WORKSHOPS & COMPETITIONS

The Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Competition welcomes entries of stories and one-act plays of up to five thousand words. A team of professional readers vets the manuscripts, and a guest judge adjudicates the winners; among recent guest judges are Colum McCann, Mary Gaitskill, Karen Russell, Adam Johnson, Yiyun Li, and Joyce Carol Oates. The winning story is ensured publication, whether at the website or in the print edition; the top three stories earn cash prizes; and those stories, along with seven honorable mentions, are forwarded to leading literary agencies for consideration. Of the ten authors so recognized each year, an average of three to six sign with agents as a result; and past such writers include Jonathan Safran Foer and Tommy Orange. The competition opens July 1 and closes the first week of October.

For guidelines, deadlines, and to enter, please visit zoetrope.com/contests.

The mission of the American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition is to find and promote new and innovative voices in cinema. The competition accepts entries of feature-length film scripts and television pilot scripts. Professional readers carefully review each script, and Francis Ford Coppola selects a winner from among the ten finalists. The winner receives a cash prize, and Zoetrope forwards the scripts of all ten finalists to leading production companies and talent agencies for consideration. The competition opens July 1 and closes in mid-September.

For guidelines, deadlines, and to enter, please visit zoetrope.com/contests.

“To me, the great hope is now that these little 8mm video recorders have come out, people who normally wouldn't make movies are going to be making them. And this whole ‘professionalism’ about movies will be destroyed forever, and it will really become an art form.”
—Francis Ford Coppola, 1991

The Coppola Short Film Competition accepts entries of short films of up to fifteen minutes long. In 2018, Gus Van Sant was the competition judge. The winning filmmaker receives a cash prize, and the top five films are screened for leading agencies and production companies. The competition opens July 1 and closes in early September.

For guidelines, deadlines, and to enter, please visit www.CoppolaShorts.com. With further questions, please write info@coppolashorts.com.

Zoetrope: All-Story partners with Gotham Writers’ Workshop to offer award-winning fiction workshops to writers of all abilities and ambitions. Classes are conducted online, accessible twenty-four hours a day, and limited to sixteen students per class. Students engage in a weeklong Q&A with All-Story editor, Michael Ray; bypass the slush pile with their final stories, submitting directly to editors; and receive a subscription to the magazine.

For more information and to register, please visit www.writingclasses.com.