2018 By The Numbers:

Schools

Hundreds of screenplays were submitted from 207 colleges and universities around the world.

Countries

The 2018 Competition saw entries from students in 37 different countries.

Judges

We invited 9 entertainment industry professionals with extensive experience to be our Board of Judges.

Winners

Eight incredible writers were awarded $100,000 in educational grants to help offset their school fees.

Grand Prize Winner

Stanley Kalu's screenplay, was chosen as the grand prize winner and pre-production began two months later.

2018 LAUNCH 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, we 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”.

Check out the moment Stanley found out he won The LAUNCH 2018!

Pre-production on “The Obituary of Tunde Johnson” began within weeks of announcing the winners of The LAUNCH. Stanley was an integral part of the pre-production and casting process, participating in all meetings and communicating his vision as the team grew.

Director Ali LeRoi took Stanley under his wing, quickly becoming a mentor and trusted confidant through the entire production. Steven Silver (13 Reasons Why), Spencer Neville (Ozark), and Nicola Peltz (Transformers) were cast as the 3 main leads and their performances blew us away. They truly brought Stanley’s words to life.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2018 LAUNCH FINALISTS

In addition to Stanley’s brilliant script, The LAUNCH received many moving, beautifully written scripts from students all around the world. We are very proud of our Top 8 Finalists below and eager to watch their careers flourish.

Grand Prize:
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson by Stanley Kalu (USC)

2nd Place:
Golden State Brittany Worthington (University of Texas, Austin)

3rd Place:
Goat Boy by Jacob Stock (AFI)

4th Place:
Holler by Lee Witten (Oklahoma State University)

5th Place:
GREENWOOD by Nathan Patton (University of Texas)

6th Place:
Ringo by William Glenn (Asbury University)

7th Place:
Felix’s Bar Mitzvah by Sammy Sultan (USC)

8th Place:
Wait List by Carly Hallman (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)

2019 Competition Details: Deadlines, Prizes, and How We Judge Your Screenplay

Get all the details on important deadlines and prizes, as well as how screenplays are judged!

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.