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Screenwriting Contest Benefits And Pitfalls

You've typed "Fade Out" on your last page and fastened the pages of your screenplay together with #5 Acco brads and registered your work with WGA. The next step is to get your script noticed. If you've written more than one screenplay, you already know you will spend a good deal of time trying to get an agent or production company interested in reading it. Your ultimate goal is to sell your work and these are the people who can make that happen. You may send out queries or make cold calls, submit your work online or off. But if you've done this before without results, maybe you should consider another approach - promoting your work through screenwriting contests.

How Contests Can Help Market Your Script
Many scriptwriting contests offer cash prizes to winners. But look for additional offers like, representation or introduction to industry professionals. Other benefits included in some contests are announcements made to the industry by the contest sponsors. The Nicholls competition for instance, sends out announcements each year at the end of the competition. It includes a list of winners, finalists, semi-finalists, and quarter-finalists. If your name is included on any of these lists, it’s quite likely you will receive a request for your script or a synopsis. And you don’t have to be in the higher ranks to be contacted. Even quarter-finalists get requests from producers, directors and others looking for the next big hit. They see contests as a filter and know that only the best scripts rise to the top. Material already screened through the contest, insures the professional that he won’t be wasting his time on a badly written script.

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