Final Draft Blog

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Benjamin Kramer: How Big Break Fueled His Success

March 20, 2025

The goal of Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest has always been to boost the screenwriting career of winners and finalists. For writer Benjamin Kramer, winning the 2021 Big Break Action/Adventure category was just the push he needed to not ...

Think Big, Write Small: How to Write a Short Screenplay

March 12, 2025

To make it in Hollywood, you need to dream big.

5 Ways To Win a Screenwriting Contest

March 11, 2025

Maybe you’ve started or finished writing a feature screenplay or television pilot. Perhaps you’re still at the brainstorming stage. No matter what stage of the writing process you’re at, you might plan to enter your script into a screenwriting contes...

5 Ways To Get Your Script Contest Ready

March 3, 2025

Every year there’s a new wave of screenwriting contests that a screenwriter can enter in the hopes of getting more eyes on their feature screenplay or TV pilot. Some of these annual contests, like Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, show win...

Why You Should Enter a Screenwriting Contest

February 24, 2025

Maybe you’ve started writing a feature film screenplay or TV pilot, but you don’t have an end goal yet? Or you’ve finished your script, but you don’t know what to do with it? Most likely you want a screenwriting career, but other than writing a scrip...

5 Ways To Get Your Screenplay Read

February 18, 2025

Have you written a screenplay but you don’t know how to get industry professionals to read it? This is important because ultimately it’s about getting as many eyes on your script as possible. The more people who read it, the more chances that someone...

Big Break Contest Judge Jeff Portnoy On Why You Should Enter

January 24, 2025

According to Jeff Portnoy, literary manager at Bellevue Productions and a judge for the 2025 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, what makes Final Draft’s screenwriting competition stand out from other screenwriting contests is its emphasis o...

Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest 2025 opens March 10

January 17, 2025

Is your screenplay or TV pilot ready for the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Competition? With dozens of screenwriting contests out there, it’s important to consider which ones are worth your time and money. Over the past 20 years, the Big Break ...

How Josh Flanagan’s Big Break Win Helped Jumpstart His Career

June 13, 2024

Josh Flanagan, the Comedy Feature Winner for the 2022 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, didn’t plan on being a writer. Initially, he wanted to be a director at the University of Texas in Austin’s film school. However, that soon changed whe...