WELCOME TO THE
WOMEN'S LIST
Help us shine a bright light on the best screenplays and tv pilots written by women.
Film and television are the most powerful forces shaping the perception of women worldwide, yet women play only a small role in creating that image. The fact that women have such a negligible voice in the entertainment industry is one of the most significant issues in our profession.
We want to throw the doors wide open for women writers, and create new opportunities for all female film and television professionals.
Most important, we want to change the narrative that women writers are less accomplished than their male counterparts and their stories less significant. Through your stories, we hope to create new role models for girls and women across the globe.
Our goal is to become the go-to resource for overlooked writers and their stories, and for the producers and directors looking to discover them.
THIS IS NOT
YET ANOTHER
SCREENPLAY COMPETITION: IT'S A TREASURE HUNT
Script competitions are great -- for the winners. But the odds are terrible: by their nature, the competitions are a crapshoot, only recognizing a handful of scripts out of hundreds or even thousands of submissions.
The Women's List won't be limited to half a dozen "winners": we're looking for as many outstanding scripts written by women as we can find. The final count could be 3 or 300.
HOW IT WILL WORK
Once a year, we will solicit scripts from women writers, both for feature scripts and original TV pilots. Submissions will be blind and all genres are welcome -- but they must be written in English or translated into English. Submissions will open on March 15, 2024 and close on
May 31, 2024. Please see Coverfly, https://writers.coverfly.com/competitions/view/the-womens-list for more details.
THUMBS UP.
OR
THUMBS DOWN.
Expert readers will cull any scripts that don't meet professional standards. Those that pass the test will be read by entertainment industry veterans, including writers, producers, directors and actors.
The scripts will be judged purely on quality. They don't need to portray all women in a positive light or pass the Bechdel test: they just have to be great stories, well told by women writers.
HOW WE WILL PROMOTE THE SCRIPTS
All successful scripts will be featured on our website. We will include loglines, synopses, and contact information so producers, directors, and agents can easily reach out to the writers.
We’ll promote The Women’s List on all available social media venues. Among them, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, etc., as well as in traditional media and on industry podcasts.
We plan to host professional gatherings that will connect the chosen writers to the people who can put their scripts into production, schedule table reads, and produce any other events that can further our goals of increasing the participation of women in the entertainment industry.
HOW TO APPLY
Look for us on Coverfly,
https://writers.coverfly.com/competitions/view/the-womens-list
and follow directions for submission.
Thanks to The Women's List, actors, producers, directors, agents and showrunners who are looking for well executed scripts, or talented women writers, can never again claim that they'd make them or hire them if only they could find them.
Now they can.
FREQUENTLY ASKED How many winners will there be? The Women’s List is not a contest; it’s a search for great scripts written by women. We’re not looking for one “winner” or even a handful of “winners”. Unlike many of the for-profit contests that have only one winner, writers will not be competing for a handful of slots. We’re looking for as many wonderful scripts as we can find. Who are your readers? We are recruiting industry professionals, writers, directors, actors and producers in various specialties to read the scripts. Because we’re looking for as many great scripts as we can find, writers are not competing against one another. If you’re a pro and want to help us uplift the female gaze, please let us know. We need you. Are you offering coverage or notes? No. We’re looking for highly polished scripts that are ready to shoot tomorrow. At that level, the only notes that matter are those of the people making the film or show. Why does The Women’s List matter? Film and television are the most powerful forces shaping the perception of women world-wide, yet women play only a minimal role in creating that perception. The fact that women have such a small voice in the entertainment industry is one of the most significant issues of our time. Perhaps that’s why women are considered less talented than men and less capable of taking on leadership roles. Why women are paid less than men. Why there’s still a glass ceiling in the c-suite. Why we’re not believed when we are sexually assaulted. Why we are not trusted to make decisions about their own bodies. Why there’s never been a female President of the United States. How can The Women’s List Help? The film and television industry is in flux. Women’s scripts and the female perspective are likely to be overlooked now more than ever. Having an agent or manager can be helpful, but if they’re not wild about your script or don’t have the contacts to get it to the right people, your work can end up being siloed away where the people who might love it can never find it. If producers, directors, and actors can’t find your script, they can’t make your script. If you don’t have representation, your only option is to submit to for-profit contests where you have no idea who is reading your script or even if they are. Many only offer prizes to one writer. We now have the added fear that they may be training AI on our scripts. What about Labs and Fellowships? Labs and fellowships can be wonderful and inspiring, but many women already have polished scripts. What they need is access to potential filmmakers. The Women’s List will make their scripts easy to find by featuring the script titles, loglines and contact information for the writer on our website, Facebook page and other social media platforms. We will repeatedly push the list to as many producers, directors, and actors as we can reach. If you have questions that we have not addressed here, please contact us. Or contact us anyway, we'd love to hear from you.
WHO WE ARE
We are writers, directors, producers, and actors who have been working on a way to bypass industry gatekeepers and give women writers the attention they deserve.
Get in Touch
