After vacillating for a good long while, I’ve decided to submit one of my screenplays into a few contests. I’m most happy with “The Dominatrix Wore Red” though I’m going to tweak it before I send it, to incorporate the lasted feedback I got.
Because my goal is to direct what I’ve written, I didn’t see the value in contests where the reward was potential to sell the script. However, I started to think there was value in the potential to be recognized as a screenplay writer when it came time to find investors.
I’m for sure going to submit to the Nicholl Fellowship and the Austin Film Festival, but haven’t made up my mind regarding others.
Though there are non-trivial cash awards for winning (Nicholl, for instance, offers each of 5 winners $35K, though they need to write a second screenplay within the next year), based on what I’ve read, becoming a finalist is just as likely to jump start a career as winning.
Like anything else, it’s a gamble, but it’s a small one given the entry fee. Though the odds are long (Nicholl, for instance, had almost 7K applicants for 5 awards), they aren’t astronomical. Besides, to win you gotta play, so I’m buying a couple of tickets.
And who knows, I might get lucky.
