Screenwriting : Contest fraud by Brian Walsh

Many (maybe most) of 'em.

Last time I check there were 800 contests on FilmFreeway.

Does that feel like a legitimate industry. They all say the same thing “helping writers get exposure”, “they have industry experts”, “studio executes”...

thats a slippery slope when people in the same business are competing for the same customers.

You're going to struggle to find people who will name names but there's a bigger picture here. Within the industry, screenwriting competitions in general have a dire reputation. It's a completely unregulated industry with little transparency. The Nicholls are held in relatively high regard because they are non-for-profit, have a rigorous evaluation process, and have the weight of the academy behind them.

Stage 32 are coming at things from a different angle as they go to great lengths to qualify their readers and, most importantly, put a lot of effort into matching their winners with industry members which few competitions do. Most publish a list and walk away.

Coverfly are working hard to do a lot of due diligence on what's out there and are cutting a lot of competitions that don't meet a certain standard from their aggregation system.

Some of the "reputable" names have been caught out soliciting readers with little experience for poor pay and even failing to pay the readers they do employ. Even on this forum, one of the most wilfully ignorant screenwriters I know of boasts that they judge for one of the big ones.

Going back to the industry member thing, the most common concerns I hear is that people feel there's no way some of these bigger competitions can be reading all the scripts entered in full and they don't care for the results anyway as they favour non-commercial material. Those that do pay any attention, receive the pdf of finalists/winners, scan through the loglines to see if anything catches their eye and that's it.

As ever, there's another factor here and that's entering competitions for the prize which is fine, particularly if you see it as a prize draw due to the subjectivity.

The most outright corrupt competitions I've seen are The Audience List where a bunch of writers basically co-conspired to create a fake competition that they all won categories within. One of those writers actually sometimes posts here. There was also another, I forget the name of it, that was banned from Film Freeway because every entrant got finalist status with a laurel. Again, a member here from a while back (who was a huge problem) was buying those. You can also go on Fiverr and find at least one well known competition selling access to their mailing list of entrants.

You make some great points CJ Walley. Very insightful.

Judging from the scripts that win most of these competitions (from my superficial browsing), I would agree with CJ Walley that they are not going for stuff that might actually get made. Perhaps the competitions are somewhat useful, if you are looking to get hired for a writer's room. But other than that, I have a feeling they are mostly a waste of time (and money).

Not surprised. What screenplay contests want and what studios are actually looking for can differ widely. I should know. I was in marketing for several major studios. Plus everyone and their mother has the perfect movie in their head so screenplay contests are fertile ground for exploiting those dreams. Focus on the top 20 and those looking for your genre. Of course many accept all genres.

I am a big podcast listener. Most of the podcasts that have “big time” writers on them say that Competitions don’t count. That the industry doesn’t care.

Having said that if you have them in your plan, then you need them.

You may use it has an opening line to a manager, “Hi, I’ve won everything”.

I consider them fun. If you go in with that mindset you can’t get emotional scared.

Hey, I wanna know how Shia LaBeouf wins every contest. LOL.

I don't know how using inexperienced reade s for the first round of a contest is any different than a production company that uses unpaid interns or something similar to select screenplays to buy.

After the first round in a contest, it eventually gets to people who know what they are doing, and eventually gets to finalist judges who are in the industry (I have been one of those a few times).

But there are only a handful of contests that matter - and none of them have this problem. So just focus on the top contests and you will be fine.

I agree with William - just stick with the top half dozen or so. Most of the others are just black holes sucking the money out of your wallet.

I'm firmly with RB on this. Apathy is how this situation was created in the first place. We shouldn't just accept the race to the bottom and we shouldn't allow a monopolisation to grow as a result. For every opinion leader who says "so what", another set of naive writers lose money and motivation that could have been put to better use elsewhere. We have a duty to protect our fellow creatives. It has to be called out and we have to demand better. It took years for key influencers to take a clear position on this topic and, by then, there were over 1,500 screenwriting competitions in existence with writers getting addicted to a gambling mentality.

Stage 32 have proven that someone can come along with a slightly different approach to the model and get results. Coverfly, as mentioned, are working to try and clean the industry up. I myself have drawn a very clear line in the sand on Script Revolution.

If competitions have to limit the number of entrants, raise late entry costs, increase judging time, or whatever to improve quality then so be it. They should be forced to innovate and challenge those at the top. It's simply wrong to have writers paying $50 a pop only to have their scripts casually glanced over by unqualified judges.

I can’t speak to reading talent, but i understand that there has been a large amount of entries in the last year. That is putting pressure on contests to pick up new readers. I chalk it up to growing pains, not that people don’t know what they are doing.

Contests are like the drug trade - as long as there are users, there'll be dealers. Just say NO! Take the time to network, build relationships, give more than take. And always work on your craft. Quit trying to use contests as a shortcut to fame. Quit using contests as an emotional balm - have confidence in your work!

It's a marathon not a sprint.

Okay, rant done. :)