Can Screenplay Competitions Be Your Gateway to Fame & Fortune?

Online, March 10, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Hey, everyone!

I'm sure you know that screenwriting is a great skill to acquire, and entering screenplay competitions is a superb way of honing your writing skill and maybe making some good prize money into the bargain. Creating new screenplays is an exciting way of earning a few extra bucks if you're a part-timer, or possibly even making boatloads of money if you come up with a screenplay that sparks the imagination of the public and turns into some sort of long running TV series like Friends or NCIS.

Screenplay writing competitions can be fun, but don't lose sight of the fact that a lot of writers take them very seriously. In the first place there can be serious money to be won. Take the Page International Screenwriting Awards for example. This year, in 2011, The Page awards are offering a stunning $50,000 in total prize money, topped out by a grand prize award of $25,000, enough to buy several tons of cat food and have a very contented puss for many a year!

In addition to the fantastic top prize, (one of screenplay competitions biggest prize awards), there are also many other smaller, but well worth while prizes offered for the winning submissions in the different genres. But the most tantalizing thought of all is that lots of top producers and directors get to read the submissions. So, you never know. You could well strike it lucky and get your screenplay adopted. Just think; the fun of competition, the thrill of winning a cash prize, and the chance of fame and fortune into the bargain too! It doesn't get any better!

The Page awards are just one of many competitions that are on the go very year. The Filmmakers International Screenwriting Awards run another well known competition forum, and not just in the US, but across the world. The size of the cash prizes that Filmmakers awards is smaller than that of the Page Awards, but Filmmakers are one of the most sought after screenplay competitions to take part in because of the exposure that writers get to industry professionals. When it comes down to the wire, it's recognition that budding screenplay writers are really looking for, and Filmmakers has a great reputation for discovering unknown talent.

But keep your eyes open when you are searching around for various screenplay competitions to enter, because some of them charge an entrance fee. Now it you're one of the poorer members of the time honored budding screenwriter's fraternity, (who isn't?), having to lay out cash up front for the privilege of getting your masterpiece into open competition, may not be your idea of a good deal, especially if you are not destined to win one of the prizes, and you're wondering where your next meal is coming from. (This is me in my Charles Dickens mode!). Seriously, it's not everybody's cup of tea. But it has been said by wiser heads than mine that you have to speculate to accumulate, and if winning screenplay competitions gets you and your scripts up in front of the right industry people, then more power to you.

One of the free paying screenplay competitions is run by Script Pipeline, who advertize themselves as being "a pipeline straight into motion pictures". They use over 200 industry relayed companies, (industry agents and managers, etc) to review the competition entries. In 2010, they had in excess of 30,000 screenplays entered. That's an awful lot of reading, but they have had notable successes in past years, including one of the screenplays being sold to Universal for a reported $3 million. Not a bad payday!

But it does go to prove that screenplay competitions are great way of getting started, and even if you don't win big, you'll be getting plenty of opportunity to improve your technique.

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Fade Out,

Brandon
www.HollywoodScreenwritingSecrets.com

p.s. You need to know what screenwriting is, and you need to read this