Black List Partner With Austin??

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  • Black List Partner With Austin??

    Wait, did I read that right? The Black List readers will be choosing the finalist and winners of the Austin Film Festival??

    Does that strike anyone else as odd?

    Part of the appeal of the Austin Contest is that it seems to select writers based on talent, uniqueness, and concept of story (on track with most films that play in a film festival i.e. the "Austin Film Festival". The Black List readers seem so commercial and mostly focused on high concept material.

    This make me really question Austin. Anyone else?

  • #2
    Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

    No no no. They're only creating a new subcategory of the competition. They're giving out an award called Fade to Black. It sounds like any script that advances to the semi-finalist portion of the AFF Screenplay contest will be entered into this sub-contest. But they're separate.
    Ring-a-ding-ding, baby.

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    • #3
      Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

      Originally posted by NoirDigits View Post
      No no no. They're only creating a new subcategory of the competition. They're giving out an award called Fade to Black. It sounds like any script that advances to the semi-finalist portion of the AFF Screenplay contest will be entered into this sub-contest. But they're separate.
      That's MOSTLY correct. It IS a subcategory of the competition. It's a totally separate award from the main Comedy and Drama screenplay awards. The Black List readers are not choosing the winner of the main AFF Comedy and Drama awards.

      However, it's not ANY script that advances to the semifinals though. Like two of the other AFF subcategory awards (the Enderby and Darkwoods prizes), you have to opt-in and pay an additional $20 fee when you submit your script if you want to be considered for the Fade to Black award.

      So...you can be a semifinalist and not be considered for Fade to Black if you chose not to opt-in when you submitted.

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      • #4
        Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

        Whoops. Cheers for the clarification.
        Ring-a-ding-ding, baby.

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        • #5
          Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

          Thanks for clarifying!

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          • #6
            Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

            I guess my only sticking point or area of ambiguity is the criteria or description: "Open to feature scripts with a unique concept in any genre and of any budget."

            I'm sure we'd all like to think we have a unique concept with our material so I'll assume this means that if I have a kitchen sink drama that has a a linear plotline narrative, I wouldn't want to enter it into this subcategory.

            However, where does one draw that line? Body-switching romantic comedy? Tarantinoesque fractured timeline? Unique concept in terms of the story itself? Or storytelling device? Perhaps like all things, I guess the writer oughta know if they have a unique concept.

            Not sure if Franklin feels the need to shed any additional light or clarity? It's certainly an intriuging partnership and from an AFF screenplay competition point of view, this subcategory is a unique concept in and of itself.

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            • #7
              Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

              Hopefully, the Black List will be more proactive regarding its engagement with the winning writer in its category (as well as the finalists) . . . at least meet with them or something.

              My biggest issue with these sponsorship award categories is there's complete radio silence, despite promises by AFF that they'll set up a meeting or phone call. I actually won in the Dark Hero Studios category a few years ago, but the sponsors were never even represented at the festival or contacted me. Also a finalist one year for Darkwoods Productions, but again, I was never contacted despite being told by AFF that I would be.

              Not bitter . . . just irked at myself for being so naive and buying into the hype. Buyer beware.

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              • #8
                Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

                Thanks for sharing that, aquaformosa. Those are impressive results in a very competitive contest and, as a fan of the fest, I'm disappointed to hear those achievements were met with radio silence. I hope you at least got some got some mileage out of it with queries.

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                • #9
                  Re: Black List Partner With Austin??

                  Originally posted by Bruce Rose View Post
                  Thanks for sharing that, aquaformosa. Those are impressive results in a very competitive contest and, as a fan of the fest, I'm disappointed to hear those achievements were met with radio silence. I hope you at least got some got some mileage out of it with queries.
                  Just to clarify, I knew the year that I won with Dark Hero Studios that they wouldn't be attending, so yeah, it was a little disappointing, especially when I knew and heard that Dan Petrie Jr. and Enderby were meeting with all of its finalist writers (as they seem to do every year). They are pretty good about doing that every year so hats off to Dan and Enderby.

                  Regarding Darkwoods:
                  Hey, I get it. It was their first year sponsoring this category and these are busy Hollywood people who probably view a 30-minute meeting with a contest-placing writer as thirty minutes they'll never get back. However, if that's the agreement they've made with AFF, I think they should do their best to honor it. And AFF has to recognize that it will ultimately reflect poorly on them, even though I'm sure there's a limit to what Matt and the AFF staff can get these people to do.

                  Anyway, it's just another reminder that there are no guarantees, even with contests, but we all know that already, right? Just keep writing. Make your own breaks, whenever you can. Did I mention "keep writing"?

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