GOTHAM SCREEN 2009 Festival and Screenplay Contest

603 West 115th Street, Ste. 384
New York NY 10025
U S A
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http://www.gothamscreen.com

MISSION & OBJECTIVE
The mission of the 2009 GOTHAM SCREEN Film Festival & Screenplay Competition is to create an opportunity for filmmakers to have their work shown and critically judged in New York. The festival aims to create a positive industry and audience exposure for works that would otherwise not easily get seen, and for new writing, directing and acting talent to get discovered.


ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The 3rd Annual GOTHAM SCREEN Film Festival and Screenplay Contest will take place in Fall 2009 in New York City.

Following the success of the 2008 edition, this years event has been expanded to showcase more short and feature films during two days of screenings at the Tribeca Cinemas in Downtown New York.

Gotham Screen is looking for fresh voices and perspectives from local, national and international filmmakers.

The 2009 Screenplay Contest comes again with a $2,500 cash prize for the winning screenplay! In addition, excerpts from selected contest entries will be performed live by professional actors at a staged reading during the festival.

Recognizing the need for quality projects in the industry, and realizing that this need can not always be satisfied by established writers with agency representation, the GOTHAM SCREEN Screenplay Competition has been set up with the goal to find the Next Great Screenplay, and to give previously undiscovered writers a chance at getting their craft recognized and their projects produced.

The GOTHAM SCREEN Screenplay Competition specializes in lower- to mid- range budgeted projects. We are actively looking for scripts that can be produced with budgets in the 2-15m dollar range. While we realize that great writing exists beyond this range, the GOTHAM SCREEN Screenplay competition is not the appropriate venue for it. Our targeted budget range will most likely exclude high budget action or special effects driven stories, most science fiction, many epics and/or historic movies, as well as most animation projects.

Producers and Financiers have as much interest in great stories and screenplays, as the struggling writer has to get her or his next project onto the screen. Realizing that this is a two way relationship that calls for a new kind of approach, GOTHAM SCREEN strives to find projects and writers that can have a real chance in the marketplace.

ORGANIZERS:
Mark Hartogsohn ; Michael Gunther (Festival Registrar) ; Michael Gunther (Festival Registrar) ; Walter Gamper ; Yana Litovksy

GENERAL RULES
- Entrants must fully comply with the Entry Rules & Regulations, including deadline(s), entry material requirements and selected film requirements. Submitting to GOTHAM SCREEN constitutes acceptance of these Rules, Regulations and Requirements.

- The GOTHAM SCREEN Film Festival and Screenplay Contest is open to everyone. You must be 18 years or older (21 in some states) to participate, or have written consent from your parent or guardian.

- Screenplay submissions must be in English, Film submissions must be in English, or subtitled in English.

- International submissions are encouraged, as long as they are in English (screenplays and English language films), or subtitled in English (non-English language films).

- Multiple entries are admissible, but each entry must be accompanied by its own separate submission. You may submit more than one screenplay per writer, or more than one film per director, and you may submit more than one film or screenplay per category

- Contest winners and selected films will be notified by mid-October 2009 (approximately). You must give us a valid e-mail address to be notified.

- If no entries in any category meet GOTHAM SCREEN's standards, fewer than the first three, or no projects at all, may be made available to the industry and declared winning entries. This does apply to the overall winner of the Screenplay Contest, which will receive the Grand Cash Prize of 2,500 dollar, regardless.

- All decisions by GOTHAM SCREEN, including judging decisions, are final. GOTHAM SCREEN reserves the right to refuse any entries for any reason.

- No correspondence, no calls, no inquiries will be held about individual submissions, the contest or its progress, thank you.

NOTIFICATION DATE
Approximately 19-Oct-2009

SUBMISSION COPY FORMATS

PRIZES & AWARDS
This category is a competition.


1st Place

Sponsor: GOTHAM SCREEN
Cash Award Value: 2,500 U.S. Dollar

CATEGORY RULES
- Screenplay submissions must be in English
- International submissions are encouraged, as long as they are in English.
- Screenplays should be feature length (approximately 80-120 pages) and properly formatted to industry standards
- Submitted works must not have been previously produced or currently be under option. If a previous option has expired, and rights have reverted back to the author(s), the work is eligible.
- If your work was submitted to previous editions of the GOTHAM SCREEN Film Festival, you may re-enter it if you have made significant changes and if all eligibility requirements are met (see above).
- If we think your screenplay has potential, a producer or production company may contact you with a production and/or development proposal. You will be under no obligation whatsoever to enter into such a proposal if you do not wish to do so.
- All future agreements will be in writing and you will have the chance to opt out of any such agreements and proposal.
- You may submit multiple entries per writer, and you may submit more than one screenplay per category. If you submit multiple entries, each screenplay must be accompanied by its own submission/entry form.
- Only one version of any screenplay can be submitted. Please do not re-submit updates, missing pages etc.
- Winning entries and other outstanding submissions may be considered for option and development by producers production companies associated with the GOTHAM SCREEN Screenplay Contest.
- If no entries in any category meet GOTHAM SCREEN’s standards, no projects may be declared winning entries and/or made available to our industry partners in that category. This does not apply to the Grand Cash Prize (cash prize of $ 2,500), which will be awarded to the winning screenplay of the contest in any case.
- For electronic screenplay entries – follow the upload instructions
- For hardcopy/mailed-in entries: Send 2 (two) copies of your printed screenplay to the shipping address. Please format properly, according to industry standards, and bind with two brass brads (where available – if not available, other, non-industry standard bindings are acceptable).
- Scripts can be uploaded in the following formats: pdf / final draft / MS Word
- If your script is in any other format, please transfer it into a pdf file to upload
- Submitted scripts will not be returned. Do not send originals, and make sure you retain a copy.
- Contest winners will be notified by October 2009 (approximately).
- You must give us a valid e-mail address to be notified.
- There will be no correspondence, no calls, and no inquiries about the contest or its progress, until final announcements are being made.

Original article can be found here: Withoutabox/Gotham-Festival