American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition
Contest (2026)Prestige 82/100
Coppola's company, a 40 dollar entry, and ten named agencies reading the winner and nine finalists.
Deadlines & fees
Closed for this cycle
The 2026 competition is closed. Its final deadline was 16 September 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, at 50 US dollars, after an early-bird deadline of 15 July at 40. The winner and nine finalists will be announced on 8 February 2027. American Zoetrope says the 2027 competition will open on 1 June.
Dates and fees checked against the official site 23 Sept 2026.
Key facts
- Formats
- Feature, TV Pilot
- Page limit
- 140 pages
- Eligibility
- Open worldwide18+
- Required materials
- Screenplay as a PDF in US industry-standard format, in English, Title page carrying no name or contact details (judging is blind), The word pilot on the title page for television entries, No loglines, treatments, show bibles, artwork or illustrations, No revised drafts accepted after submission
Open internationally, but scripts must be in English. Entrants must be 18 or over. The distinguishing gate is an income cap: no entrant may have earned more than 50,000 US dollars in the prior calendar year as a screenwriter for theatrical films or television and streaming, or from selling or optioning any original story, treatment or script. Prizes, fellowships, awards and contest winnings are excluded from that calculation. Eligibility is tested at the time of entry only. The rights to the submitted script must not have been previously optioned or sold. Spec scripts for existing or produced series are not accepted. Adaptations are permitted if flagged on the title page. Page caps are 140 for features, 70 for one-hour pilots and 40 for half-hour pilots, excluding the title page. Employees of American Zoetrope and their immediate families are ineligible.
Prizes
5,000 US dollars to a single winner, divided equally if writing partners win. The nine finalists receive no cash. The real value is the reading list: the winner and all nine finalists are considered for representation by CAA, Circle of Confusion, Energy Entertainment, Exile Entertainment, the Gersh Agency, ICM, Oasis Media Group, the Radmin Company, UTA and William Morris Endeavor, and considered for option and development by American Zoetrope, Anonymous Content, Array, Cats and Dogs Productions, Double Hope Films, Fox Searchlight, Groundswell Productions, Icon Films, IFC Films, Jean Doumanian Productions, Lionsgate, LIT Entertainment Group, Lleju Productions, Netflix, Number 9 Films, Oasis Media Group, Pretty Pictures Productions, Roserock Films, Sony Pictures Classics, Verisimilitude and Working Title Films. Entrants including the winner retain complete and exclusive rights to their work; there is no option, first refusal or exclusivity of any kind.
Judging
Judged blind: the title page must carry no name or contact details. Scripts are read by a handful of American Zoetrope staff and paid professional readers bound by confidentiality agreements, with the winner chosen from ten finalists by Zoetrope staff and a guest judge. The 2026 guest judge is Larry Karaszewski. The 2025 edition drew close to 2,000 submissions, producing one winner, nine finalists, ten semifinalists and ten quarterfinalists. Results for this cycle are announced on 8 February 2027.
The PreList verdict
This is the pick of the American contests, and the reason is the prize rather than the money. Five thousand dollars is respectable but not remarkable. What is remarkable is that the winner and all nine finalists are considered for representation by a published roster of ten real agencies, from CAA and UTA to Gersh and William Morris Endeavor, and for option by twenty-one named production companies including Netflix, Lionsgate and Working Title. Most contests promise industry exposure and name nobody. Zoetrope prints the list.
The honest part: there is no feedback of any kind, not even a score, and the entry is judged blind by staff and paid readers rather than by Coppola. The income cap is the gate that catches people out, though it works in your favour: earn more than 50,000 dollars as a screenwriter in the prior calendar year and you are out, which keeps the field genuinely emerging. One thing to note about that agency roster: it still lists ICM, absorbed into CAA back in 2022, and Fox Searchlight, renamed Searchlight in 2020. It reads as carried forward rather than freshly confirmed, so treat it as indicative of the calibre rather than a current org chart.
Enter if you have a feature or a pilot in English and you want the cheapest credible route to being read by people who can actually do something about it. The final deadline is 9 September 2026 at 11:59:59pm Pacific and costs 50 US dollars. You keep every right in your work: there is no option, no first refusal and no exclusivity anywhere in the rules, which is rarer than it should be.
Dylian Salvatore, Founder of The PreList. Updated 19 Oct 2026
Frequently asked questions
Who actually reads the winning scripts?
The winner and all nine finalists are considered for representation by ten named agencies including CAA, UTA, Gersh, Circle of Confusion and William Morris Endeavor, and for option and development by twenty-one named production companies including Netflix, Lionsgate, Anonymous Content and Working Title. Zoetrope publishes both lists in full, which almost no other contest does.
Am I eligible?
You must be 18 or over and must not have earned more than 50,000 US dollars in the previous calendar year as a screenwriter, or from selling or optioning an original story, treatment or script. Contest winnings, prizes and fellowships do not count towards that. Eligibility is tested only at the time you enter.
Do I give up any rights?
No. All entrants including the winner retain complete and exclusive rights to their work. There is no option, first refusal or exclusivity. If an agency or production company wants your script they contact you directly.
Is there feedback?
None. Zoetrope states plainly that it cannot provide notes, coverage or feedback, and will not respond to requests for scores or rankings.
Is your script right for American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition?
Find out free, before you spend anything. Upload your screenplay and The PreList checks whether its format can enter this contest, whether you meet the country rules and any regional limits, and scores the script. Pro adds a written read on how well it fits.
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For organisers
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