Here's a Free Screenwriting Contest for You to Try

One of the sites I like to frequent is The Script Lab. I think they usually have interesting articles and ideas. Now, they have something else I think you're going to enjoy. It's a free competition through which winners receive exposure to a strong industry jury and cash prizes. There's a limit of one submission per person, but they are accepting features, TV pilots, shorts, and webseries scripts.

So how can this be free? Well, the idea is, the readers are only going to read a few pages. 

As they put it, "First impressions are important: For this free competition, all scripts will receive an initial first impression read, consisting of just the first few pages of each script. Your first few pages are especially important because many readers at studios and agencies make a decision about a script based on the first few pages. Please enter your full screenplay, because the screenplays that advance to subsequent rounds will receive full evaluations from our judges." 

Not everything is free. If you want two to three pages of optional feedback from a professional screenplay reader, you have to pay $79.99. But the actual entry into the competition is free. 

There are cash prices of $500, $100, and $50. I think it's a little lame to give away less money for third place than it would cost to get the notes, but that's just me. The important part is the free entry. 

The winners also get circulation and personal recommendation of the loglines of the top three scripts to the Coverfly network of hundreds of industry professionals such as agents, managers, producers, and studio executives.

The deadline is July 31, 2021. 

So head HERE to enter and break a leg!