers directly, e.g., via virtual pitch fest, hosting my scripts at Script Revolution, and obtaining coverage from producers who look for my genre by using the script services here at Stage 32. Good luck!

can you explain the script services thing here? Is it the same sort of thing as at the ISA or Inktip?

A way many years back I won several (some really strong ones too). It never did me a lick of good - ever! I realized that was only a way to spend my money for nothing but an ego boost - and that was my beer money too. I can go on for days about why they are not designed to help screenwriters. Competitions: NO!

yep, the only true judge of your script is an audience !

Brian there is a drop-down menu labeled "script services" on this page, above. Explore those links. What I have been doing is getting the "premium" coverage so that I can choose the exec who will do the work. The bonus, in addition to the coverage itself, is that the exec will consider the script for their company, and this is no empty threat. In the past year I've had several of my scripts passed up the chain by the exec for consideration, and most recently, this led to an option offer.

Just make sure you look at every detail of the competition before joining. Look at all the details and track record of the awards. We used to have a local festival that they pushed a lot. When I checked it out they were asking for large entry fees and had very little to give in the way of results. No thanks.

Yes, absolutely! Although, not instead of coverage. You should be getting feedback BEFORE you submit to competitions.

Comps are great fun and a way of getting feedback (at a price). For career advancement, they don’t move the needle much. There are a few big ones. Nichol, Austin Film Featival would be a good place.

Before I even bothered with submitting to a film festival, I really fine-tuned my screenplay. I got coverage on it, and I had several readings. Luckily, I belong to a local screenwriting group and am able to do that. Then I made the recommended adjustments and submitted. I was picky. There are a lot of festivals that aren't worth it. Nichols and Austin, as mentioned above, are great. It's nice to get that accolade.

More importantly is to hone your verbal and written pitches and get yourself out there. If you can find someone who is passionate about your scripts, that's one step closer. You still have to do a lot of the work though.

And queries in my mind are like sending a spaceship out into space and hoping to hit that Goldilocks planet in your lifetime. I think this platform is exceptional. If you have a good product, then keep putting it out there. It will get noticed. Best of luck to you!

Real, brutal answer to your question: Nope.

Relationships developed through acting professionally and giving more than taking.

A career in this biz is a marathon, not a sprint.

The short answer is, can you afford to gamble money away after you have invested in yourself? If so, yes, exploit the financial advantage you have to maximise your odds. If not, stay the hell away from them.

The long answer is complicated.

There was a huge exposé on screenwriting competitions in 2018 when it became evident hundreds of new ones had appeared on the market and writers were boasting about placing in completely unknown festivals that, in some cases, didn't even exist when people travelled to attend them. It is, on the whole, an incredibly shoddy industry with no regulation that trades on hope and sells the perception of glamour. Back then, and perhaps still now, you could just print money by running them.

What was highly revealing, and quite shocking for many, was that very few people could attribute any meaningful career success due to screenwriting competitions EVEN AFTER WINNING SOME OF THE MOST "PRESTIGIOUS". The conclusion by many was that, if breaking in is the main goal, Nicholl is worth it, maybe Austin FF, and then it drops off like a cliff. Personally, I feel Stage 32 is a bit of an exception here as I know they genuinely go out and try to connect their competition winners with working industry members rather than post a list of their winners online and walk away.

The people who recommend screenwriting competitions as a valid way to break in tend to be new writers who have paid an entry fee and desperately want to believe they have spent money on something of value. In any thread about competitions you'll watch the list of "worthwhile" examples grow as more and more people claim another is "legit" - with no evidence to back it up. Basically, the industry has grown off the back of so many people looking for a shortcut that will catapult them straight onto Hollywood Boulevard. Always beware following the advice of those who are continually failing.

However, what's kind of changed this since then, and it was the last platform most expected to do it, has been Coverfly. They aggregate all the competition data out there to find trends and rank scripts based on multiple competition placements (as well as coverage scores) with them all balanced depending on their industry standing. They have also been bringing about a minimum standard to how competitions should be run if they want to have any relevancy. This has been kinda the opposite of what many, including myself, thought would happen. We thought we'd just see yet more screenwriting competitions appear overnight rather than someone try to clean up and make some sense of the mess.

So, things aren't as bad as they were but a few factors still hold true.

1) They DO NOT rank where you fall in terms of your ability in any way at all. Many working writers will tell you they performed badly in them. That was the case for me. They are a lottery of subjectivity that pays little regard to commerciality. Pleasing competition judges is not the same as pleasing producers. Caring too much about competitions and too little about commerciality and filmmaking logistics can send you backwards.

2) The chances of anything meaningful happening in terms of selling a script or starting a career is incredibly low. I've seen maybe a few success stories in ten years. They are a passive and lazy tactic that should only be part of an overall strategy. Few producers I know take competitions seriously. Entering for the prizes is different. Entering for the validation is different - but please reference point one again as failing to place can demotivate if you if you take them to heart.

3) There are far better things a writer, especially a new writer, can spend their money on before turning to competitions such as books, courses, and networking opportunities. Everyone's priority needs to be focused on craft and contacts before all else as this is how over 90% of people break in. Entering competitions with limited funds may mean compromising what's important and make people vulnerable to the sunk cost fallacy which traps them in loop.

If you're buying coverage before entering a competition, you are, in my opinion, hoping for a lottery win by paying others to read tea leaves. You've either developed your craft to the point you are fit to work in the industry or you haven't. Paying other people to give you directions so it looks like you know what you are doing is a fallacy. If kicking off a career is your goal, you need to be able to stand on your own two legs. This isn't a slight on coverage itself but more so this obsession with trying to use feedback to create Goldilocks scripts.

FWIW, my own platform Script Revolution recognises Nicholl, Austin, and Stage 32 screenwriting competitions as prestigious and then utilises all time overall Coverfly percentiles to help manage the rest.

Generally speaking though, everyone I speak to feels competitions are dying and coverage is taking their place. It makes far more sense to pay for something you can MAYBE use as a form of feedback but, more importantly, take with you on your networking travels to help validate the potential of the script in question. Plus again, since this often all goes into the Coverfly system (or Stage 32's own percentile system with their coverage), you are effectively entering one big competition by proxy regardless.

Hi Brian Lajeunesse. I haven't any experience myself, but I would just offer a word of caution for competitions, as some are not all they seem, and some just want you to pay to enter, which personally, I wouldn't do.

It's easy to enter competitions, get encouraged and enter more and spend what is the equivalent of a plane ticket you'd take to get meetings as you chase the elusive competitions market. Can a contest placing help? Yes, it can help you feel a confidence boost the same way meeting someone who says "I love your project but it's not right for me right now" does, because they both could be something that they aren't. Celebrate being in the semi-finals by all means, it's validation from someone and that's great, but if you want a career out of this, it's way more than contest placements. It's writing daily, tracking the market and opportunities, becoming better at your craft and networking to get your project in the right hands. Best of luck!

I echo several of the other posts here:

1) Contests can be validating and that can be important,

2) Good placements in good contests can generate good connections (I got signed with a manager as a result of a semi-Finalist placement at Austin, which lead to talks with Lionsgate), but they are not magic bullets (Lionsgate fell through and the manager and I later parted ways)

3) There are far more bad contests than good out there. Do your research - what do you want most out of this? Money? Connections? Festival experience? A piece of paper on your wall? Tailor your submissions around your needs.

Dan MaxXx they still have that rule. A copy from their website:

"An entrant’s total, lifetime earnings for motion picture and television writing may not exceed US$25,000 before the end of the competition. This limit applies to compensation for motion picture and television writing services as well as for the sale of (or sale of an option on) screenplays, teleplays, stage plays, books, treatments, stories, premises and any other source material."

nah... if you dont understand the whole process enchillada will not get real good feedback and $ offers. choose the best scene you've got and make a 3 min short movie. it will enlight you about all the different steps of a movie making endeavour (including how to deal w bad screenplay in the shooting and post editing...

in my experience in the university all writers get fatal frustation when image on screen does not make for image from imagination...

so, your short is not to get an oscar, but to expand perception to be ready to talk to producers and other pro people to REAL make your screenplay to movie.

hope this quest get you where you want to be.

Thanks for all the input! It is eyes opening to get all the different perspectives.

Regarding the comments on people failing to sell specs via competitions, specs struggle to get made across the board. That's just how the industry is right now.

Leveraging a competition placement to secure work and/or start a career is more networking than anything else. It's not a direct result of the competition itself. This does seem to be the trend with competition related success stories though. People feel empowered by the validation and emboldened to start knocking on doors.

Not too hard for the likes of the Academy to get the writer's fee from union productions a person is credited on, providing the budget sheets are transparent. Almost impossible if the writer is being paid via participation. I agree that's it's kinda gross, and also very revealing, when pros compete.

I've received accolades in 3 competitions, and it seems to be a badge to share when pitching. Reasons I enter - gives this procrastinating writer a deadline to finish/enter, I see how I rank against others, I receive interesting cover (which sometimes is valid, sometimes isn't but always interesting perspective).

Competition organizers make lots of money on the entrance fees. That's their goal, remember that. As a producer myself, I will tell you I am absolutely unimpressed by competition wins and don't care one bit what judges opinions are/were. However, if the logline and synopsis is interesting, a competition win may put it to the top of my pile to read. That's just my personal attitude.

Hey, Brian. I totally agree with everyone who has commented. I personally enter contests for networking and notes. It also helps to boost confidence and accomplishments when pitching. Not sure the type of "exposure" contests will give for your desired result. Whatever it is good luck and keep writing. Onward and upward.

Competitions are, first & foremost, businesses having a specific goal of fattening their own purses, Not yours. In fact, your career isn't even on their RADAR. That's pretty much the end of the story. I'm aware of a couple of script winning scripts that have gone on to production but it's not been the result of winning festivals bur rather the efforts of the writers. Yes I know about the top tier festivals but I'm confident in saying you ain't there yet.