Weird. Bizarre. Alternative.

The Not Your Grandmas Screenplay Competition was founded on the principle that a venue for alternative screenplays is lacking the the film industry. Our competition is focused on rewarding high quality alternative screenplays that might not have a home in traditional screenplay competitions. We have an affinity for the weird, a love of the bizarre, and an appreciation for the alternative. We feels there is a space for “non-traditional” screenplays and started NYGSC to help elevate those screenplays.

Submissions open in February with regular deadline in May and the late deadline in June. Finalists will be announced in July and winners of the competition will be announced at the beginning of August!

Jurors include professional writers, producers, and filmmakers.

Awards & Prizes

Grand Jury Award - This award is given to the screenplay our jury loves the most. Each script will be evaluated on story, character, creativity, and other factors- yes, even spelling, grammar, and format count.

Coolest Monster Award - This award is given to the screenplay with the coolest monster or villain. Basically, a killer antagonist is what this award is for.

Badass Lady Award - Does your screenplay have a badass female character? We want to make sure we reward screenplays that depict their female characters just as cool, strong, and awesome as their male characters.

Ohhh Plot Twist Award - You know when you get towards the end of the script and there is that amazing plot twist you didn't see coming but you should have seen it because all the clues were there? Exactly.

Worst Thing We’ve Ever Read Award - Ok… this one is controversial. BUT, even if we hated your script, we still think you deserve a prize. Congrats- your script sucks, you may as well get a laurel for it.

“Crazy Good” Honorable Mention Awards - We also pick an honorable mention for each category for those screenplays that just need a little extra nudge to get them over the top.

Rules & Terms

We accept both feature length screenplays and short screenplays. All screenplays should be submitted in PDF form via FilmFreeway(see link bellow). We are a small operation of 1 and unfortunately can not accept mailed printed copies of script at this time.

Though we are focused on alternative genres, we still aim for high quality, compelling, and original screenplays.

Short scripts must be 15 pages or shorter, no minimum page count. This is to not only ensure that we can read all the shorts submissions but also so that you, the screenwriter, have a short script that is shootable.

Feature scripts must be 110 pages or shorter with a 50 page minimum page count
11 Reviews
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  • Masoud Shahidi

    It was a great experience for me.
    Thank you to all the judges who gave me a special MUST READ award for "FATE".
    And thank you for Not Your Grandma’s Screenplay Competition.

    August 2021
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  • Maxwell Highsmith

    I was drawn to to this festival because of it's title! I loved it because it meant there was a place for the stories in my head. It did not disappoint. Ended up being a Finalist. How cool is that? I'm a Finalist in a Screenplay Competition with a Funny name. You can not have more fun than that. #SoThankfulButEternallyGrateful. Thanks folks for #TimeOfMyLife.

    August 2021
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  • Glenn Lissner

    Fun festival with a variety of great awards beyond the obvious. Keep it up.

    August 2021
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  • Jonathan Zarantonello

    The passion that this festival exudes is contagious. Lots of love, respect and gratitude for Not Your Grandma's!

    August 2021
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  • Ana Jobrail

    I love this! It was easy to submit. Deadlines were met by the festival. I will enter again and again!

    August 2021
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