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Does 2025 make you want to SCREAM?
Screenwriters, does 2025 make you want to SCREAM?
Go ahead. LET IT OUT!
The past five years have been brutal for the film industry. It’s like one fiasco after another. Covid and the Strikes did some real damage. And just when it looked like things were starting to turn around with a few good spec script sales Hollywood burns to the ground. It sure felt like it. (The photo below is a fake.)
Hollywood Burns to the Ground?
For screenwriters looking to get attention on their scripts, things are looking even more bleak. To acquire representation or attach a producer, screenwriters often submit to screenplay competitions.
In February 2025, Industrial Arts decided to consolidate a bunch of their smaller screenplay platforms including ScreenCraft which also had fellowships. Additional platforms are Launch Pad and WeScreenplay, a source for coverage. Thankfully, Industrial Arts is not doing away with Coverfly. Coverfly is one of the top platforms to showcase your screenplay, discover and enter competitions, and an overall great resource.
Take a moment to BREATHE.
Are you calm? Now, I can serve up the next bit of screenwriting drama. In late March 2025, The Nicholl Fellowship, arguably the biggest screenplay competition, announced that it will no longer accept submissions directly to its website. The Nicholl Fellowship is associated with the Motion Picture Academy. To enter the Nicholl Fellowship, the Academy provided a long list of universities and other organizations. On that list is another popular screenplay platform, the Black List.
Nicholl Fellowship / The Black List
More detailed information will come out soon. So far, from what I understand, a writer will need to have their script hosted on the Black List for a month during the submission period which will be July and August of 2025. To host your screenplay it costs $30. And there is no further cost to enter the Nicholl competition. Oh, wait. There is one more task. The script must have an evaluation done by a Black List reader. How much are evaluations? $100. Ouch!
If a writer doesn’t have the funds or simply doesn’t want to enter, there are other top screenplay competitions out there. Final Draft Big Break, Script Pipeline and the Austin Film Festival are ones to pay attention to.
Script Reader
Last year, I read screenplays and wrote coverage for the Austin Film Festival. I’m reading again this year. Here is a partial quote from last year’s AFF script manager, Cynthia Cano.
“We were consistently impressed by the level of thought and detail he included in his feedback. He clearly has a goal to help the writers that entrusted him with their work; and though he did not shy away from commenting on what was not working within a script, he always offered encouragement and possible solutions for the piece moving forward. I was very lucky to work with someone as dedicated, communicative, and dependable as Ross over this past summer, and I hope to have the opportunity to work with him again. He is a hard-worker, and a great teammate; anyone would be lucky to work with someone so dedicated to the craft and exudes dedication in everything he does. ”
Other than reading for AFF, I have a script reading gig on Fiverr.
“Ross was very prompt and quick to respond. Very knowledgeable and professional. He provided me with an analysis that went above and beyond my expectations, providing me great feedback to help take my screenplay and future ones to the next level. Invaluable information, that I greatly appreciate!” – Maurice S. (Client on Fiverr)
Check it out! Tell your writer friends!
https://www.fiverr.com/s/WEz3y5d
Break on Through
I feel like I now have a handful of scripts that are ready and/or close to ready. Last year was actually a pretty good year as my scripts placed as Quarter Finalist in some decent competitions. “My Soulmate Died at Birth” placed at Table Read My Screenplay and Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices (2025). “Modified” placed at Filmmatic Inroads. “The Ringmaster” placed at Filmmatic Horror Screenplay Awards.“The Battle of Los Angeles – 1942” placed at a lesser-known Cineplay International Film Festival.
What else am I doing to ‘Break on through to the other side’? (Reference to the Doors in memory of Val Kilmer. Rest in peace.)
What’s a Screenwriter to do?
I’ve been playing around with Canva to create movie posters. You never know who you meet or what they might want to see as far as screenplay materials.
Next, I plan to go further and create pitch decks. Whatever I need to do to move the needle forward.
Speaking of needles, if you have any Doors on vinyl now would be a good time to listen. Really, any time is a good time to listen to the Doors.
Val Kilmer’s vocals singing over the Doors’ songs while recording were so hauntingly like Jim Morrison the rest of the band thought they were Jim’s vocals. In preparation, Kilmer learned 50 Doors’ songs. Kilmer’s performance of Jim Morrison is one of my favorites. RIP Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer plays Jim Morrison in “The Doors.”
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Screenplay Feedback
How do screenwriters get feedback?
Congrats! You finished your first screenplay draft. Now what? It’s time for some feedback. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve accomplished as a writer. Everyone needs feedback. There are so many elements that make up a good script; story, structure, format, characters, and dialogue. You may be great in one area, but deficient in another area. Getting feedback is important in improving your script and growing as a writer.
How and from whom do you receive feedback?
Everyone has different perspectives when reading scripts so I would get more than one person to read your script. When common issues arise you then know what to work on in your rewrite. Writing is re-writing.
You may have colleagues, friends, or family members who could read your script and give their best impressions. They may simply sugarcoat the story and not give constructive criticism because they know you, don’t want to hurt your feelings or are simply not familiar with scripts. You want constructive criticism.
Other writers perfecting their craft who may be more knowledgeable about screenplays would be more honest with your script and therefore more beneficial. Even better are readers working in development whose jobs are reading scripts.
Screenwriting competitions give feedback. You might have to pay a little extra, but it may be worth it.
Writers Groups
Writers groups are a great way to get feedback. You’ll receive notes from readers of various backgrounds. It may be beneficial to have readers who specialize in the genre you’ve written your script in. If your script is a horror story, it may be more helpful to have horror writers read it.
Some writers’ groups involve actors who do cold readings of your script. That way you hear the voices of your characters out loud. This is a whole additional level of feedback. It’s instant feedback. To hear your characters and the dialogue live really shows if you’re on the right track. Do your characters all sound alike? Writers groups can be very supportive.
Screenplay Platforms for Hosting Screenplays, Getting Notes and Pitching
You can pitch your story to development insiders for a price. One screenplay resource platform is Roadmap Writers. You can upload and host your screenplay on platforms to enter contests with savings. Coverfly does peer-to-peer notes. It doesn’t cost anything. They have direct notes too. The International Screenwriting Association or ISA has a low monthly fee to host your screenplay. Stage32 is another platform. Blacklist is a popular platform. You can pay to have your screenplay evaluated.
There are also pitchfests where you pitch to managers, agents, producers, and production companies.
Read, Read, Read!
I highly recommend reading scripts in the same genre. In addition, just read any scripts of any genre. Reading scripts helps regardless of the genre. Read Oscar-winning scripts. Read scripts from the best and most prestigious competitions like Nichols and Austin Film Festival. What’s in those scripts that stands out and shines?
Now, go write!
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Registered and Relieved
After years of placing my first passion, screenwriting to the sidelines, I have finally registered a NEW screenplay with the Library of Congress.
I’m fairly sure the last screenplay I registered was for “American Quest” back in 2001 about young Iranian male teens looking to leave the wrath of Khomeni’s 1980’s Revolution. Inspired by a true story. So many years of juggling other projects including feature film, “Rubbernecking”, struggling to work as a video editor, etc.
In the last five years, I started playing around with some screenplay ideas. I’ve been working on and off on two very different stories.
This screenplay I registered today is a dark, supernatural high school drama. You could call this a teaser. I’m not even giving out the title. It’s only a first draft. There will be more drafts to come. But it just feels so good to finally accomplish what used to be second nature to me. It’s been too long! I used to crank out first drafts like drafts of beer. Well, I no longer drink like a fish. There’s nothing like finishing a good first draft and feeling great about the second draft. And look! IT’S FRIDAY NIGHT!
In Your Head Productions 