Virginia Screenwriting Competition

Eligibility and project requirements

Applicants must be legal residents of Virginia with a valid Virginia address who have lived in the state for at least six months during the past year. Two exceptions apply: legal residents required by their work to reside overseas, such as members of the military, and students attending Virginia schools. No applicant may have earned more than 5,000 dollars as the writer of a theatrical film or television programme, or from the sale or option of any original story, treatment or teleplay. The majority of the script must take place in Virginia or at locations that could reasonably be found and filmed in Virginia. Features run approximately 90 to 120 pages and hour-long television pilots approximately 40 to 65. Scripts currently in production or optioned for production are ineligible, and adaptations require a documented option. Co-authored scripts are allowed if each author is a Virginia resident. Only one script may be submitted per author. Submitted as a non-editable PDF of no more than 10 MB with numbered pages and a title-only cover page, with no name, address or personal information anywhere in the script.

Formats

Feature, TV Pilot

Page limit

120 pages

Eligibility

US residents

Open to

United States

Deadlines & fees

Dates and fees checked against the official site 19 Oct 2026.

Prepare your entry

Prizes

1,000 US dollars to each of three winners, awarded without rank, presented in person at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville in the autumn. Three thousand dollars a year in total, all cash with no credit component. Whether travel or accommodation to the ceremony is covered is not addressed either way. RIGHTS: none published. The rules contain no option, first refusal, exclusivity, development consideration or idea-misappropriation waiver of any kind, which combined with the absence of a fee makes this one of the cleanest entries in the directory.

Judging

Judged in two rounds. First-round judges from within Virginia each select one or two scripts as finalists, and those go to working industry professionals who read all the finalists and select three winners without rank. No judges are named. Resubmitted screenplays are deliberately not sent to the same judge in subsequent years. Every entry receives a written evaluation from the first-round judges, with one caveat: if you have not edited your work or attempted proper formatting, a judge may deem it unfit for submission and you may not receive an evaluation.

Frequently asked questions