Organized by the Romanian Film Development Association (ADFR), The Script Contest is the only residency-contest for short films in Romania. This year it will take place between March and June.

Starting with 2020, The Script Contest includes a residency stage held at Cobor Farm where participants can dedicate themselves entirely to writing and developing their scripts, but also will take part in round tables, film screenings, peer review feedback sessions, workshops and mentoring meetings.

This year’s edition of TSC will be divided into 5 stages:

• Call for projects;
• Pre-selection and announcement of the 8 finalists;
• One-on-one mentoring sessions with the tutors;
• 6-day residency at Cobor Farm;
• Final presentation of the projects to the jury (pitching).

The pre-selection committee consists of Laura Musat (founder of ADFR / project manager of TSC) and Alexandra Safriuc (curator / artistic director of ShortsUp), and the members of the jury are Andrei Cretulescu (film director), Bianca Oana (film producer) and Alexandru Baciu (screenwriter and script doctor).

On the pitching day, the jury will decide the winning script and will offer the prize consisting of 3,500 LEI for the screenwriter, as well as a grant of up to 6,000EUR to support its production, along with consultancy offered throughout the production stage by the partner production house – Castalia Pictures. In addition, the post-production studio Avanpost will provide the winner with the coloring stage of the film and the necessary deliverables.

The residency-contest is mainly addressed to young screenwriters and film directors from Romania, but the call is open to everyone over the age of 18, regardless of their professional training.

Applications can only be made on the FilmFreeway platform. An applicant can submit only one script. The script may have two co-writers, but only one of them will participate in the main stage of residency.

To be eligible, the screenplay must be a short film, written in Romanian. Any genre is accepted: fiction, animation, documentary, experimental.

The residency will take place between June 14-19, and until June 20, the participants will send their final scripts for the pitch stage in front of the jury.

The call for entries for the 5th edition of The script Contest is open until April 24, 2021. If you want to keep up with the latest information, visit the official website and follow the Facebook page.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.