***UPCOMING SPRING DEADLINES***
FILM FESTIVALS, SCREENWRITING COMPETITIONS, FILM FUNDS AND PRODUCING LABS
CALLS FOR FILMS:
Frameline48 Int’l LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Extended Deadline: March 2, 2024
https://filmfreeway.com/Frameline
Film submissions are open for the Frameline48 Int’l LGBTQ+ Film Festival! Submission waiver
codes are available for students and can be obtained by emailing Matthew at mwong@frameline.org. By submitting to the film festival, you are automatically considered for the Colin Higgins Grant, awards presented by Frameline centered on providing LGBTQ+ youth filmmakers with financial support to continue their work. Eligible applicants must be LGBTQ+ filmmakers under the age of 25 who currently reside in the United States. For Frameline48, two cash prizes of $15,000 each will be awarded in conjunction with the Frameline Film Festival. Frameline will curate up to 10 short films from which the Colin Higgins Foundation (CHF) Board will select two grantees. Secondly, shorts submitted by U.S. residents are also considered for our Voices program: Frameline Voices is a curated program of short films and episodic content representing experiences unique to LGBTQ+ people and communities. The program aims to foster the career advancement of queer, trans and gender non-binary creators through the exhibition of their work. Submit via Film Freeway.
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Tribeca Film Festival:
Various Deadlines through March 13, 2024
https://extranet.tribecafilm.com/submissions
For more than two decades, Tribeca Festival has been a destination for new, groundbreaking storytelling from established and emerging artists. The 2024 Tribeca Festival will take place from June 5-16 in New York City. Next June, Tribeca will continue to explore creative innovation across film, TV, immersive, games, audio storytelling, talks, and more.
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SCREENWRITING LABS/COMPETITIONS
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Script Pipeline Screenwriting Contest
Early Deadline: March 1, 2024
https://scriptpipeline.com/shop/screenwriting-contest
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The 22nd Annual Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition connects talented writers with production companies, agencies, and managers. As one of the longest-running and most successful screenplay contests, we focus specifically on finding writers representation, supporting diverse voices, championing ambitious storytelling, helping finance independent projects, and pushing original projects into production. $20,000 award | industry circulation | long-term script development
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Scriptation TV Writing Script Competition
Extended Deadline: March 10, 2024
https://showcase.scriptation.com/
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The Scriptation Showcase is the screenwriting contest that circulates winners’ scripts to Hollywood directors, showrunners, and producers. 25 scripts get featured for one year in Scriptation, the Emmy® winning app used on film and TV productions.
The Black List/Tubi To Be Commissioned Initiative
Deadline: March 15th, 2024
https://blcklst.com/programs/the-to-be-commissioned-initiative
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The Black List and Tubi have partnered to discover five feature scripts for Tubi to purchase and develop, with the intent of greenlighting each script for production and distribution. Tubi is looking for stories that appeal to a youthful audience across diverse communities. They are especially interested in science fiction, faith-based, romance and comedy movies from the LGBTQ+, Black, Latine, and AAPI communities. If a script does not fit any of the above categories, it may be submitted to the Wild Card category.
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Austin Film Festival Screenplay and Teleplay Competition
Extended Deadline: March 19, 2024
https://showcase.scriptation.com/
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For thirty years, Austin Film Festival has been catapulting writers into life-changing careers. With one of the most noteworthy competitions among Hollywood tastemakers, AFF consistently yanks newcomers from the isolation of their desks and ushers them into the bustling world of film and television. Whether your dream is to sign a contract, land an agent, learn from an industry icon, or take home the coveted Bronze Typewriter Award, it’s simple: you can’t win if you don’t enter.
Page International Screenwriting Awards
Regular Deadline: April 19, 2024
https://austinfilmfestival.com/submit/screenplay-and-teleplay-submissions-2/
Page International Screenwriting awards presents 31 script with a total of over $50,000 in cash and prizes to some of the most talented new screenwriters from across the country and around the world. Most importantly, each year some of Hollywood’s most influential producers, agents, managers, and development executives judge the contest and choose the winning scripts. As a result, many of past Winners have secured representation, landed feature writing assignments and TV staff positions, signed option agreements on their work, and had their movies and television shows produced.
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FILM GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS/INTERNSHIPS
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Warner Bros Discovery - Video Editing & Audio Internships: NYC - Summer 2024
Deadline: March 15, 2024
https://careers.wbd.com/global/en/job/R000077448/Video-Editing-Audio-Internships-NYC-Summer-2024
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We have multiple Video Editing & Audio Internship opportunities available. By applying to this posting, you will be considered for all internship opportunities within this area. These internships will be located in the New York City area. The selected interns will be expected to join us in the office on a regular cadence based on the intern managers in office schedule.
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Warner Bros. Animation Production Internships: LA - Summer 2024
Deadline: March 15, 2024
From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive. We have multiple Warner Bros. Animation Production internship opportunities available. By applying to this posting, you will be considered for multiple internship opportunities within the LA area.
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Telluride Student Symposium Fellowship
Deadline: March 31, 2024
https://www.telluridefilmfestival.org/students/symposium
The Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium happens Labor Day Weekend in the Colorado Rockies at the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium. We’re looking for 50 inspired college and university students to join us in screening the year’s best films and to have in-depth discussions with some of the greatest names in cinema. Yes, there’s an official application but the real requirement is a love of film. All participants in the Symposium will receive a Student Festival pass and a modest travel stipend.
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GBH Summer Intership Programs
Deadline: April 1, 2024
https://publicmedia.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Interns
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GBH is the leading multiplatform creator for public media in America. As the largest producer of content for PBS and partner to NPR and PRX, GBH delivers compelling experiences, stories and information to audiences wherever they are. GBH produces digital and broadcast programming that engages, illuminates and inspires, through drama and science, history, arts, culture and journalism. It is the creator of such signature programs as MASTERPIECE, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, FRONTLINE, NOVA, and AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. And they want you to intern for them!!
Humanitas New Voices Fellowship
Regular Deadline: April 1, 2024
https://www.humanitasprize.org/new-voices-fellowship-2024
The New Voices Fellowship is an approximately six-month mentorship program for emerging television and screenwriters who are exploring the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. The program identifies and empowers five writers each year who are currently working on a 30- or 60-minute pilot or feature-length screenplay. These are stories and people who, for varying reasons, may go overlooked by the traditional marketplace.
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Roy W. Dean Grant and Carole Dorothy Joyce Short Film Grant
Deadline: April 29, 2024
https://fromtheheartproductions.com/grant-application-form/
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Dedicated to helping independent filmmakers fund their films, From the Heart Productions created the Roy W. Dean Short Film Grant in response to the explosion and popularity of short form content. Many filmmakers use short films to hone their craft and as a proof of concept for later full length features. From the Heart Productions wants to support their work and encourage them to make films with stories told with passion that enlighten us about our lives and the world we live in.
PAST DEADLINES
Scriptapalooza Screenplay and Shorts Competition
Early Deadline: December 4, 2023
https://scriptapalooza.com/home/
The Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition has become one of few most relevant screenwriting competitions in the industry. The company has developed several departments to nurture talent and create career opportunities. Storytellers come from all over the world and
from all walks of life, because of the simple fact that everyone has a story. Scriptapalooza will
promote, pitch, and push the Semifinalists and higher for a full year. No other competition in the world does that. For the screenplay competition, the early deadline submission fee is $50, and the early deadline submission fee for the shorts competition is $30. This year we are awarding over $50,000 in cash and software prizes. Our First Place Winner will receive $10,000 Cash and all our Genre Winners will receive $500 Cash.
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BlueCat Screenplay Competition
Deadline: December 10, 2023
https://bluecatscreenplay.com/submit/
BlueCat’s LATE DEADLINE is December 10th. Submit your screenplay, pilot script, or short script now! We pride ourselves on giving you the best script analysis when you enter BlueCat at no extra cost. Our winning writers are introduced to over 400 managers and agents and receive $18,500 in cash prizes. We want to see your best work!
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Transgender Film Center: 2023-2024 Trailblazer Grant
Deadline: December 18, 2023
https://transfilmcenter.org/trailblazer
The Transgender Film Center Trailblazer Grant provides funding for short films written, directed, or produced by transgender creators. The fund is open to all transgender people creating short form projects. While projects do not need to be explicitly about transgender identity to be eligible, they must be directed, written, or produced by transgender people. Projects submitted to this fund must be completed within 24 months of receiving funding from the Transgender Film Center. This cycle of Trailblazer Grant funding opened November 10, 2023. Two $10K grants
will be distributed this grant cycle.
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New Faces New Voices Festival
Final Deadline: December 31, 2023
https://filmfreeway.com/NewFacesNewVoices
New Faces New Voices is determined more than ever to continue discovering and highlighting new works often ignored by the mainstream and Hollywood. NFNV showcases inclusive and diverse voices from around the world and is known for highlighting underrepresented communities – filmmakers of color, female filmmakers, members of the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities, including works by military veterans. The notification date is April 16, 2024, and the event dates are May 21-23, 2024.
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American Documentary and Animation Film Festival and Film Fund
Extended Deadline: January 6, 2024
https://filmfreeway.com/AmericanDocumentaryFilmFestivalandFilmFund
The American Documentary and Animation Film Festival and Film Fund (AmDocs) is one of the
largest Docs and Animation festivals in the United States, located near the media capital of
Hollywood in beautiful Palm Springs. This unique event focuses on international films in both the short and feature categories as well as showcasing animation. Recipients of the festival’s
qualifying awards will be eligible for consideration in the Documentary Short Film category of the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules. In conjunction with the festival is the American Documentary Film Fund where U.S. filmmakers compete for start-up or finishing funds in order to complete their film masterpieces. Typically, the festival program proudly consists of 90% from film submissions. The festival takes place from March 21 to March 25, 2024. The notification deadline is February 3, 2023.
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Palm Springs International ShortFest
Regular Deadline: December 31, 2023
https://filmfreeway.com/PalmSpringsInternationalShortFest
The Palm Springs International ShortFest is one of the largest showcases of short form cinema in North America. The seven-day competitive festival is Academy Award, BAFTA and Goya-qualifying, annually screening hundreds of shorts from approximately 60 countries. ShortFest accepts submissions up to 40 minutes in duration, in the form of both fiction and non-fiction shorts. Categories include Animation, Documentary, and Live-Action. The ShortFest Official Selection comprises the approximately 300+ shorts curated thematically into programs of approximately 90 minutes in duration which aim to bring together a diverse cross-section of
contemporary cinema. Distinct works from filmmakers of various international backgrounds come into conversation with one another in unexpected and exciting ways.
Sundance 2024 Feature Film Producers Fellowship
Deadline: January 3, 2023
https://apply.sundance.org/prog/2024_feature_film_producers_track_application/
The 2024–2025 Feature Film Producers Fellowship is a yearlong program designed to nurture emerging producers with project-specific support through the Producers Lab, year-round mentorship from a dedicated industry mentor, film industry networking opportunities,
professional development and project advancement strategy workshops, and ongoing support from Sundance Institute staff. The program is designed to hone emerging producers’ creative instincts and evolve their communication and problem-solving skills at all stages of their next
feature film.
Sundance 2024 Documentary Producers Lab and Fellowship
Deadline: January 3, 2023
https://apply.sundance.org/prog/2024_documentary_film_producers_track_application/
The 2024–2025 Documentary Producers Lab and Fellowship is a yearlong program designed to
nurture emerging producers with project-specific support through the Producers Lab, year-round mentorship from a dedicated industry mentor, film industry networking opportunities,
professional development and project advancement strategy workshops, and ongoing support
from Sundance Institute staff. The program is designed to hone emerging producers’ creative instincts and evolve their communication and problem-solving skills at all stages of their next
feature film.
ScreenCraft Short Film Screenplay Competition
Regular deadline: December 31, 2023
https://screencraft.org/short-film/
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ScreenCraft's Short Screenplay Competition is one of Hollywood's top contests celebrating short-form screenwriting. With the rise in demand for high-quality short content across new
platforms and devices, and the increased industry importance placed on short filmmaking worldwide, we’re honoring the craft of short-form narrative screenwriting with this competition,
which features a prestigious jury of industry-leading professionals. All finalists will receive a
guaranteed meeting with an industry professional!
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Nostos Screenwriting Retreat
Deadline: January 15, 2024
https://www.nostosscreenwritingretreats.com/
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Nostos was born out of a wish to create a space for screenwriters from all over the world to focus on their work, become part of a writing community, and get valuable feedback from experts in the industry. Every writer who applies to their retreat receives a 500-word review with constructive feedback on their work from one of their seasoned script reviewers.
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Hamptons Film Screenwriters Lab
Extended Deadline: January 18, 2024
https://hamptonsfilmfest.org/screenwriterslab/
An intimate gathering taking place each spring in East Hampton, NY, the Lab fosters emerging talent by pairing selected fellows with established writers and creative producers for a weekend of one-on-one mentorship. Over the course of the weekend, these film industry veterans advise the participating fellows on their feature length projects in a series of individual and group development sessions. Additional events include nightly salons, roundtables, master class, and
happy hours with industry guests, board members, alumni of the Lab, and members of the local
artistic community.
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nternational Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Regular Deadline: February 1, 2024
https://www.kurzfilmtage.de/en/festival/submission/#c3169
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen now calling for entries to the competitions of its 70th edition. The focus is on new works with their own visual language, new perspectives and forms. Oberhausen's strength for 70 years has been its openness for the innovative, surprising, and original. There are a total of five competitions: the International and the German Competition, the NRW Competition, the International Children's and Youth Film Competition and the German MuVi Award. The production date for all films must be after January 1, 2023. Works can only be submitted for one competition at a time. Double submissions will not be accepted, neither at the same time nor in consecutive years. The submission of the first five works of one submitter is free of charge. From the sixth submission onwards, a processing fee of 20 euros per film will be charged.
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Melbourne International Film Festival
Final Deadline: February 15, 2024
https://filmfreeway.com/MelbourneInternationalFilmFestival?
MIFF is a not-for-profit organisation that has been continuously running since 1952, making it the leading film festival in Australia and one of the world’s oldest film festivals, alongside Cannes and Berlin. Presenting a curated global program of innovative screen experiences and the world’s largest showcase of exceptional Australian filmmaking, MIFF is an accessible, iconic cultural event that provides transformative experiences for audiences and filmmakers alike.
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Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship
Deadline: February 7, 2024
https://collab.sundance.org/catalog/2024-Sundance-Ignite-x-Adobe-Fellowship-Application
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The Sundance Institute and Adobe are teaming up to find the next 10 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellows—emerging filmmakers (ages 18 to 25) who are creating stories that bring their passion, voice, and perspective to life. The Sundance Ignite program identifies and supports new voices and talent from the next generation of filmmakers by providing artistic and professional development to advance filmmakers to the next stage in their filmmaking. The yearlong Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship is open to emerging documentary and fiction filmmakers between ages 18 and 25. The fellowship begins with a weeklong lab orienting filmmakers to the fellowship and year ahead. Throughout the year, filmmakers will: Work with a Sundance Institute alumni mentor; Receive a $3,000 artist grant; Participate as a cohort in monthly webinars, workshops and workshares throughout the year; Receive a complimentary Adobe Creative Cloud 12-month membership, where Creative Cloud is available.
Sony Future Filmmaker Awards
Deadline: February 15, 2024
https://www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com/competition/enter
Free to enter, the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards elevates the original voices that bring a fresh perspective to storytelling. The shortlisted filmmakers are flown to Los Angeles for an exclusive four-day event to gain unparalleled insight into all aspects of the filmmaking process to advance their careers. After a black-tie awards ceremony at the Cary Grant Theatre, the 30 successful filmmakers benefit from a four-day workshop program. Aimed at breakthrough artists and independent filmmakers worldwide, there are six categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Environment, Animation, Student and Future Format. Each category awards a winner and a shortlist of up to five. The deadline for entries is 07:00 AM (CT) February 15, 2024.