“With every competition, you’re rolling the dice,” says Haley Bartels, whose can’t-put-it-down screenplay Pumping Black, about blood doping in the world of competitive cycling, earned her a Nicholl Fellowship last year.
“You have to have a great, polished script, but you also have to roll enough times to hit those double sixes. Thinking of it like that, the Nicholl was well worth not just that entry fee, but every dollar I’ve ever spent on any contest.”
This list can’t help you write a fantastic script, but it will help you find the contests with the best possible results. To help you spend less time researching screenplay contests and more time writing, we’ve compiled this year’s list of 15 Submission-Worthy Screenplay Competitions by focusing on the ones we think will really make a difference.
Academy Nicholl Fellowship
Entry Fee: $50-90
Submission Period: March 2-May 2
With the backing of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Nicholl Fellowship has become one of the most prestigious of all script competitions. Each year, five amateur screenwriters receive $35,000, in the expectation that they will write a new screenplay within the year, under an Academy member’s mentorship. All scripts are read twice, the quarterfinals are judged by industry professionals, and the semifinal round of judging is by actual Academy members.
Past fellows include Alfredo Botello (F9), Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), and Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys). Bartels, who we quoted in our intro, noticed an immediate difference when she became one of last year’s five fellows.
“Winning the Nicholl has changed the trajectory of my life. It kickstarted my career in a way I never could have imagined,” she says.
Before you enter this one, you may want to listen to all five current Nicholl Fellows on the MovieMaker podcast, talking about their scripts and what they have in common. All five fellows agree that Nicholl loves very personal stories. That doesn’t necessarily mean autobiographical stories — it means stories that no one but you could write. You can read their advice in this story and in greater detail on our podcast, available on Apple or Spotify or here:
Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Entry Fee: $30-100
Submission Period: June 10-November 18
One of the most exciting things about Atlanta’s prizes is that short, pilot, and feature winners are invited to the festival (which also happens to be one of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee) to take part in a staged reading of an excerpt with SAG actors.
“The staged reading was my favorite part of the whole process. My script is about a group of Jewish friends who plan a heist on a Swiss bank, stealing back long-lost Nazi gold. It draws on my grandmother’s experience escaping Europe during the war, and the festival was kind enough to dedicate the reading to her. Through and through, they nailed the personal touch,” 2020 winner Val Bodurtha told MovieMaker. She added that the festival also “connected me with a very skilled mentor in the comedy world! As a comedy writer first and foremost, I felt especially seen.”
Three feature winners are also invited to an all-expenses paid retreat to meet industry professionals and workshop their screenplays. Winners will also receive a cash prize of $250-500, a travel stipend, and an All-Access badge to the festival.
Val Bodurtha, whose script The Shtick-Up was the winner of the 2020 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Photo courtesy of Val Bodurtha
Entry Fee: $40-80
Submission Period: March 25-May 16
The Austin Film Festival — another of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee — is a juggernaut of a screenwriting contest and festival. AFF is the place to be for screenwriters, whether your script makes the cut or not.
Winners of the competition receive cash prizes and the coveted Bronze Typewriter trophy, but the biggest draw is meeting your peers at the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin. If you don’t place and just attend the conference, you’ll still find that networking opportunities are everywhere: You’ll be able to attend multiple roundtables and workshops with professional writers, managers, executives, and agents.
Entry Fee: $30 per month for hosting a script
Submission Period: January 5-July 17
Six to eight writers are selected for The Black List Lab, a month-long feature program in September. It will begin virtually and conclude with an in-person workshop in Los Angeles, where writers will work on a feature screenplay through one-on-one sessions with mentors and in peer workshops.
Previous Black List Lab alums include Noga Pnueli, whose 2018 script Meet Cute is being made into a film starring Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson.
“Through their various programs — their website, feature writers lab and live reads — the Black List gave me the exposure I needed to launch my career,” Pnueli told MovieMaker. “But perhaps even more valuably, the community they build within and around their writers is one that has provided me with the solidarity, support and knowledge I need to maintain and develop my career further without losing my damn mind.”
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