Lynn Shelton "Of a Certain Age" Grant
Northwest Film Forum
DEADLINE: September 7, 2021 at 9 p.m. PST
INFO: The Lynn Shelton “Of A Certain Age” Grant is a project-based award that provides $25,000 to an individual woman, non-binary, and/or transgender U.S. filmmaker, age 39 or older, who is working on their first narrative feature (65 minutes or over) as a director.
This grant seeks to recognize a film director for their distinct vision, storytelling, and singularity.
In 2020, The Lynn Shelton “Of A Certain Age” Grant was established by Northwest Film Forum alongside Duplass Brothers Productions to honor Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton, who passed away tragically on May 16th, 2020. Lynn Shelton often spoke of feeling inspired after seeing filmmaker Claire Denis speak at Northwest Film Forum and learning that Denis did not make her first feature until age 40. Shelton went on to make her own first feature film (We Go Way Back) at the age of 39. In the years since, she built a prolific canon of feature and television work and made an indelible mark on the landscape of American cinema.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
Eligible filmmakers must have “director” credit on at least one short film or feature documentary and have a desire to work in the narrative space. Filmmakers with “director” credit on a feature-length (70+ min) narrative film will not be considered.
Filmmaker should be a woman, non-binary, and/or transgender individual, and be 39 years or older at the time of their application.
Filmmaker must be either a U.S. citizen OR based in the U.S.
Filmmaker should be at a point in their career where such recognition would be meaningful and provide needed support.
APPLICATION TIMELINE (2021):
Tuesday, August 10 – Application opens
Friday, August 20 – Info Session, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. PST
Tuesday, September 7 – Application closes at 9 p.m. PST
Wednesday, October 6 – All applicants notified
Wednesday, October 20 – Finalist extended materials due
Tuesday, November 16 – Recipient Announcement
https://nwfilmforum.org/lynn-shelton-certain-age-grant/
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Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab
BlackStar
DEADLINE: September 13, 2021
INFO: BlackStar is proud to present the inaugural Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, an opportunity designed to uplift emerging and mid-career artists in the Greater Philadelphia area. BlackStar’s Filmmaker Lab will support four Black, Brown and Indigenous filmmakers by making equipment, space, crew, mentorship, funding and critical feedback available over the course of a 12-month program. BlackStar will act as an executive producer on the short films created during the Lab and premiere the films at BlackStar Film Festival in 2022.
Four filmmakers will be selected to receive year-round mentorship as part of the lab, including feedback on works-in-progress, and advice on working with below-the-line crew. Shortlisted candidates who do not make the fellowship will receive 1-on-1 consultation from industry representatives. The program is open to emerging and mid-career filmmakers seeking to create short format projects in any genre.
The application for the 2021 Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab can be accessed here.
ELIGIBILITY:
Applicants must be listed as the director of the submitted project. Applicants may apply with up to 2 co-directors.
Candidates must have directed and exhibited at least one short film in any genre. Our preference is for narrative, experimental and hybrid work.
Candidates should submit a treatment or short script for an original film.
Candidates must live in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Projects must be filmed in the Greater Philadelphia area.
The Lab does not accept films that are currently in production or post-production.
The Lab is not open to students currently pursuing an art or film degree, organizations, or corporations.
Candidates should identify as Black, Brown, Indigenous or as a Person of Color (BIPOC).
The Lab is open to adults at least 18 years of age.
https://www.blackstarfest.org/lab/
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MGM + THE BLACK LIST FEATURE PARTNERSHIP
DEADLINE: September 15, 2021
INFO: The Black List and MGM have partnered to discover new voices with unique perspectives from historically underrepresented communities over the next two years. Every six months, The Black List will deliver a shortlist of new feature writers to MGM for consideration. MGM seeks to provide one writer from each six month cycle with a two-step Guild minimum blind deal, over a continuous period of two years.
MGM seeks to work with creative partners who want to tell original stories with universal, all audiences appeal for the big screen. The studio is genre-agnostic and aspires to work with great talent to join the ranks of MGM’s historic studio. Only feature film samples will be considered for this opportunity - no pilots or webseries.
The second opt-in period for the MGM partnership begins June 2, 2021, and will close September 15, 2021. If you wish to purchase an evaluation for consideration in this partnership, we strongly recommend doing so no later than August 1, 2021 in order to guarantee that it is received by the partnership’s close. Information about the next partnership submission period will be shared as soon as available.
The second opt-in period of this partnership will be specifically be focused on writers interested in the family-comedy and/or action-comedy space.
MGM can offer the agreed upon deal to any number of or none of the shortlist candidates. Shortlist candidates may be asked to provide a resume and personal statement by MGM.
FAQ:
Who’s Eligible to Apply?
MGM seeks to discover new voices with unique perspectives from historically underrepresented communities. We are looking for creative partners who want to tell original stories with universal, all audiences appeal for the big screen. The studio is genre-agnostic and aspires to work with great talent to join the ranks of MGM’s historic studio. The second opt-in period of this partnership will be specifically be focused on writers interested in the family-comedy and/or action-comedy space. See requirements for more details.
Do I Submit a Feature or a Pilot?
Only feature film samples will be considered for the MGM opportunity.
https://blcklst.com/mgm
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Mixed Mag
DEADLINE: September 15, 2021
INFO: Mixed Mag is an online multimedia publication dedicated to promoting creatives of color and celebrating our multiethnic/multicultural voices.
We’re accepting articles, think pieces, short stories, reviews and essays between 500-3000 words (sections include ART, FASHION, POLITICS, PROSE, TV/FILM/THEATER, MUSIC, FOOD, HEALTH/SEX/WELLNESS). Please read specific section requirements below:
POETRY: Submit up to three poems.
PROSE: Submit creative non-fiction, flash fiction or short stories between 500-3000 words.
TV, FILM & THEATER: Monologues must be 5 pages max. Plays/screenplays must be between 10-15 page max (this includes plays, films and web series). Short films or web series episodes must be no longer than 15 minutes.
ART: Submit 10 photos/videos max for visual submissions. Please include an artist’s statement.
MUSIC: Send us your essays, albums reviews or original music links. Please include links to Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Youtube, etc. as well as a paragraph about your submission.
FOOD: Send us your food stories, recipes, conversations and good eats related to culture or ancestry. Please include photos and if sending a recipe, please include a paragraph explaining what this food means to you and your culture.
FASHION: Submit articles, essays or reviews about clothing, accessories, upcoming designers, sustainable fashion and more. Also submit your own upcoming labels/lines with up to 10 photos/videos max and an artist statement.
Please send your submissions to submissions@mixedmag.co
Please submit your written submission(s) in a word doc file, include what section you are submitting to in the email subject line and include a short 3rd person bio.
PUBLICATION RIGHTS: MixedMag reserves all rights to the author/creator. We just ask that you mention MixedMag as the original publisher of your piece, should it appear in another publication (i.e. This piece first appeared in the online publication MixedMag)
We are a volunteer-run magazine, so unfortunately we can’t pay contributors at this time, however we hope you will join our platform as we begin paving the way to promote, uplift and push your voices to the forefront.
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SPRING 2022 RESIDENCY
Sundress Academy for the Arts
DEADLINE: September 15, 2021
INFO: The Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) is now accepting applications for short-term writing residencies in all genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, journalism, academic writing, and more—for their spring residency period which runs from January 3 to May 15, 2022. These residencies are designed to give artists time and space to complete their creative projects in a quiet and productive environment.
Each farmhouse residency costs $300/week, which includes a room of one’s own, as well as access to our communal kitchen, bathroom, office, and living space, plus wireless internet.
Residencies in the Writers Coop are $150/week and include your own private dry cabin as well as access to the farmhouse amenities. Because of the low cost, we are rarely able to offer scholarships for Writers Coop residents.
Residents will stay at the SAFTA farmhouse, located on a working farm on a 45-acre wooded plot in a Tennessee “holler” perfect for hiking, camping, and nature walks. The farmhouse is also just a half-hour from downtown Knoxville, an exciting and creative city that is home to a thriving artistic community. SAFTA is ideal for writers looking for a rural retreat with urban amenities.
SAFTA’s residencies, which also include free access to workshops, readings, and events, offer a unique and engaging experience. Residents can participate in local writing workshops, lead their own workshops, and even have the opportunity to learn life skills like gardening and animal care.
As part of our commitment to anti-racist work, we are now also using a reparations payment model for our farmhouse residencies which consists of the following:
3 reparations weeks of equally divided payments for Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers at $150/week
3 discounted weeks of equally divided payments for BIPOC writers at $250/week
6 equitable weeks of equally divided payments at $300/week
Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers are also invited to apply for a $350 support grant to help cover the costs of food, travel, childcare, and/or any other needs while they are at the residency. We are currently able to offer two of these grants per residency period (spring/summer/fall). If you would like to donate to expand this funding, you may do so here.
For the Spring 2022 residency period, SAFTA will be offering the following fellowships only:
LGBTQIA+ Fellowship: one full and one 50% fellowship for writers who identify as LGBTQIA+
Dr. Kristi Larkin Havens Memorial Fellowship for Service to the Community
Black & Indigenous Writers Fellowships: one full fellowship for Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers
LGBTQIA+ Fellowship (Spring 2022): This year’s judge for the LGBTQIA fellowships is Nicole Shawan Junior, a counter-storyteller who was bred in the bass-heavy beat and scratch of Brooklyn, where the cool of beautiful inner-city life barely survived crack cocaine’s burn. Her work appears in The Rumpus, SLICE Magazine, Kweli Journal, CURA, ZORA, Gay Mag, The Feminist Wire, and elsewhere. Nicole has received residencies and fellowships from Hedgebrook, PERIPLUS, New York Foundation for the Arts, Lambda Literary, RADAR Productions and the San Francisco Public Library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, and more. Her work has received support from Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Hurston/Wright Writers Week, Tin House Summer Workshop, VONA, Carnegie Hall, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and others. Nicole is the founder of Roots. Wounds. Words. (a literary arts revolution that serves BIPOC storytellers), editor in chief of Black Femme Collective, has guest edited for The Rumpus, and serves on the editorial board at Sundress Publications.
Dr. Kristi Larkin Havens Memorial Fellowship for Service to the Community (Spring 2022 or Fall 2022): Dr. Kristi Larkin Havens served as the Community Outreach Director for Sundress Academy for the Arts and then as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for Sundress Publications for over six years. She earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she was a Lecturer and the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies. She was a photographer who served as a producer on films for several local competitions including The Knoxville 24-Hour Film Festival and the Grindhouse Grind-out. For many years she served as a coordinator for the Knoxville Girls Rock Camp, an organization dedicated to fostering inclusivity and creativity. For her, the arts were a natural venue for pursuing the aims of social justice.
This fellowship will be awarded to a writer who has shown exceptional service to their own community through any of the following: volunteering, organizing, fundraising, board membership, etc. Fellowship winners will receive a one-week fully-funded residency the Sundress Academy for the Arts at Firefly Farms in Knoxville, TN for either the spring or fall of 2022. The spring residency period runs from January 3 to May 15, 2022, and the fall period runs from August 23-January 2, 2023.
Find out more about the application process at www.sundressacademyforthearts.com.
The application fee is waived for all BIPOC identifying writers. For all fellowship applications, the application fee will also be waived for those who demonstrate financial need; please state this in your application under the financial need section. Limited partial scholarships are also available to any applicant with financial need.
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GLAAD LIST 2021
The Black List / GLAAD
DEADLINE: September 20, 2021
INFO: In January 2019, GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, in partnership with The Black List, an annual survey of Hollywood executives' favorite unproduced screenplays, announced the creation of The GLAAD List, a curated list of the most promising unmade LGBTQ-inclusive scripts in Hollywood that have been hosted on blcklst.com or were included on the 2018 year-end annual Black List, which was unveiled at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. The GLAAD List's second edition was announced the following year, at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
After facing the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic, GLAAD and The Black List are thrilled to announce plans for the third annual GLAAD List in July 2021! Both organizations are issuing a call for submissions for LGBTQ+-inclusive scripts from the industry. Filmmakers and content creators are invited to submit a script for consideration by uploading it to The Black List website during the months of July, August, and September. Submissions will be accepted beginning July 20th, 2021, and until September 20, 2021. Feature film and original pilot submissions will be considered for this opportunity.
In order to advance efforts to discover underrepresented LGBTQ-inclusive storytellers, this year GLAAD and The Black List have formed The GLAAD List “Founder’s Circle,” a team of production companies, studios, and streaming services that are instrumental in driving cultural change and amplifying voices from marginalized communities. Members of the inaugural GLAAD List “Founder’s Circle” are: Berlanti Productions, Hello Sunshine, MGM/Orion Pictures, Netflix, Ryan Murphy Productions, and Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, all of which have also made charitable donations to support The GLAAD List and host submission and evaluation fee waivers on The Black List website. Representatives from these organizations will participate in the reading of film and episodic shortlist selections and provide input on which scripts are most promising and most inclusive. Executives from each company will meet one-on-one with at least 10 GLAAD List finalists this fall and will have the opportunity to offer a script deal to one, or any number of, GLAAD List feature or pilot writers.
Writers in the LGBTQ+ community and those who are writing about the LGBTQ+ experience are invited to submit their feature scripts for consideration in the 2021 GLAAD List. As a result of our generous Founder’s Circle members, GLAAD and The Black List are pleased to offer the option for two free months of hosting and two free evaluations to select writers who apply for a fee waiver via the Black List website. Writers who wish to apply for a fee waiver for two months of hosting and two evaluations must do so via blcklst.com/GLAAD between July 20th, 2021 and August 3rd, 2021. GLAAD will then assign coupons based on the number of waiver requests and writers will be notified if they have received a coupon from GLAAD. No late applications will be considered.
The Black List is proud to partner with GLAAD, Berlanti Productions, Hello Sunshine, MGM/Orion Pictures, Netflix, Ryan Murphy Productions, and Village Roadshow Entertainment Group on this incredible opportunity for LGBTQ writers!
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The Minority Report 2022
DIVERSO
DEADLINE: September 30, 2021
ENTRY FEE: $20
INFO: The Minority Report is an industry-vetted fellowship program for the top diverse screenwriters enrolled in undergraduate or graduate educational institutions (Class of 2021 Graduates are eligible). Made by students, for students, it's the first-ever initiative of its kind.
The contest is sponsored by DIVERSO, a student-run film nonprofit dedicated to changing the face of entertainment by empowering the underrepresented storytellers of the next generation.
At DIVERSO, we believe that long-term, systemic change in Hollywood starts at the student level: providing underrepresented student groups with exposure, resources, and connections in Hollywood that they may not otherwise have access to.
We offer an extensive professional platform to break into entertainment by connecting our Minority Report Fellows with top companies/executives/mentors and providing individualized guidance and stipend for career development.
Accepting Features and TV Pilots
Each year, the Minority Report Fellowship program changes. Below, you'll find the benefits afforded to the Fellows last season.
LAST SEASON'S BENEFITS
1. Distribution to Agencies: The Minority Report was sent out to over a dozen agents and managers at different companies from Anonymous Content to Paradigm to United Talent Agency.
2. Virtual Panels with Top Industry Professionals
Shaka King, JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Ryan Bergara, BUZZFEED: UNSOLVED
JD Dillard, STARWARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
Dennis Liu, RAISING DION
3. General Meetings: Our fellows were set up on 5+ general meetings with executives from studios and production companies such as Plan B, Paramount, Universal, Big Beach, JuVee, Tornante, and more.
4. Mentorship: Fellows were matched with experienced writers in the industry based on their personalized style and experience. Mentors provided both career and script guidance.
Industry Jury Members last season included:
Dede Gardner - President, Plan B Entertainment
Meredith Lavitt - Executive Director, Sundance Ignite
Ben Lopez - Executive Director, NALIP
Yahlin Chang - Writer, THE HANDMAID'S TALE
Michelle Sugihara - Executive Director, CAPE
Teresa Hsiao - Co-Creator, NORA FROM QUEENS
Joey Soloway - Creator, TRANSPARENT
Minhal Baig - Writer/Director, HALA
Megan Halpern - Vice President, The Black List
Darell Britt-Gibson - Actor, BARRY, JUST MERCY
Poorna Jagannathan - Actress, NEVER HAVE I EVER
Persia White - Actress, GIRLFRIENDS
https://writers.coverfly.com/competitions/view/the-minority-report
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FEATURE FILM LAB JA
Jamaica Film and Television Association
DEADLINE: September 30, 2021 (for Cohort 3)
INFO: The Feature Film Lab programme is a British Council initiative in association with the Jamaica Film and Television Association (JAFTA) and JAMPRO and consists of three separate cohorts. The Feature Film Lab was preceded by a 2017 script development workshop which was expanded into the Feature Film Lab that was launched in 2018. The programme consists of three separate cohorts with Cohort 1 (2018/2019) completed, Cohort 2 (2019/2021) underway and Cohort 3 (2021/2022).
The Feature Film Lab is a feature-film developmental programme that is focused on training and/or equipping local emerging screenwriters, story editors and producers with core skillsets for the script development process to ultimately produce a feature-film script that can be pitched and presented for further development.
The goal is to have approximately four to five commercially viable feature-film scripts and to have approximately five (5) scriptwriters, five (5) producers and five (5) story editors that have learned and/or improved the skillsets of their respective roles - during the script-development, developmental, pitching and marketing process.
At the end of the programme participants can gain and apply the skills necessary to enhance their roles in the filmmaking arena and that of their peer community and the wider industry; and be able to practically and positively apply their skills both locally and internationally.