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Virginia Screenwriting Competition deadline May 23

va film officeThe deadline for the 26th Virginia Screenwriting Competition sponsored by the Virginia Film Office is Friday, May 23, at midnight. The annual Virginia Screenwriting Competition is created to provide Virginia screenwriters with a forum for their work and an opportunity to present their scripts to professional members of the motion picture and television industry.

This competition is one of the few in the nation requiring no entrance fee, and all entries receive a written evaluation from the first round judges.  Well-known past winners include “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan, who won in 1989 for his screenplay “Home Fries”, and Megan Holley, who won in 2003 for her screenplay “Sunshine Cleaning”.

Only Virginia residents may submit screenplays to this competition.  Each script must contain either Virginia locations or locations that could reasonably be expected to be found in Virginia.  Scripts must be approximately 90-120 pages in length and must be typed and submitted in a standard screenplay format.  Pages must be numbered, and must include a cover page with title only.

For the first time, the Virginia Film Office is accepting all submissions to the competition electronically only, hard copies will not be accepted.  The script must be saved in a non-editable format such as a PDF, with the title of the PDF the same as the screenplay.  All screenplays must be e-mailed to [email protected] no later than midnight on Friday, May 23, 2014.

Screenplays are first read by Virginia judges, and finalists are selected and submitted to a second panel of judges who are currently working professionally in the entertainment industry.  Three winning screenplays are then selected, and notification of results are made in October 2014.  The three winning writers are each awarded a prize of $1,000 at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville November 6-9, 2014.

For further information, visit the Virginia Film Office website www.filmvirginia.org orcall the Film Office at (800) 854-6233.

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