Whether your comedy is romantic, dark, slapstick, animated, broad or dry, we want to read your film or TV script!
Our past winners have gone on to sell their scripts to major studios like Shiwani Srivastava who's script WEDDING SEASON was produced by Netflix and debuted as the 4th most-watched movie globally upon its release.
Winners’ projects will be circulated to ScreenCraft's wide network of industry professionals, with the goal of setting up the winners with production companies and studios, and introducing the top writers to literary managers and agents.
We're thrilled to welcome Industry Expert Tze Chun (I'M A VIRGO, GREMLINS) as well as an incredible add-on prize opportunity with DUMB MONEY screenwriters Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum!
VIP GRAND PRIZE PARTNERSHIP
This year's Grand Prize Winner will be invited to mentorship meetings with top-level execs at Funny or Die.
Funny Or Die (FOD) is a premier entertainment brand and independent comedy studio that creates award-winning, premium comedy with today’s biggest stars and tomorrow’s freshest voices. Funny Or Die reaches a global audience of more than 40 million people across all our social platforms. The company has produced the critically-acclaimed Brockmire for IFC, Emmy-nominated Billy on the Street, the Peabody award-winning American Vandal for Netflix, the Emmy-nominated Sarah Silverman series I Love You, America for Hulu, and the feature films, Between Two Ferns: The Movie for Netflix, and Impractical Jokers: The Movie for Warner Media.
INDUSTRY EXPERT
TZE CHUN
Writer, Director, Producer, Showrunner
We welcome award-winning film and TV writer, director, producer and showrunner Tze Chun as our Industry Expert. Tze will host an exclusive Q&A conversation with this year's semi-finalists. Tze (pronounced “Z”) Chun is Executive Producer and Showrunner of the Gremlins animated prequel GREMLINS: SECRETS OF THE MOGWAI on Max and served as Showrunner and Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed I’M A VIRGO on Amazon Prime. Previously, he wrote and directed an episode of Apple’s BAFTA-nominated anthology show LITTLE AMERICA based on his mother’s life. He was Supervising Producer and writer on Fox’s GOTHAM and wrote on ABC’s hit primetime drama ONCE UPON A TIME. Chun’s writing-directing debut CHILDREN OF INVENTION premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be one of the most-awarded and best-reviewed films of the year. Chun’s second feature COLD COMES THE NIGHT, starring four-time Emmy Winner Bryan Cranston, was released in January 2014 by Sony Pictures. As Co-Founder, President, and Co-Publisher of TKO STUDIOS, one of America’s fastest growing graphic novel publishers, Chun also publishes titles with some of the top names in the industry, including Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist), Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer), Garth Ennis (The Boys), and others.
THE JURY
Get in front of Hollywood judges who love great action & adventure!
JOSH ROEMER-INGLES
Literary Manager, Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment
As a literary manager, Roemer-Ingles represents a variety of creative voices across genres in television and film. He began his career in finance before transitioning to entertainment. He joined Odenkirk Provissiero as Marc Provissiero’s assistant and later become the coordinator for the literary department. OPE is a management-production company that has produced PEN15, NOBODY, NO HARD FEELINGS, among several other titles for streamers and networks.
MARSHALL TURNER
Director of Current Programming, Lionsgate
Marshall Turner is the Director, Current Programming at Lionsgate, who was previously Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs executive assistant and development associate to Manager. Lionsgate is the force behind projects like JULIA Season 2, GHOSTS Season 2, NURSE JACKIE, and more.
MICHAEL JEFFREY DAVIS
Manager, Citizen Skull Productions
Michael Jeffrey Davis is a Manager with Citizen Skull Productions and a prior Coordinator at Elevate Entertainment. A Master’s graduate from UCLA, Michael was the recipient of the Judges and Audience Awards at its annual Producers Marketplace. This spring, Michael was a producer on Tyler Taormina’s CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT, a spirited indie featuring Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, Maria Dizzia, Francesca Scorsese, and more. Drawing from his own lifelong experiences as a creative, Michael’s passionate about advocating for artists everywhere.
JORDAN RUBIO
VP - Comedy/Kids & Family, Film & TV, 3 Pas Studios
Jordan Rubio is the VP - Comedy/Kids & Family, Film & TV at 3Pas Studios, working in both English and Spanish language TV and film. Jordan has been a part of the development, sale, and production of features and TV series at places like Amazon, NewLine, HBOMax, Pantaya, Apple, Netflix, Pantelion, and Lionsgate. Previously Jordan worked at the National Hispanic Media Coalition helping shepherd writers into their "Latino TV writers program", a prestigious TV writing incubator sponsored by NBC Universal and ABC/Disney. Jordan started his career as an intern at The Daily with Jon Stewart and also once co-produced a Star Trek documentary because why not?.
VIVEK KOLLI
Literary Manager, LINK Entertainment
Vivek Kolli is a literary manager at LINK Entertainment a prominent Talent and Literary Management Company whose clients include Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, Famke Janssen, Michael Sheen, and more. On the literary side, clients include series creators and showrunners for Showtime, HBO, CBS, Netflix, and more. As a literary manager, Vivek's primary role is to source new and exciting Feature and Television projects for clientele and bring new clients to LINK. Vivek started his career at Original Film (FASTX, THE BOYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG), and eventually transitioned into management working for Bryan Brucks at 831 Entertainment (clients starring in QUEEN CHARLOTTE: A BRIDGERTON STORY, THE OATH, THE ROYALS, and more).
DAN BODANSK
Manager, Dixon Talent
Daniel Bodansky is a manager at Dixon Talent, Inc., a boutique talent management company based in New York City with offices in Los Angeles that specializes in all aspects of the entertainment industry including television, film, publishing, new media, live appearance, and commercials. The firm represents such comedic and broadcast talent as Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Bill Simmons, Carson Daly and Michelle Wolf among many others. Bodansky started as James Dixon’s assistant in 2006, and over his 17 year career with the company has focused on working with multi-hyphenate talent in building out their careers across all mediums.
THE PRIZES
Grand Prize Winner
The overall grand prize winner will be welcomed to the Writer Development Program and receive personal introductions and phone calls with one or more top Hollywood literary manager(s) who are looking for talented emerging Film & TV screenwriters.
They'll receive:
- Personal Introduction to top literary managers
- Accepted into the Writer Development Program
- $1,000 cash award
- An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
- Virtual Q&A with Tze Chun
Feature & TV Winners:
- $500 cash award
- Accepted into the Writer Development Program
- An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
- Virtual Q&A with Tze Chun
Finalists:
- An exclusive invitation to a Finalist+ workshop to position yourself and your writing to the industry
- Virtual Q&A with Tze Chun
- All finalists will receive personalized written feedback and a call with an industry professional
ADD-ON PRIZE OPPORTUNITY
Mentorship Prize with Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum
This optional add-on prize category will identify one winner to learn, workshop, and strengthen their project with guidance from an industry mentors. This year's mentors Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum will select one writer/writer team that includes this unique add-on benefit with their entry.
Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum have been a film and television writing team since 2012. The pair first met as reporters at The Wall Street Journal. During their time as journalists, they also wrote for The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Embracing their journalistic background, Angelo and Blum tell propulsive, high-energy stories deeply rooted in time and place but with urgent contemporary resonance. The goal of their work is radical empathy: to put viewers behind the eyes of characters very different from themselves, to go on a wild ride and come away with a sense of shared humanity.
Their first feature, Dumb Money, chronicles the January 2021 GameStop short squeeze and stars a prominent ensemble cast featuring Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, America Ferrera and Nick Offerman. The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim and Sony Pictures then released the film wide on September 29nd. Angelo and Blum are also executive producers of the film. Other upcoming projects include reuniting with their Dumb Money director Craig Gillespie on Cruella 2; a feature biopic of first-rate talent agent Sue Mengers starring Jennifer Lawrence set up at AppleTV+, which they also executive produce; adapting Michael Lewis’ New York Times Bestselling book, The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, with filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller attached to direct; and the theatrical feature adaptation of Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated series “Murder, She Wrote”.
For television, they are currently developing a show with Adam McKay for Netflix. Their previous writing credits include the Emmy-winning series “Orange Is The New Black”.
Only projects submitted to the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition AND that select this add-on are eligible for consideration in this category. Additionally, all projects that place in the Top 10 of the competition will automatically be considered.
