Last year, one of the biggest screenplay contests in the country claimed it received thousands of entries. Well, good for them. In 2002 The Hollywood Symposium Screenplay Contest received 436 scripts. Well, super for us. We are delighted to have the smaller number, and frankly we prefer it. Here's why.

To begin with, a writer's odds of placing among the top winners in our contest are substantially better! And we don't even have a semi-finalist category, so that we can declare more scripts as finalists, 47 last year. The Hollywood Symposium is a noteworthy organization that has withstood the critical test of time, now in our fifth year, and the writers we promote get noticed.

Well and good, you may say, but ah, look at the difference in prize money. Wouldn't anybody prefer to win the really big money rather than the mere $3,000 that The Hollywood Symposium can offer?

Sure, of course. But again, consider the odds. Let's talk turkey. We all know the true value of a screenplay contest isn't really the money. Of course the bucks are nice, but the paramount goal is recognition, getting the studios and agents and producers to sit up and pay attention. You call an agent and ask them to read your screenplay, and you say "oh, by the way, my script was just chosen a finalist in The Hollywood Symposium Screenplay Contest"…..suddenly the agent isn't brushing you off. Suddenly the chances that your script will get serious consideration go way up. Contests are about acknowledgment.

Here's another important factor to weigh. In order to write the best script possible, many screenwriters naturally work up to the last minute of a contest deadline. This means the majority of entries come in during the final days. So every contest, large or small, only has a few weeks right after the contest closes to complete the great majority of all first level judging.

If a contest has multiple thousands of entries, it takes a small army of reader-judges to get through that mountain of material quickly. Do the math. How many genuinely qualified judges are hanging around and available to participate in such a massive undertaking?

Reading scripts is very time consuming, and most early-round judges in any contest receive only a modest honorarium for their services. Contest economics just can't allow for more. So who is it, then, doing all this first round reading? Many competitions tout star name judges for their finalist scripts, and that's just great. But what about all those thousands of scripts that never make it to the finals? Who is passing "life or death" judgement on those labors of love, and how many pages per script are they actually reading?

All motivation for the early round judges in the larger contests points in the direction of speed, of skimming scripts. What's really needed and hoped for by writers, however, is for judges to slow down so they can take a careful, complete look at the art, craft, and merit of what they're reading. But if you're dealing with a veritable mountain of scripts, how possible is that?

Look, big contests are important, and I encourage you to enter a few. They get great publicity and some winners of the monster competitions have made real names for themselves, gone on to do absolutely terrific things. These organizations are well run by talented, hard working, well connected and ethical people. No contest gets to be that big without doing something right.

I just wish to point out that on the other side of the sheer volume question, The Hollywood Symposium is very happy to receive hundreds of scripts, not thousands. We use a small number of highly qualified judges, many of whom read for us year after year and thereby gain an ever growing perspective. It's worth noting, too, that in addition to having a wealth of professional film experience and training, currently every single one of our judges has also taught screenwriting at the university level. We care about education, and all of our entrants receive the numerical master judging sheet for their screenplay.

In 1999 one of our participants, Randall A. Wolff, reached the finalist stage, took the numerical master judging sheet we sent him and used it to help shape his rewrite. Randall then reentered his greatly improved screenplay the following year, and won one of our top prizes. That's the kind of contest we enjoy running.

We are proud of our contest and our standards of quality, equity, and meticulousness. We respect the great effort it takes to write a decent screenplay, and we read with care. So please consider joining us for our 2003, Fifth Annual Hollywood Symposium Screenplay Contest!

And by the way. Our 2002 First Place screenwriter, Michael O'Hare, got his script optioned less than a week after we announced our winners. Visit the THS web site for many other success stories.

Yes, sometimes smaller is better.