What Category Is My Big Break Script?

Every screenwriter who enters the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest faces the same decision before hitting submit: ‘Which category do I enter?’ 

It sounds like a simple enough choice to make, but your chances of placing or winning Big Break are greatly increased if you pick the right category for your script. 

Because of this, you should rethink the question: 'What category is my script?’

See the subtle but important difference? It’s not about simply placing your script into a category; it’s selecting the category that best represents your script, or to be more specific, what genre it falls under.

Big Break divides and awards its feature categories by genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy/Rom-Com, Drama, Family/Animated, Period/Historical/War, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and Thriller/Horror. Television entries are divided and awarded by format: Half-Hour Pilot and Hour-Long Pilot, rather than by genre. Additionally, short films have a single overall winner. However, while these categories are not genre-based in terms of the prizes awarded, selecting the genre that best fits your project will help get your script into the hands of readers who will understand it best. 

Let's break down the categories below.

Big Break readers are industry professionals. In many cases, they’ve worked as readers for studios or production companies, and some are even experienced screenwriters. As a result, they’ve read their share of scripts and possess an insider’s knowledge of the marketplace. 

Also, at the start of every Big Break season, they’re asked which categories they prefer, so it’s likely that the person reading will be a fan of the categories they’ve picked. This is arguably the most important reason to know your script’s genre: you want to make sure the people reading are fans of the type of content you wrote. If you wrote a Horror/Thriller, you’ll likely get a better read from someone who likes horror than Rom-Coms. Note: This also applies to TV formats and Short Film Script categories. 

So, when you’re choosing a Big Break category, you’re not just picking a genre or format, you’re picking a reader. What’s more, a specific kind of reader. 

Action films emphasize action-packed thrills and excitement. Typically, the protagonist has to battle various opponents and overcome several physical obstacles. Popular examples are the Mission Impossible, Fast & Furious and John Wick films. Martial arts films — even if they take place in the past and during a specific historical period — are usually categorized as action films because of their emphasis on action set pieces. More grounded superhero films that focus on a character without superpowers (e.g., Batman, The Punisher) can likewise fall into this category. Adventure films often contain a lot of action and excitement as well, but they’re usually marked by a protagonist on a quest and journeying to far-off places. Popular examples are the Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and Tomb Raider films. 

Comedies place humor and laughs above everything else. They feature comedic set pieces, and the protagonist often tries to achieve a goal but is thwarted by obstacles and misadventures. 

Popular examples are Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Bridesmaids, and The Hangover and Vacation films. Rom-Coms (Romantic Comedies) are distinguished by a romantic storyline, and often center on a couple’s unusual courtship. Popular examples are Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle, and Anyone But You.

Dramas are often more character-driven stories that can include a wide variety of subgenres from coming-of-age melodramas to sports and crime dramas. Ultimately, what defines a drama is an emphasis on dramatic material and the greater human condition.

As with Action/Adventure films, sometimes a Drama can take place in the past and during a specific period if the emphasis is on fictional characters and the historical backdrop is just that: a backdrop (e.g., The Godfather films are usually categorized as crime dramas). Other popular examples are Dead Poets Society, Do the Right Thing, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Redemption, and the Rocky films.

Family films are child-friendly and/or can be enjoyed by members of an entire family. Popular live-action examples are the Free Willy, Freaky Friday and Home Alone films. Some people also include E.T. (although that can also fall under Sci-Fi). These days, most family films tend to be animated and include examples such as Hoppers, as well as the Super Mario Bros, Zootopia and Toy Story films.

Period, Historical and War films are dramatic stories with emphasis on real-life people and/or events in history. They can also focus on fictional characters, but the historical element has to be a strong component of the story (e.g., Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained). If you’ve written a Western, WWII script, or biopic about a person who had a major impact on the world, go with this category. Popular examples are Schindler’s List, Wyatt Earp, Saving Private Ryan, The Aviator, Dunkirk, The Imitation Game and Oppenheimer. 

Sci-Fi (Science Fiction) films usually take place in the future or center around extraterrestrial lifeforms or a technological advancement (e.g., a time machine). Popular examples are Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Project Hail Mary, and the Back to the Future and Star Trek films. Fantasy films center around a fantastical world or characters with fantastical powers. Popular examples are Conan the Barbarian, the Lord of the Rings and Twilight series and many superhero movies (e.g., the Superman and Thor films).

Thrillers place the protagonist into a frightening or dangerous situation, which they struggle to overcome. Popular examples are Basic Instinct, Single White Female, The Housemaid, and pretty much every Hitchcock film. Sometimes crime dramas get confused with crime thrillers, especially if they center around a murder: the question to ask is “How pervasive is the threat to the protagonist?” If there isn’t much of a threat, it’s probably a crime drama (e.g., Mystic River); if there is a threat, it’s likely a crime thriller (e.g., Se7en). 

Horror films are easier to distinguish, often involving a supernatural threat, a monster or a killer of some sort. They emphasize scary or gruesome set pieces. Popular examples are the Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw and Scream series.

This teleplay format typically means comedy or lighter fare. Many classic sitcoms of the 20th century would fall under this category: Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, etc. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a multi-camera show, and can include a more contemporary spin on the formula (e.g., The Office, The Comeback, Eastbound & Down, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).

This teleplay format usually signals more complex or dramatic storytelling. It can be anything from a network procedural (e.g., NCIS, Criminal Minds) to gritty crime drama (e.g., The Sopranos, Breaking Bad) to black comedy drama (e.g., Succession, The White Lotus). If you’re writing for a network, keep the page count down to 50 pages and include act breaks (in Final Draft formatting, one page = one minute of screen time). If you’re writing for cable, it can be between 50 and 60 pages, and you don’t need breaks.

This category applies to both feature and television scripts, and it can be a script in any genre or format. This category is open to American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, LatinX, LGBTQIA, Middle Eastern, Women, Non-Binary, Differently-abled, and any other voices that have been historically ignored by Hollywood.

Your script doesn’t have to be about diversity; you just have to identify as one of the above types of writers.

The Big Break contest also allows you to submit the same script into multiple categories. So let’s say that you belong to an underrepresented group and you wrote a Thriller/Horror, you can enter your script twice: once as a Thriller/Horror and again as a Diversity submission, which also doubles your chances for your script.

Some scripts resist a single category. This can be a strong creative approach, and it’s becoming increasingly popular.

Genre-bending has been responsible for some of the most acclaimed and commercially successful screenplays of recent years.  Cocaine Bear blended horror and comedy into a sleeper hit. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was a box office and critical hit, largely because it refused to behave like just one kind of movie: it’s simultaneously a period drama, a horror film, a blues musical, and something that feels almost mythological. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's Everything Everywhere All at Once was likewise a critical and commercial hit, and it likewise combined a plethora of subgenres: family melodrama, sci-fi multiverse adventure, martial arts, and a philosophical comedy.

But what category applies to scripts like this?

Remember, the Big Break contest allows you to submit the same script into multiple categories. Doing this can boost the probability of your material reaching the reader best positioned to champion it. A Horror-Comedy might find different advocates in each category, and both reads are legitimate. You’re also increasing the law of averages: the more categories, the greater your chances.   

However, you shouldn’t enter a category that genuinely doesn’t fit your script. Look over it carefully and pinpoint what genre elements are the most pronounced and consistent throughout. Then submit accordingly.

The Big Break Screenwriting Contest is designed to give writers a path to industry attention, and that path begins with a clear understanding of what you wrote and who it’s written for. Identifying the right category for your screenplay, whether it fits neatly into one genre or bends across several, is one of the best ways to make sure your script gets the read it deserves from Big Break readers. 

And if your script places or wins in its category, it won’t stop there: managers, producers, and development executives are likely to read your script (many of these industry professionals are Big Break judges). Like the readers who help your script advance in the contest, these individuals all know their movie genres and television formats. This is knowledge you can also have, and it doesn’t take film school or years of experience working in the business to know where your own story fits and who it is for. 

Know your genre, choose your category, and good luck!