Avoid These 5 Screenplay Competition Mistakes

Posted on: Aug 12, 2025

Photo Credit: iStock Photo | firebrandphotography

By Jessica Mathis

As a screenwriter and producer, I’ve applied to my fair share of competitions, festivals and fellowships. Last year, I received a grant to host my first ever screenplay competition with cash prizes. Some of the issues I saw with submissions were similar to issues I see from filmmakers submitting to screenings, or crew members applying to jobs I’m in charge of.

The experience brought these reflections to the forefront of my mind, and I’d like to share what I learned that may be useful to others.

Key Insights

Most submissions fail not because of talent, but because the creator ignored basic guidelines.
A strong story engine with active characters is just as vital as technical skill.
Authenticity in voice prevents tone-deaf stereotypes and builds audience trust.

Follow the Rules

I like to say 80% of success in the entertainment industry is split between showing up, or at least trying and then following the rules. You won’t get too far if you don’t apply or submit, but your submission will be useless if you don’t follow the rules. It may even harm you.

This particular competition was only open to U.S. residents over 18, but I still received an influx of free entry waivers from filmmakers in the Middle East. It required scripts without title pages for blind judging that met all three criteria listed on the competition page. Yet, we received many screenplays with full title pages, or that didn’t meet the required criteria.

This is a common problem for producers, as well as competition and festival hosts where there is usually an influx of submissions “just in case” the submitter’s film dazzles them into acceptance — despite not meeting the stipulations.

The issue also extends to crew and talent calls. Posts online with specific requirements for crew or cast members result in a flood of emails from non-matching crew and talent “just in case.” Another way people self-sabotage is to directly message or simply comment “interested” on posts that clearly ask for emails or have a submission form. Producers will usually either ignore you, or make a mental note that you can’t follow directions. Sometimes you only have one shot to make an impression, and that’s not a good one.

I learned a very hard lesson when I was young. A producer I knew asked me to send my script via certified mail. I forgot the specific request and emailed it since I knew him personally. He replied he had to delete it immediately for liability, because there were legal concerns when accepting submissions. It burned a bridge and made him less interested in my work.

Failing to follow directions can cause a lot of extra work and stress for those you are submitting to, and it can also be a waste of your own money when paying submission fees to contests or festivals.

Story Engines and Character Arcs

Many submissions fail to have a real story with a clear beginning, middle and end. One of the most common mistakes is a passive protagonist. They have no real goal and are just flowing through a series of scenes. While this might seem like a story to the author, it isn’t very engaging to the audience. We need a reason to care about them. We need to know what they want and worry about whether or not they will get it. In stories, a character is usually up against something they need to overcome.

Writing and storytelling require just as much training and practice as technical skills on set. There is a reason some movies really capture us, and why others leave us crying to strangers on the internet. The technical skill behind the creative ideas makes all the difference in the world. Knowing how to format a screenplay is important, but understanding how to create a character and story we care about and invest ourselves into is just as important, if not more so.

Similarly, the edit of the visual end result can make or break the experience of a story we care about. I see this in indie films and short films as well (and even films with theatrical releases). I’ve seen plenty of films of all lengths that I struggled to follow, ones where I kept wondering when the story would start, and films that I finished with one question in mind: “What did I even just watch?”

In some of these, it’s clear that some reveal at the end, or obsession with a specific prop on screen, was very clear to the filmmaker, but it’s not at all clear to the audience.

Find Your Voice

There are a fair amount of stories from people writing about characters outside their own gender expression, race, culture or belief system, but sometimes it is painfully obvious that the author does not truly understand the type of people they are trying to weave into their stories.

Accidental misogyny and stereotypes surrounding race, culture, gender and sexual orientation are thrown about in ways that just make you want to cringe. It’s like a writer who pitched me in an elevator at American Film Market. When I mentioned I produce female-forward inclusive and empowering entertainment, he said, “Oh, I write chick flicks.”

When I mentioned my company being based in Kentucky, he proceeded to tell me about his script that he said could only happen in Kentucky, where a female teacher sleeps with her students and even implied incest. I don’t know how on earth he thought I would be on board with calling Kentuckians pedophiles, or that female empowerment translated to chick flicks, but that’s what he proposed — and later submitted — and continues to harass me with a scheduled weekly email asking how the reading is going. I admit I read the first page and stopped. It was clear it was some weird male perception about how women think and act from a man who seemed to have very little experience with women. A lot of submissions come through like that.

Learn to Self-Edit

The art of self-editing refers to the ability to pull yourself back when necessary, or to be able to assess your work and recognize when something isn’t working. A lack of this skill is evident when scenes of dialogue go on for pages and pages without actually giving us anything about the characters, or moving the story forward. These scenes can be well-written dialogue or be clever, but they lag and lose us when they don’t move us through the story. This can be in screenplays and in video edits. Pace is a delicate connection to the overall experience and can make or break the audience’s attention span.

This skill can also apply on set — too much light, too much makeup, overloaded and distracting backgrounds or wardrobe can disconnect people from what should be a clear streamlined ride through a story experience.

While we all have blunders, bad days or sometimes perform below our hopes, many never try to improve. Aside from following the rules, most self-sabotaging practices can be resolved with just a little feedback from others. Hopefully these reflections will help you pause before you rush to apply or submit to the next opportunity to examine your own work.

Ask yourself: Does it meet the request? Is it a clear communication? Am I following the rules?

Have I gotten some feedback to make sure my story, reel or intention come across as intended?

Get yourself out there. In my opinion, you’ll beat at least 80% of the competition.

Key Takeaways

Always follow submission rules exactly—small oversights can ruin opportunities.
Ensure your protagonist drives the story with a clear goal and stakes.
Seek feedback and self-edit ruthlessly to maintain clarity, pacing, and audience engagement.

Jessica Mathis (AKA Divinity Rose) is an award winning screenwriter/performer/producer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is the CEO of She Dreams Content Development and Production, which focuses on female-forward projects in comedy, docustyle and genre entertainment.

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