4 Ways to Improve Your Chances in Screenwriting Contests

Screenwriting contests are a strategic opportunity for emerging screenwriters to have their work read by Film/TV industry professionals and decision-makers. Contests like Final Draft’s Big Break (now open for entries) give screenwriters access to industry insiders, creating opportunities for emerging writers to gain further exposure for their film, TV or short film script. 

Over the past 25 years, many winners and finalists of the Big Break Screenwriting Contest have signed with agents and managers, sold and optioned their winning scripts, and been staffed in TV writers’ rooms (you can view more Big Break success stories here). 

Here are some ways to increase your chances of having your script be successful in a contest. 

A surefire way to grab the attention of the contest reader is to sink your cinematic storytelling hooks into them as quickly as possible. If you can do it from Page One, amazing. If you accomplish that within two-to-three pages, perfect. If by Page Five the general protagonist, concept, genre, and core conflict are all present, that’s even better. 

Readers love a good hook, no different than an audience watching a movie or episode of a TV show. If you can hook them fast, you’re a step ahead of other submissions. 

Hooking a reader early is all about presenting intrigue, character and story potential, and excitement. Some screenwriters mistake this as needing a big shock, scare, or action sequence in the beginning of the script. While having those elements do qualify as great hooks, it’s really more about getting the reader invested in the story and character early on. 

The best way to accomplish that is by presenting a high level of conflict. Putting a character into a high level of conflict intrigues the reader and showcases character and story potential that will excite them enough to keep turning the pages with heightened anticipation and curiosity. 

It’s always helpful to really know and embrace the genre of your screenplay. Most contests these days have genre-specific categories. The readers and judges for these categories have been selected because of their background, expertise, and/or preference within those specific movie genres. Because of that, you want to select the right genre category to enter your script in. For example, you don’t want readers and judges who have no interest or experience in horror reading your terrifying horror script. 

Genre-blending can actually be a great thing, and another way to increase your odds in screenwriting contests. Why? Because you’re bringing in two different audience bases and two sets of audience expectations. In short, genre blends offer something for even more people.

• Ghostbusters is Horror meets Comedy. 
• Alien is Horror meets Science Fiction. 
• Project Hail Mary is Science Fiction meets Comedy.
• Everything Everywhere All At Once blended Martial Arts, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Melodrama. 

If your script is a perfect balance of genres, making it difficult to determine which genre category to choose, you can always enter your script into multiple genre categories as well, increasing your odds of success. 

Before you submit your script to a contest, do one last read through and polish draft. 

Remember, readers and judges aren’t just tasked with looking for the best scripts possible - they need to find the best of the best. If two scripts are being compared and considered for advancement, and one of those scripts is clearly a more polished draft, the one with fewer formatting issues will likely be the one that moves forward. 

So what does a polish draft entail? Just when you think your script couldn’t be written any better, do one final read of it with a rewrite-as-you-go approach. 

A dealership may have a beautiful sports car parked on the lot, waiting to be purchased. It’s sleek. The paint job is amazing. The design is near-flawless. But what stands out the most? That smudge on the hood? That smeared bug on the windshield? The bird droppings on the windows? Presentation is everything when it comes to sales. 

Performing a polish draft is all about doing those final touchups to make that sports car of yours shine brighter and better - and we’re talking about the back, front, top, bottom, and inside. 

As you read your script line-by-line:

• Do a final check for spelling and grammatical errors. 
• Shore up any plot holes. 
• Trim down dialogue to its core. 
• Edit scene description down to one-to-two sentences or fragments per block. 
• Make sure your location sluglines are consistent.

It’s all about polishing your script and trimming the fat away so you have a script that’s easy to read and even easier to visualize. 

90-120 pages is the sweet spot for readers. An age-old Hollywood metric is the One Page=One Minute scale. While it’s a generalization, it actually ends up being fairly accurate. So a 90 page script would be a 90 minute movie, a 120 page script a two hour movie, and so on. 

If the script is under 80 pages, that could be a red flag that it’s underwritten. If the script is 130 or 140 pages long, that’s a telltale sign for readers that the script is overwritten. 

Here’s an insider point of view from a script reader’s perspective: the first thing a reader sometimes looks at is the page count. They’ll still read all of those pages no matter what the page count may be (as long as they stay within contest rules), but you can increase your odds of success by having readers go into the script without any red flags or natural stressors registering from the page count alone.

Trim pages however you can. And most of the time it’s not about just making a page count. It will also help your script’s pacing and readability.

Contests are a powerful entry point for new writers that have yet to build a strong industry network. By following the above tips, you give your script a better chance of standing out with screenwriting contest judges.

Good Luck!