RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Film Office today announced that the 2018 Virginia Screenwriting Competition will accept screenplay submissions beginning April 13th, 2018. The film office established the competition, now in its 30th year, to provide Virginia screenwriters with a forum for their work and an opportunity to present their scripts to professionals in the motion picture and television industry. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, May 29, 2018.
The competition is one of the few in the nation that does not require an entrance fee, and in which all entrants receive a free written evaluation from the first round judges. Distinguished past winners include Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, who won in 1989 for his screenplay Home Fries, and Megan Holley, who won in 2003 for her screenplay Sunshine Cleaning.
The competition is open exclusively to Virginia residents or students currently enrolled in Virginia schools. Each script submitted must take place in Virginia, or at locations that can reasonably be filmed in Virginia.
Feature film scripts must be approximately 90-120 pages in length. For the third consecutive year, the competition will also accept scripts made for one-hour series pilots, a reflection of the high-caliber of writing found in today’s television and new media programming. Series pilots must be approximately 45-65 pages in length.
All scripts must be typed and submitted in a standard screenplay format, with numbered pages and a title page without any personal information. All scripts must be saved in a non-editable format such as a PDF. All screenplays must be e-mailed to screenplay@virginia.org no later than midnight on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. An accompanying application must also be filled out on the film office website.
Screenplays are first read by Virginia judges, and finalists are selected and submitted to a second panel of judges who are currently working professionally in the entertainment industry. Three winning screenplays are then selected, and notifications of results are made in October 2018. The three winning writers are each recognized before a spotlight screening at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville and awarded a prize of $1,000 per winner. This year’s Virginia Film Festival will take place November 1-4, 2018.
The winners of the 2017 Virginia Screenwriting Competition are: Caroline Hoover for THE TRIP, Gabrielle Sanchez and Brigid Laurie for REVELATIONS, and Adam Lapallo for WOLFPACK FENCERS. More information on past winners and their scripts can be found on the Virginia Film Office website.
For additional information, visit www.filmvirginia.org, or call the Film Office at (800) 854-6233.
For rules, guidelines, and to fill out an application, click here.
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