New Screenwriting Contest Will Celebrate Screenwriters Focused on Social Awareness and Action

A new script competition will celebrate writers of film and television screenplays who aim to raise awareness and inspire change around critical social issues, with the goal of helping to meet a burgeoning audience demand for socially purposeful entertainment.

TIROTA, a groundbreaking communications and engagement agency that enhances both the societal impact and commercial success of issue-focused entertainment, is partnering with the respected FINISH LINE SCRIPT COMPETITION to launch the Tirota/Finish Line Social Impact Script Competition.

The Tirota/Finish Line Social Impact Script Competition will identify and support talented storytellers with an evident passion for changing the world, helping them improve their scripts and ultimately gain a foothold in the entertainment industry.

The Grand Prize winner of the competition will receive a $1,000 option on their script and access to Finish Line’s extensive network of industry professionals including literary managers, agents, development execs and producers.

Script submissions will be invited from aspiring as well as established writers working across the full spectrum of today’s most urgent issues, such as racial, gender or economic inequality, climate change, drug addiction, the broken foster care system, gun violence and more. In particular, the competition will recognize stories that point toward opportunities for audiences to support and engage in meaningful, corrective action.

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Audiences Strongly Attracted to Socially Focused Entertainment

Tirota’s services help content creators create build audiences for socially focused entertainment projects, informed by the insight that audiences today hunger for purposeful entertainment. In a landmark survey commissioned by Tirota in 2019, 80 percent of the more than 1,000 Americans polled said they are attracted to film and TV that addresses important social issues and causes. In addition, 78 percent said the entertainment industry should provide more information on how to act on the issues their content explores.

“Tirota is a visionary company committed to promoting social change through storytelling – a mission that is strongly aligned with Finish Line’s,” said Jenny Frankfurt, Finish Line Script Competition co-founder. “It is a dream come true to add this contest – showcasing socially conscious stories that can motivate real change – to the Finish Line offering.”

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Providing Guidance to Strengthen Scripts

The contest will build on the model for Finish Line’s well-known script competition, now in its fifth season. Entrants will benefit from Finish Line’s extensive notes on submitted scripts and will be allowed to resubmit improved drafts to the competition. In the course of its four previous competitions, Finish Line has earned a reputation among entrants for the quality of the scripts it rewards, the thoroughness of its feedback, and the quality of both the judges and the network of industry contacts available to winners.

“Our broken world needs healing -- and socially focused entertainment is a powerful way to inform and motivate audiences around making a difference,” said Rob Densen, a Tirota partner. Densen is also founder of social advocacy consultancy Tiller, LLC. “Writers committed to social change deserve all the support and encouragement that the entertainment industry can muster. The Finish Line Script Competition is a terrific way to raise up these writers and increase the odds that audiences will actually see their vital work.”

The fifth Finish Line Script Competition opened in December 2019. Writers can begin submitting their scripts for the Tirota/Finish Line Social Advocacy Script Competition as of February 18 this year, with all entries due no later than May 26. For more information on the Finish Line Script Competitions, including rules, entrance fees and all deadlines, visit https://finishlinescriptcomp.com/.

About Tirota:

Combining the expertise and insights of two leading communications companies – Tiller, LLC and Robertson Taylor Partners - Tirota helps entertainment companies and creative content providers achieve both social and business objectives, efficiently and cost effectively. The company is based in Tiller’s New York-area offices and RTP’s Los Angeles base. Please visit Tirota.com. For more information or to request Tirota’s Purpose and Profits: Six Questions for Socially Conscious Film Makers, go to http://www.tirota.com/approach.

About Finish Line Script Competition:

Founded by ex-literary managers, The Finish Line Script Competition was created to help writers improve their material through extensive script development notes so as to rewrite and resubmit their screenplays/TV pilots for no extra cost throughout the length of the competition. This, along with the quality and quantity of international Film & TV industry mentors available to winners, has earned the competition a place on many “Best Competition” lists.