Damnationland. For 13 goddamn years, we've been showcasing the best up and coming filmmakers from the state of Maine. Our alums have screened films at SXSW, Slamdance, Nashville, and other fancy names of film things.

For years, we've championed the best Maine has to offer. And now, we want to open up our mangled arms to the world. We're hungry - hungry for scripts!

That's right - we want words, short piles of them. We will choose the best to present to our filmmakers for the 2024 program, and maybe your short get's made by on of our amazing, award winning filmmakers.

Usually, we do screenings. The premiere event for Damnationland generally draws over a thousand excited film fans to the beautiful State Theater in Portland every year in early October. We invite the best of the best from Maine to make a piece, to premiere in our program, opening this year on October 18th.

But often, we have great filmmakers that don't want to write the script, or are having trouble coming up with the idea. They're like "What should I make?" and we're like "Make something dark and weird!" and they're like "But, what?"

Soooooo - let's give them your scripts! Then, let's invite you to join us at the State Theatre on October 18th, and share the visceral thrill of watching films that challenge, scare, and entertain us. Like, say, your film! Help us continue to develop the best Maine film talent, and get your script made and shown to a rabid fanbase. Join the dark side.

So send us your dark genre short scripts! We are looking for things that are dark, scary, disturbing, seedy, or just downright weird. Take a look at the archive on our website to see what sort of films we feature.

Visit Damnationland: The Way Film Should Be!

Awards & Prizes

Awards will go to the top ten scripts, as judged by alumni of the Damnationland program.

The Top ten screenwriters will win:

• 2 copies of the Damnationland 2024 Blu Ray
• A Damnationland 2024 T-shirt
• 2 Tickets to the premiere of the 2024 program at the State Theatre in Portland, Maine, on October 18th, 2024.

In addition, the top scripts will be offered to our carefully vetted filmmakers, and, should they decide to shoot your script, we will give you 200 buckaroos. AND your script gets made. Double whammy!

Rules & Terms

Criteria:

1) Your is a quality film made with skill, voice, and vision.
2) Your film is dark, darkly funny, sad, scary, moody, eerie, tragic, disturbing, fantastic, or weird.
3) You are a filmmaker from an underrepresented demographic, or from Maine.

That is it! if you meet these requirements, send us your film!

Preference will be given to International, US, and Regional premieres. But only good ones.

RULES
Film Requirements:
• Entrant must be 21 years of age to enter a film in the festival
• Must be entered in one of the two (2) length categories
• All accepted films will be considered for Special Awards, to be awarded at judges' discretion
• All finished film/video must be in NTSC Acceptable Submission Formats.
• Playable DVDs should be mailed to: Damnationland c/o Allen Baldwin - The Story Board, 175 Lancaster Street Suite 209, Portand, ME 04101

Term and Conditions: Important, please read closely.

1. By entering a submission to Damnationland, you agree to all of the terms and conditions stated below and herein.

2. You are establishing an enforceable agreement with Damnationland, LLC, and therefore are responsible for understanding all these terms and abiding by them. If you do not understand a term, please contact us.

3. You are giving Damnationland, LLC, its licensees, successors, assigns, and any other parties succeeding or authorized by it (collectively, “Damnationland”) certain rights with regard to intellectual property that makes up your submission.

4. With regard to your submission, you agree to give Damnationland a perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive license to use, publicly perform, publicly display, copy, distribute, and create derivative works of your submission in connection with the “Damnationland” name.

5. We agree that Damnationland will give all credits that we practicably can, given case-by-case circumstances.

6. You warrant that all copyrighted material--music, pictures, web content, videos, art, graphic design, etc. (this is not an exhaustive list, rather it is exemplary)—is either owned by you, or that you have express written permission to use any copyrighted material found in your submission. No exceptions.

7. You agree, that in the event that the previous bullet point turns out to be not true (you have infringed someone else’s copyrights), to indemnify and hold harmless Damnationland for any claims or threat of claim against the same, and that you will pay for (first), or reimburse (last resort), all costs associated with defending any such claims against Damnationland for violation of another’s copyright as a result of your submission.

8. You warrant that you have full consent and permission from all people who appear in any identifiable manner in your submission to use their persona in your submission, their knowing and understanding that their image or likeness may be used commercially.

9. You agree to hereby release, indemnify, and hold harmless Damnationland from any and all claims, including, without limitation, claims for damages for libel, infringement of rights of publicity, invasion of privacy, portrayal in a false light, or any other claim from any person based on use of your submission.

10. Any and all disputes arising from your submission shall be first attempted to be resolved by a mediator in Maine, in person or through electronic and phone communication.

11. The parties agree Maine law applies to this agreement, and that all federal and state courts of Maine shall have subject matter jurisdiction of this agreement.

12. This is the entire agreement with respect to the parties, and all other communications about this matter are not a part of this agreement.

1 Review
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  • Devi Snively

    Super fun fest that will only get better in time. Fun and friendly staff and participants who generously offer a travel stipend and accommodations for out-of-towners. Their opening night, featuring regionally-made films, packed a 1000+ person gorgeous old theater. The second day with their new international shorts programming was a more modest affair with less robust attendance, especially during the day (it picked up considerably by evening selling out the final show), but for a first year it was all admirable, and I've no doubt it's going to become more and more successful as they expand. Really great people and very engaging programming with an eclectic mix of very international, dark-themed films. I'd return in a heartbeat. To boot, the restaurants and just walking around Portland are a blast. Get the lobster rueben at Demilla's, stand in line to sample Central Provisions (tapas and cocktails to die for) and grab shellfish and other seafood as Scales (reservations are advised). Oh, and for breakfast, grab Holy Donuts. Some great record shops too if you're into vinyl.

    October 2017
    Helpful