2020 COMPETITION

Thank you for your interest in the 2020 edition of The LAUNCH: Million Dollar Screenplay Competition.  We are still planning on running the competition this year, however the start date has not been set yet. We are currently putting all of our time into finishing the negotiations to sell the 2018 winning completed film THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON, as well as starting pre-production on the 2019 winner HARAM.  As soon as we know when the optimal time to start the competition for this year is, we will announce it here and on our social platforms.

Please feel free to submit your email address below and we will keep you up to date through email as well.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to announcing the dates and reading your screenplays soon.  

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Congratulations to The LAUNCH 2019 Winner:
Abdullah Alhendyani

We are extremely proud to announce Abdullah Alhendyani as the winner of The LAUNCH: Million Dollar Screenplay Competition for 2019, with his powerful screenplay HARAM. Abdullah is from and lives in Kuwait, and currently attends Cal State Northridge, completing his Masters Degree in Mass Communication and Journalism.

HARAM is about a Muslim woman who’s being pressured into an arranged marriage and defies her strict religious parents when she falls in love with a female tattoo artist.  It’s a story about tolerance, acceptance and love, a story that must be told.

From all of us at The LAUNCH, a big congratulations to Abdullah and everyone else in the Top 8!

We are very excited to reveal our Top 8 Winners!

1. Haram by Abdullah Alhendyani, CSU Northridge
2. Misery, Missouri by Lee Whitten, University of Central Oklahoma
3. Artist, Unknown by Brady Morell, AFI
4. Blackout by Daniel Ocho, St. John’s University
5. Romanza by Helen Doremus, Antioch University Los Angeles
6. The Ghost by Lindsey Gudritz, University of Texas at Austin
7. The Pirates of Fellowship, Maine by James Bentley, UCLA
8. The Show by Obiageli Odimegwu, USC

Are you an aspiring screenwriter?

The LAUNCH Million Dollar Collegiate Screenplay Contest will enable one talented screenwriter to realize their dream by having their screenplay produced as a feature film, with a budget of at least $1,000,000.

  • The LAUNCH is also giving $100,000 in education grants to the Top 8 Finalists to help them with the cost of their education.
  • The Top 3 Finalists will receive and offer of representation from a major talent agency and a management company, to assist in guiding their new career in Hollywood.
  • Every screenplay submitted will receive one page of professional feedback included with their submission fee, as well as a code for 70% off the annual subscription to the Save the Cat 4.0 story structure software.
2018 Competition
Meet The LAUNCH 2018 Winner: Stanley Kalu
Meet the Judges
Get to know our Board of talented industry professionals!
Help!
Frequently Asked Questions

The LAUNCH is different than any other screenplay competition

We don’t promise meetings with industry people to pitch your screenplay, we will actually produce your film with a budget of approximately $1 million.  The Top 3 Finalists will get an offer of representation and the Top 8 Finalists will share in $100,000 in educational grants and other prizes. Every screenplay submitted will receive one page of professional feedback included with their submission fee, as well as a code for 70% off the annual subscription to the Save the Cat 4.0 story structure software.
The top eight screenplays are carefully chosen and will be announced on or around July 8th, with the Grand Prize winning screenplay entering pre-production shortly after.
POWERED BY COVERFLY

Coverfly seamlessly manages the screenplay submission process, as well as the reading, evaluation and scoring of the screenplays by professional readers who have passed a rigorous vetting to be accepted as a Coverfly reader.

JUDGED BY 5 ATTRIBUTES

1. Story
2. Creativity
3. Character Development
4. Voice Originality
5. Honest Emotion

EVERY SINGLE SCRIPT GETS FEEDBACK

We guarantee that 100% of scripts will receive one full read by a professional reader, evaluation, and scoring. Every screenplay will get one page of feedback which will be delivered after the winners are announced.

IN ADDITION TO THE GRAND PRIZE

The top three finalists will receive an offer of representation at a major talent agency and management company, and the top eight finalists will be awarded a total of $100,000 USD in education grants.

Behind the Scenes of 2018 Winner Stanley Kalu’s LAUNCH Journey

2018 LAUNCH Competition Recap

We are so incredibly proud of the success of the inaugural LAUNCH Million Dollar Screenplay Competition. We saw hundreds of screenplays entered from 207 schools and 37 countries around the world!

After 4 grueling rounds of reads and scoring, the Judging Panel chose our Top 8 winners, based on the story, the creativity found within the screenplay, character development, voice originality, and honest emotion. We were so moved reading the screenplays and brimming with excitement to start pre-production on Stanley Kalu’s Grand Prize winning screenplay, “The Obituary of Tunde Johnson”.

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Frequently Asked Questions

We know that a lot of questions come with entering a contest. When is the deadline? Is there a length or genre requirement? What about formatting? Click here to find all the answers to your Frequently Asked Questions.

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Behind The Scenes: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson

Check out this gallery of Behind The Scenes photos from the set of Stanley Kalu’s Grand Prize winning screenplay The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, featuring Steven Silver (Thirteen Reasons Why), Spencer Neville (Ozark), and Nicola Peltz (Transformers).

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