Writers judge filmmakers and filmmakers judge writers. It’s that simple! We fund you to collaborate.

The writers review films and decide the best filmmaker. The filmmakers read scripts and decide the top 10 scripts. The winning filmmaker selects one of the top 10 scripts to shoot and we fund the production. The screenwriter gets paid and their script made. The filmmaker gets funded to shoot the script.

Visit www.writersandfilmmakers.com to enter now. Pay only when the competition starts (That way we are not holding your money). Approximately 500 writers and 500 filmmakers can enter. Imagine competing with only 500 people. TIFF and Sundance had over 15,000 submissions last year. WE DON'T HAVE A FIXED DEADLINE - when we hit 1000 entries we will begin shortly after. Show your commitment!
The winning filmmaker wins up to $25,000 to shoot one of the top 10 scripts. Winning writer receives up to $10,000 for their short script!

The filmmaker owns 100% of the film. Writersandfilmmakers.com owns 0%.

(Please be advised we have a rolling deadline. It's based on submission numbers, not a hard date - when we hit 1000 entries we will begin shortly after. Show your commitment! - sign up!)

The winning filmmaker wins up to $50,000 (Feature) or up to $25,000 (Short) to shoot one of the top 10 scripts. Winning writer receives up to $20,000 (Feature) or up to $10,000 (Short) for their script!

(Please be advised we have a rolling deadline. It's based on submission numbers, not a hard date)

Screenwriter Rules
1. Writers will adhere to contest instructions, FAQ’S, rules, guidelines and regulations.

2. Writers will evaluate all assigned films based on five (5) categories: (1) Directing, (2) Cinematography, (3) Editing, (4) Audio and (5) Production Design.

3. Writers will not evaluate films based on script, plot, dialogue or story structure.

4. Writers will judge all films assigned to them within the time frame provided. Failure to judge all films assigned to them may result in their disqualification.

5. Writers will create (4) four multiple-choice questions with answers about their script for filmmakers to answer. Filmmakers will answer these (4) four multiple-choice questions upon completion of reading said assigned script.

6. Writers must demonstrate they have watched all the content assigned to them by correctly answering multiple-choice questions written by the filmmaker(s).

7. Failure to correctly answer all multiple-choice questions of all assigned work may result in disqualification.

8. All writers of submitted material must be 18 years of age or older effective as of the date of submission, or have parental consent and must fill out a waiver. Please e-mail us at info@writersandfilmmakers.com.

9. Writers may reside in any country.

10. All scripts must be submitted in English.

11. Entry fees and taxes (if you reside in Canada) must be paid online in U.S. or Canadian dollars.

12. Scripts must be the original work of the author(s) and may not be encumbered by any third party. Scripts that have been sold, produced, or are currently under option are not eligible.

13. Entries must be original screenplays. Novels, short stories, stage plays, treatments, synopses, reality show concepts, and/or spec scripts for existing TV series are not eligible.

14. Adaptations of books, plays, or other source material written by another author are not eligible unless the work is in the public domain.

15. Scripts adapted from your own self-published books, plays, or other source material are eligible if you have retained all ownership and rights to your work.

16. Once a script has been entered in the competition, under no circumstances will we accept substitutions of new drafts or corrected pages. If you wish to submit a revised draft of your script, you must enter it as a new submission and pay the appropriate entry fee and applicable taxes (if needed).

17. Writers who advance to the Final Round (top 10 scripts) of competition will have the opportunity to submit a revised draft of their script for the Final Round of judging by the winning filmmaker.

18. All script submissions must be electronically uploaded in PDF in the appropriate screenwriting format. The contest and its administrators are not responsible for submissions that are damaged or not properly uploaded or formatted.

19. Decisions of the winning filmmaker are final and may not be disputed.

20. The contest and its administrators may not be held responsible for any errors or omissions on the part of the writer(s) or filmmaker(s).

21. If your script is chosen by the winning filmmaker, the writer forgoes the right to refuse the selling of their script to the winning filmmaker for the agreed upon amount.

22. The contest and its administrators are not be held responsible for any errors or omissions on the part of the filmmaker or writer.

23. Any promises, debts, obligations, agreements or encumbrances sustained or acquired by the winning writer or any writer, are not the emotional or financial responsibility of Writersandfilmmakers.com.

24. All scripts submitted must be registered.

Script Guidelines
Before you submit your script, please make sure you review the following guidelines:

1. All scripts must be submitted in English. Filmmakers cannot evaluate screenplays written in foreign languages.

2. Scripts should be written in standard screenplay format. PDF documents only. Pages should be numbered. 12-point Courier font.

3. Scripts should be standard length. While your entry will not be disqualified if it is longer or shorter than these specified page counts, for your own benefit we recommend that you adhere to the following guidelines:

• Full-Length Features: 80-120 pages

• Short Film Scripts: under 20 pages

4. The judging filmmakers will identify your screenplay solely by its title and possibly other identifiers, such as a script number (given by Writersandfilmmakers.com). All scripts must have a title.

5. Under no circumstances should you include your name or contact information within the body of your script.

Filmmaker Rules
1. Filmmakers will adhere to contest instructions, FAQ’S, rules, guidelines and regulations.

2. Filmmakers will evaluate scripts based on three (3) criteria: (1) Originality/creativity, (2) cost to shoot and (3) ease of shooting.

3. Filmmakers will read and judge all scripts assigned. Failure to read and judge all scripts assigned may result in disqualification.

5. Filmmakers will create four (4) multiple-choice questions with answers for writers to answer upon completion of watching their assigned films.

6. Filmmakers must demonstrate they have read all the content assigned to them by correctly answering multiple-choice questions written by the writer(s) of their work.

7. Failure to correctly answer all multiple-choice questions of all assigned work may result in disqualification.

8. All filmmakers of submitted material must be 18 years of age or older effective as of the date of submission, or have parental consent and must fill out a waiver. Please e-mail us at info@writersandfilmmakers.com.

9. Filmmakers may reside in any country.

10. Films not recorded in English, must be submitted with English subtitles.

11. Entry fees and taxes (if you reside in Canada) must be paid online in U.S. or Canadian dollars.

12. Films submitted must be the work of the filmmaker. A “filmmaker” may be one of the following film crew: Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor, Assistant Director, Audio Recordist, or Production Designer.

13. Once a film(s) has been entered in the competition, under no circumstances will substitutions or newer versions be accepted.

14. All film submissions must be accessible online. The contest and its administrators are not responsible for submissions that are not properly uploaded, or the link is improperly provided, or the website the film is hosted on fails.

15. The filmmaker will upload a private or unlisted link to their film(s) for writers to judge.

16. Decisions by the writers are final and may not be disputed.

17. The contest and its administrators may not be held responsible for any errors or omissions on the part of the writer(s) or filmmaker(s).

18. The winning filmmaker must choose one script to purchase and pay the writer for. The amount is not disputable and may only be altered by Writersandfilmmakers.com.

19. The winning filmmaker agrees to receive the filmmaker’s prize in three installments/steps:

Feature Film Example:

· Step 1: $20,000 (or 20% of funds raised) is awarded to the feature filmmaker upon winning the feature filmmakers prize.

· Step 2: $20,000 (or 20% of funds raised) is then paid to the feature writer by the winning feature filmmaker for the script.

· Step 3: Writersandfilmmakers.com will award $30,000 (or 30% of funds raised) to the winning feature filmmaker upon demonstration and verification that the winning feature writer (chosen by the winning feature filmmaker from the top 10 feature scripts) has agreed and entered in to a contract with the winning feature filmmaker in the amount of $20,000 (or 20% of funds raised).

· The feature filmmaker now has $30,000 (or 30% of funds raised) to shoot principle photography.

· Step 4: $20,000 (or 20% of funds raised) is awarded to the winning feature filmmaker upon demonstration and verification by writersandfilmmakers.com that principal photography has been completed.

· Failure to demonstrate and obtain verification by Writersandfilmmakers.com will result in foregoing of the final payment.

· The winning feature filmmaker, if they complete principle photography upon satisfactory terms set by Writersandfilmmakers.com, should have received $70,000 (or 70% of funds raised) in total, $20,000 (or 20% of funds raised) for the feature writer and $50,000 (or 50% of funds raised) for the feature filmmaker.

Short Film Example:

· Step 1: $10,000 (or 20% of funds raised) is awarded to the short filmmaker upon winning the short filmmakers prize.

· Step 2: $10,000 (or 20% of funds raised) is then paid to the short writer by the winning short filmmaker for the script.

· Step 3: Writersandfilmmakers.com will award $15,000 (or 30% of funds raised) to the winning short filmmaker upon demonstration and verification that the winning short writer (chosen by the winning short filmmaker from the top 10 short scripts) has agreed to a contract with the winning short filmmaker in the amount of $10,000 (or 20% of funds raised).

· The short filmmaker now has $15,000 (or 30%of funds raised) to shoot principle photography.

· Step 4: $10,000 (or 20% of funds raised) is awarded to the winning short filmmaker upon demonstration and verification by Writersandfilmmakers.com that principal photography has been completed.

· Failure to demonstrate and obtain verification by Writersandfilmmakers.com will result in foregoing of the final payment.

20. Any promises, debts, obligations, agreements or encumbrances sustained or acquired by the winning filmmaker or any filmmaker, are not the emotional or financial responsibility of the writer or Writersandfilmmakers.com.

21. Short film filmmaker competition entrants require a minimum of 5 minutes of video.

· If you want to submit only one video, it must be a minimum of 5 minutes.

· If you want to submit more than one video, they must total over 5 minutes.

· You cannot submit more than 3 videos or clips.

· Do not submit more than 20 minutes of footage, unless you are submitting only one clip and it’s longer than 20 minutes.

· If you submit more than one video, each video will be judged, but your score will be aggregated/averaged.

Feature filmmaker competition entrants require a minimum of 20 minutes of video.

· If you want to submit only one video, it must be a minimum of 20 minutes.

· If you want to submit more than one video, they must total over 20 minutes.

· You cannot submit more than six videos or clips.

· Do not submit more than two hours of footage, unless you are submitting only one film and it’s longer than 2 hours.

· If you submit more than one video, each video will be judged, but your score will be aggregated/averaged.

22. The filmmaker agrees and acknowledges that the scripts they are assigned are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, Canada, England and all countries with which the United States and Canada has reciprocal copyright relations, whether through bilateral or multilateral treaties or otherwise, and including the not limited to, all countries covered by the Pan-American copyright convention, the Universal copyright convention, and the Berne convention.

23. All rights to the script are strictly reserved, including, without limitation, professional and amateur performance rights, stage rights, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video, and sound recording rights; rights to all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction now known or yet to be invented, such as CD, DVD, Blu-ray, screen capture, email, scanning, photocopying and information storage and retrieval systems; and the rights of translation and non-English languages.

24. Any individual or group receiving permission to produce a script is required to give credit to the author as the sole and exclusive author. This obligation applies to the title page of every program distributed in connection with performance or screening of the script, and in any instance that the title of the script/film appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing, or otherwise exploiting the script or a production thereof. The name of the author must appear in all credits on a separate line, in which no other name appears. The name of the author may not be abbreviated or otherwise altered.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Writers & Filmmakers was an enjoyable competition and I could see myself participating again in the future, depending on time and availability. The organizers were very communicative and helpful, and the other participants were constructive in their feedback, and detailed.

    September 2018
  • Tom Grady

    I learned so much from being involved with this rigorous and rewarding process. They were in frequent contact and responded to queries quickly and professionally. The most rewarding experience so far of 2016--And I didn't come close to winning!

    May 2016