We launched this festival with the ultimate goal being a proper film festival that screened films for a live audience. It was never our intention to remain an online film festival and or writing competition. This was to be the first year we were going to screen films for a live audience. Unfortunately, due to the Covid Quarantine that won't be possible for some time. As such, we won't be relaunching until we can guarantee a date to screen films. Until then be safe and god bless.
Welcome to the Edinburgh Screenwriting Competition. Our goal is to be the world’s foremost screenwriting competition dedicated to promoting the most creative and original authors in the world. Because as Jack Kerouac once said, “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
Our aim is to launch the careers of cinema’s most original screenwriters by creating the world’s most prestigious screenwriting competition. Our goal is to connect emerging original talent with the film industry’s movers and shakers so original storytellers can get their scripts into production. We believe that we have created a vehicle that will do just that. We want to infuse new energy into filmmaking by supporting writers who don’t want to tell the same stories over and over. A lot of writers don’t want to write formula films or stories that fit neatly into a box. They want the blood and guts of raw emotion and creativity. And we want to support you.
We are a team of talented artists and industry professionals from around the world who are passionate about filmmaking and about nurturing, developing, and supporting the next generation of oddball filmmakers and screenwriters from around the globe. People who would dare to make films like “Being John Malkovich, M*A*S*H, Apocalypse Now, Inception, Leaving Las Vegas, Citizen Kane, Sex, Lies, and Video Tape, Clerks, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Before Sunrise, and Do the Right Thing.
Some day we would like to do for screenwriters what Sundance, Toronto, and San Sebastian, do for filmmakers. And we'd love to see more organizations like Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC, and Nicholl supporting screenwriters because every great film begins with a great script.
We reward our Grand Prize winner with consultation packages provided by Roadmap Writers that include sessions with three top talent managers and or production executives and one of those executives provides them with at least one hours worth of script notes. Our top two finalists also receive a consultation with top talent manager and or development executive.
2020's Grand Prize Winner was awarded a one hour consultation with a top manager at Meridian Artists and sessions with a development executives at Stagecoach Entertainment, Storyline, and Kersey Managment. Our finalists met with top talent managers at Fictional Entity and the Bohemia Group.
2019's Grand Prize Winner was awarded a one hour consultation with an executive at Tradition Pictures, in addition to, being personally introduced to several industry executives.
Only the Grand Prize Winner and top two Finalists receive industry distribution and prizes. Semi-Finalists are rewarded with laurels and online recognition like in most screenwriting competitions. Prizes and recognition will not be given to any other entrants.