We’ve rounded up top film fests, writing competitions, and grants with spring or summer deadlines. It’s time to polish that script, shoot that video, or burn those DVDS. Go, go, go
Film festivals, video/TV contests & labs
Just For Laughs Comedy Search (final deadline: 5/10)
Southhampton Arts’ 20/20/20 Film Program (final: 5/15)
Dogfish Accelerator for Film Producers (early: 4/19, regular: 5/15)
Toronto International Film Festival (regular: 4/26, late: 5/24)
Etheria Film Festival (sci-fi/fantasy; final: 5/31)
Smithsonian in Motion: Video (final: 5/31)
Urbanworld Film Festival (regular: 4/30, late: 5/24, extended: 6/3)
Independent Filmmaker Lab: Narrative (final: 6/5)
Hamptons International Film Festival (regular: 5/6, late: 6/3, extended: 6/17)
NYTVF Independent Pilot Competition (early: 5/10, regular: 6/14. late: 6/28)
Chicago Comedy Film Festival (late: 6/1, extended: 7/15)
Fordham Law: Short Films (final: 7/19)
New Hampshire Film Festival (early: 6/5, regular: 7/5, late: 8/5)
Scene: Brooklyn (regular: 5/1, late: 8/10)
Denver Starz Film Festival (regular: 6/30, late: 7/30, extended: 8/10)
Big Apple Film Festival (early: 6/30, regular: 8/1, late: 8/15, extended: 9/1)
Screenwriting & TV writing competitions
Scriptapalooza (late: 4/22)
Nicholl Fellowship (late: 5/1)
Script Pipeline (screenwriting & TV writing; final: 5/1)
Sundance Screenwriting Lab (final: 5/1)
CBS Writers Mentoring Program (final: 5/1)
IFP: Emerging Storytellers (final: 5/3)
BVEW Screenwriting Showcase & Fellowship (regular: 4/30, late: 5/10, extended: 5/15)
FOX-NYTVF Comedy Script Contest (final: 6/3)
Slamdance (teleplays accepted; regular: 5/13, late: 6/25, extended: 7/2)
Austin Screenplay & Teleplay Competition (early: 5/1, regular: 6/15, late: 7/15)
Final Draft Big Break (teleplays accepted; early: 4/30, regular: 7/15, extended: 7/31)
Grants & other funding
WIFF’s Film Finishing Fund Grant (final: 4/29)
Roy W. Dean Spring Film Grant (final: 4/30)
WAM Coalition Collaboration Award (final: 4/30)
SFFS Documentary Film Fund (regular: 5/1, final: 5/8)
(Updated 4/18, 2 pm ET)
nywift
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Eunice Levis
Welcome to NYWIFT, Eunice Levis! Writer and director Eunice Levis is a first-generation Dominican American from the Bronx, New York. Eunice's work focuses on genre-bending stories that combine her love of horror, sci-fi, thriller, and fantasy, often through a diasporic lens. She seeks to disrupt and challenge dominant narratives around technology, race, gender, history, and diaspora identity by altering the stories we tell about them. Eunice spoke to us about her early inspirations, her latest work, and how genre stories offer a unique opportunity to challenge the status quo.
READ MOREMy First Ever Sundance Experience!
"My first time covering the Sundance Film Festival in-person was everything I expected it to be. Fun, intense, inspirational, exhausting, and such an honor. Overall, the experience lived up to indeed be the experience of a lifetime. A journalist’s dream, especially mine." Tammy Reese shares her favorite star-studded moments from her trip to Park City for Sundance 2023!
READ MORENYWIFT at Sundance: In Conversation with Jess Jacobs
In director Tracy Droz Tragos feature documentary Plan C, a hidden grassroots organization doggedly fights to expand access to abortion pills across the United States, keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade. With abortion restrictions and bans going into effect, Francine Coeytaux and her team of providers established Plan C — a grassroots organization dedicated to expanding access to medication abortion. NYWIFT member Jess Jacobs, the film’s executive producer, has a career-long history of activism – including work with the Plan C organization before the movie was even made! She spoke to us about Plan C’s Sundance premiere, her passion for reproductive justice, and the power of community.
READ MORENYWIFT at Sundance: In Conversation with Valda Witt
Many children – and more than a few adults – dream of long-distance space exploration. But what about the real human toll of that kind of journey? The new documentary The Longest Goodbye, which debuted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, takes a poignant look at the fundamentals of day-to-day reality in space: the isolation, confinement, and lack of privacy and social contact. Executive producer Valda Witt spoke to us about the project, her childhood dreams of space travel, favorite moments making the film, and getting to know scientists and astronauts in a deeply personal way.
READ MORE
