Austin Film Festival furthers the art and craft of filmmaking by championing the work of screenwriters, filmmakers, and all artists who use the language of film and television to tell a story. In addition to an 8 day film festival and 4 day Conference, they offer year round events, a Young Filmmakers Program, a TV show, Radio show, Podcast, and more.

This year, the Austin Film Festival launched their inaugural, Fiction Podcast Competition, leveraging their legacy of championing storytelling to launch writers into the emerging world of podcasts. The deadline for entering the Fiction Podcast Competition is May 10, 2017. The entry fee is $25.

To be clear, the Austin Film Festival doesn’t want you to submit a fully finished, produced, fiction podcast. They are looking for fiction podcast scripts. Here’s how they describe what they are looking for:

Creating a Fiction Podcast Script isn’t about starting from scratch. If you have a pilot, a teleplay, a screenplay ask yourself: is this a great story. If it is, then take the time to tweak it for this new medium! Whether you submit with us or not, getting your script ready for this space is only going to help your career.

The Austin Film Festival has not yet announced who the judges of the Fiction Podcast Competition will be. The judges (whomever they may turn out to be) will judge each entry on the following criteria: plot, structure, characters, dialogue, and concept. The judges will also take into consideration the elements of storytelling that are unique to a purely acoustic medium.

It is always a good idea take a look the rules of a contest. Here are some key points to know about:

• All Fiction Podcast scripts submitted must be in English.
• Scripts must not have been optioned or sold, produced and distributed prior to October 28, 2017.
• Scripts that have reached the Semifinalist level or above in previous years within any Austin Film Festival Competitions are not eligible for resubmission.
• The Austin Film Festival strongly recommends that applicants register or copyright their material before submitting.

The winners will be announced on October 28, 2017. The winning entry will receive one Typewriter Award. That’s great if one person is involved. However, if more than one person wrote the script, then they have to figure out which of them gets the Typewriter Award. Only one will be issued per winning entry.