Now that Season 3 of the Killer Shorts Contest has come to a close, and we eagerly await the finalist announcements, we want to give you a little insight into our competition. We have had some record numbers for the contest this season. Especially considering our contest is so niche, only accepting short scripts in the horror genre. We never could have imagined it would become as big as it has! Thank you to everyone that has continued to make our contest possible. Check out the statistics below and hopefully, that helps influence you to submit your horror short scripts next season.
Seasonal Growth
We are honored that you screenwriters, and horror fans, submitted your horror short scripts to our contest and kept us growing. Each season, we have seen a significant uptick in submissions. From Season 1 to 3 the number of scripts submitted increased exponentially.
📝 765 script submissions in Season 1.
📝 952 script submissions in Season 2.
📈 24 % increase between Season 1 and 2
📈 With a 62% increase in submissions from Season 2 to 3 that means we received…
🎉1551 Script Submissions in Season 3 🎉
“Last year when we received 952 submissions, I set a goal to break a thousand in Season 3 – and secretly in my mind, hoped for at least 1200. That would mean we were steadily trending upwards and potentially, doing something right. It would mean that we’re not only succeeding at getting the word out about our contest, but also inspiring more screenwriters to write than ever before. Well, my goal was shattered. 1551 submissions. 1551 submissions for a contest as new and niche as ours? It’s staggering. We only accept horror short screenplays. Let that sink in for a minute.”
Alison Parker, Contest Director
Submissions Per Platform
There are benefits to all three of our submission platforms, Coverfly, FilmFreeway, and NetworkISA. With the increase in submissions, we noticed writers preferred to submit through Coverfly. Coverfly is very active within the writing community by offering peer-to-peer feedback service, pitch week, amongst many other perks and services. Coverfly’s The Red List allows writers to have their scripts and contest accolades visible to industry professionals. For more info on what Coverfly has to offer check out our blog article Coverfly vs. FilmFreeway: What’s The Difference?
It’s safe to say Coverfly has formed great relationships within the writing community, however, all the submission sites offer something different, and that is made evident in the number of submissions we saw on each platform this year.
1075 Scripts Submitted on Coverfly
📝 # of One Page Horror Shorts: 327
🧟♂️ # of Main Category Horror Short Screenplays: 748
Season 2:
534 scripts submitted
445 Scripts Submitted on FilmFreeway
📝 # of One Page Horror Shorts: 71
🧟♂️ # of Main Category Horror Short Screenplays: 374
Season 2:
354 scripts submitted
31 Scripts Submitted on NetworkISA
📝 # of One Page Horror Shorts: 10
🧟♂️ # of Main Category Horror Short Screenplays: 21
Season 2:
29 scripts submitted
Thank You To Our Readers
We are so grateful to all our readers who tirelessly read through over 1500 scripts. We could not do it without all their hard work. As writers, we put a lot of trust in the readers of these screenwriting competitions to fairly judge our scripts. Rest assured as every script is read twice by our readers.
☠️ 30 Contest Readers
📃With 1551 scripts read x 2 reads = 3102 scripts read
Number of Pages
🧟♂️Total Number of 1 Page Horror Shorts Submitted: 408
🎉Total number of main category (1-25) shorts: 1143
The 1 Page Horror Short category was newly introduced in Season 3, and we are so happy it was so well-received. It was a budget-friendly category with a locked-in $5 entry fee. The prizes for this category include an all-access 1-year subscription to Stan Winston School, $500 cash, a 1 Year ISAConnect Membership, plus the highly coveted skull typewriter trophy.
“We recognize that shorter scripts have a slight disadvantage when it comes to impressing literary managers,” said Alison Parker, Contest Director, “So we are thrilled to introduce the new ‘1 Page Category’, with prizes geared towards helping the winner produce a horror short film.”
The finalists for the 1 Page Category will be announced on the same dates as the main category. Stay tuned for those announcements!
How long should your script be? Well, let’s look at some of the numbers
Script Length In The Main Category:
📃 # of scripts 1 page = 6
💀 # of scripts 2-12 pages = 595
🧟♂️ # of scripts 13-20 =355
☠️ # of scripts 21-25 pages = 177
🎊 Overall # of pages submitted = 15,448! 🎊
🚨 Overall # of pages read = 30,896! 🚨
Diversity Code
At Killer Shorts, we want to expand the number of diverse voices we are reading. We were happy to provide a discount code to all writers who are female-identifying, LGBTQ+, a person of color, non-binary, or a person with a disability. We cannot wait to see these numbers grow next season. Check out this blog post for more information on the diversity code.
‼️Diversity Code Uses: 91‼️
Our Season 2 Grand Prize Winner, Alessandra Jara Del Castillo, discovered the Killer Shorts Contest through this discount code option on social media.
“I first found the contest through Twitter, where Alison had posted a discount code for female-identifying, non-binary, People of Color, & LGBTQ writers. Before then, I’d never even considered writing a horror short script. Now I can’t imagine a reality where I didn’t. “
Alessandra Jara Del Castillo
We are so impressed with the number of scripts we received in every category for Season 3 and cannot wait for the Killer Shorts Contest to keep growing. Make sure to stay tuned for our quarterfinalist announcements on February 14th.
Season 3 announcement dates: Quarterfinalists- February 14th, Semifinalists- February 28th, Top 10 Finalists- March 14th, Top 3 Winners- April 25th
Featured Image by Ieva Berzina.
Killer Shorts on Instagram.
Killer Shorts on Twitter.
