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Competitions, Contests, And The People Who Love Them
Posted by Josie Campbell in Job Hunt
Getting your foot in the door as a writer means getting your work into the hands of possible readers. Specifically possible readers with professional connections.
Doing this is easier said than done. While there is no one true path to a writing career, there is a common one: submitting to competitions. From professional writers to professors, you’ve probably heard the advice to send your screenplay to a competition. Winning a big festival can definitely open doors, attracting managers and agents and giving your career a real bump. But before you dash off in a frenzied attempt to submit to as many festivals as possible, you need to know this basic fact: not all competitions are created equal.
There are thousands of contests out there, and unless you posses a mix of Superman’s speed and Lex Luthor’s wealth, there is no way to submit to them all. Nor should you! The truth is, outside of a select few prestigious fellowships, most screenplay competitions are useless for purposes of getting noticed. Agents aren’t looking for the next big thing out of the Tri-County Regional Action Film Festival of the Greater New Buffalo Area. And major TV studios often have their own fellowships and programs from which they staff their shows.
While there is no definitive list of best-known festivals, I’ve compiled a list below of some of the most mainstream Big Ones: contests with name recognition and real industry clout.
This doesn’t mean you can NEVER UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH submit to other screenplay competitions. There are lesser-known contests that boast impressive writer success rates. What this means is that you need to invest the same amount of time and effort you devote to your job applications to your contest submissions. Blindly submitting to multiple contests will just exhaust you and your bank account. Adopt the strategy “submit smarter, not harder.” Pick one competition, make sure to polish your work, write a stellar cover letter or creative statement, and expend your energy on making your submission the best before moving on to the next contest.
If you do decide to submit to a festival outside of the main ones, make sure to research thoroughly. If the competition is not tied into a major studio, an established festival, or will not send your script to agents and managers, don’t bother. The reason you’re entering a contest is to attract professional attention, not because you desperately want to win the L.A. Dramatic Shorts Festival. I recommend using withoutabox.com. This website has a huge database listing legitimate contests (including the Big Ones) and allows you to save trees by submitting online. Never pay extra for “coverage” or “Notes from the judges.” This is just an easy way for festivals to make extra money and doesn’t benefit you at all–unless you like getting a paragraph with vague suggestions and encouragements to submit again next year.
Most imporatntly, remember the one vital ingredient in winning a competition: luck. There are a ton of talented people submitting to a fairly small pool of contests, and even the best writers get rejected sometimes. So don’t get discouraged–get working! After all, there’s still time to submit to Final Draft’s Big Break and who knows? You might get very lucky!
The Big Ones:
The Austin Film Festival
The ABC/Disney Writers Fellowship
The Nicholl Fellowship
Final Draft’s Big Break International Screenwriting Competition
Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship
Warner Brothers Writer’s Workshop
Fox Entertainment Group Diversity Development
NBC Diversity Initiative for Writers
NBC Writers on the Verge
Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab
Zoetrope Screenplay Contest
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