Scriptshadow Endorsed Contests

A contest is only as good as what it does for your screenplay. Some contests pay out a lot of money, some get your script read by industry professionals, and some mentor you.  For this reason, research every contest you enter and make sure it has what you’re looking for.  A great place to start is Moviebytes.com, which has a lot of info on all the contests.  In the meantime, these are the contests I personally endorse.

Nicholl This is the most famous screenwriting competition in the world. They get over 7000 entries and reward 5 winners. These winners get reads all around town, which leads to the kind of screenwriting opportunities only a small percentage of writers ever get.
Page The cool thing about the Page Contest is that they allow you to enter your script into specific genre categories. That makes a lot of sense when you think about it, that your horror script is being compared with other horror scripts, as opposed to a period piece.
Austin I’ve seen some really great scripts come out of this contest, and it seems to be gaining more respect every year.
trackingb The trackingb contest is a newer contest but has gained a lot of popularity due to its winners getting repped by popular agents and/or managers. Their rolodex means finalists all get reads around town. As for their most recent contest, I don’t believe there was a money prize, but if you want to get your script into the hands of gatekeepers, this is a good contest to enter.
Script Pipeline This contest also gets its winners a lot of reads around town. It’s likewise where writer Evan Daughtery’s Snow White and the Huntsman was found, leading to a huge spec sale. So this is a good one.
Final Draft The winners of this contest usually get representation. Plus it’s sponsored by Final Draft and Script Magazine, so it’s got some legitimate screenwriting power behind it.
Scriptapalooza Every script that is entered into Scriptapalooza is read by either a producer, manager or agent. They also promote the TOP 100 scripts for a full year, which, to my knowledge, no other competition in the world does. They award over $25,000 in prizes and they are endorsed by Robert McKee. Their past winners have won Emmys, been signed by agents, managers, had their scripts optioned, and even made into movies.