Screenwriting : Screenwriting competition judges by Allyson Rice

There are some many competitions there could never be enough people in the above groups.

I don't know what that comment means in relation the to question about what judges for the finalist group means. ?

You mean the hourly for the competition/participation wise?

I'd like to know too because money is always a taboo subject. Folks don't discuss publicly how much they're making or not.

But I talked to a couple of Managers (they rep WGA Writers and DGA Directors) and they said they volunteer to be judges at Screenwriting competitions/festivals in California and Texas. They get airfare & Hotel comped.

It depends on the contest, its structure, who's running it, what other services it offers, like paid notes, and what "level" of a judge or "judging" tier setup. Some contests hire reading services and/or independent readers to get through thousands and thousands of scripts for the first round, quarterfinals, maybe the semi-finals too, depends, then from there, the advancing scripts are read by judges, who are usually formally or currently working industry pros. My former mentor, a former V.P. of Development at United Artists, would often be a finalist judge for competitions, like PAGE, etc. She would be one of several finalists judges who would read and judge only the scripts that made it into the final round; she'd help choose the grand prize winner or category winner(s), etc. Anyway, I believe (?) most contests at the higher level of judging are volunteer-based. Maybe ask Danny Manus to verify? Send him a private message. He's been a finalist judge for PAGE as well. Hope that helps! ;)

Allyson, in years past I've been both a competitive script and film judge at several venues in the NW and N CA. I don't recall ever being paid but I've had hotels, meals and travel comped/reimbursed and I always get free access to the Festival goings on. It's a great place for me as a Producer to hunt up some new talent and shorts for my cable show. Sadly, pickins are pretty slim.

Sorry, I thought you meant how many are in the competition as judges. What a comp pays people is very little.

I heard the guy from Bluecat say he paid $11 a script.

When it get to the finals, hard to say.

Thanks for all the input, everyone! So this is a script competition for short film scripts, not a festival that people will be flying in for. My company will be making the winning film script. We'd like to have Lit Agents/Managers/Industry Execs be the panel that will judge the round of finalists. We assume that those judges are compensated financially for doing that. And that information is really hard to find anywhere! Thanks for the Danny Manus suggestion, Beth. I'll do that!

Allyson Rice let me know when the competition is set up, I've got a couple of scripts I'd like to submit.

Allyson - you have some interesting projects in development (but I don't have the password for industry access). Most of it seems to be doc/travel oriented. So my question is: Are you seeking an award winning short script to produce or are you shopping for someone to feed the kitty? You can always PM me.