Archive for the 'Competitions' Category

Rushes Soho Short Film Festival

Published by
Fiona Veitch Smith
at 13 July 2009 in Announcements, Competitions, Film, Scriptwriting and screenwriting. 11 Comments

My film, Enemy Lines, has been selected in the short film category at this year’s Rushes Soho Shorts Festival:

soho shorts film festival

140 new films from 18 countries will be competing in 8 categories:  Long Form, International, Newcomer, Short Film, Documentary, Animation, Music Video and Broadcast Design. The Official Competition Screenings will be held at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in central London.  The Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday 30th July 2009.

enemy lines short film

Enemy Lines will be screened on Thursday 23 July (6.30pm , Cinema 1; Saturday 25 July (9pm, Cinema 2) and Wednesday 29 July (9pm, Cinema 1). 

Other films to be screened at the festival include Sadie Frost’s Directorial Debut, Danny Boyles End Credit Sequence for Slumdog Millionaire, actors such as Michael Bryne (Gangs of New York), Juliet Stevenson (Bend It Like Beckham), Nick Nolte (Hotel Rwanda, 48 Hours), Connie Fischer (Sound Of Music), Russel Tovey (Being Human), Chris Hehir (Green Street), Danny Cunningham (24 Hour Party People), Jack O’Connell (This is England), comedians such as Adam Buxton Lulu McClatchy and Alexei Sayle, and music videos from McFly to Royskopp, Will Young to Goldfrapp, Coldplay and U2 and many more.

Having grown dramatically every year since its inauguration in 1998, this year’s festival runs over 10 days and offers a wide range of events including the Opening Night Premiere ‘The Calling’, BAFTA Short Filmmakers Market, seminars, panel discussions, guest screening programmes, receptions and exhibitions held in 15 different venues in Soho district.

All events and full booking details can be found on their website:  www.sohoshorts.com.

I’ll be going down for the Wednesday screening and will be meeting up with my director, Michael Steel. Please let me know if you’re going to any of the screenings.

True Life Stories – market opportunity

Published by
Fiona Veitch Smith
at 5 November 2008 in Competitions, Non-fiction writing and Writing Opportunities. 0 Comments

Field Report.com is a community website that features true-life stories. Membership is free, and you simply have to ‘rate’ five other stories in order to qualify to up-load your own 2000 word story. They’ve currently got a competition going with the closing date now extended to 31 December 2008.  Each month, the winning story will win $1,000 and be entered into a $250,000 prize draw in January 2009. I thought this might be too good to be true so I checked it out and found that both the Guardian and Time Magazine have featured the website and this contest and seem to think it’s legit.

So what are you waiting for? Get writing! If you need some tips on writing from life, check out this session in our free non-fiction writing course.

Talking Animal Stories – Wind in the Willows MK II?

Published by
Fiona Veitch Smith
at 8 March 2008 in Competitions and Writing for Children. 5 Comments

In my writing for children classes I often catch myself reciting the mantra: publishers aren’t interested in talking animals anymore. It’s what you hear at every writing conference and read on most publishers’ websites. And yet, I have published my own ‘talking animals’ book, Donovon’s Rainbow and many of the books I read to my three-year-old daughter feature talking animals too. One of her favourites is Bringing Down the Moon by Jonathan Emmett and, to my delight, the Winnie The Pooh stories by A.A. Milne. Continue reading ‘Talking Animal Stories – Wind in the Willows MK II?’

Creative Writing course – markets, competitions and opportunities

Published by
Fiona Veitch Smith
at 21 November 2007 in Business of Writing, Competitions, Courses, Fiction, Resources, Writing Opportunities and poetry. 7 Comments

free creative writing courseIn this final session in the Crafty Writer’s online Creative Writing course, I would like to leave you with some advice on how to develop your writing further. If you’re so inclined, you can join a writers’ group (for UK groups; for US and international groups) or an online critiquing group (for poetry and short stories). Be warned though, you may have to ’shop around’ as many of these groups are filled with people who will just nod and smile and not give you constructive advice. Sometimes, you may have to pay for a critique to ensure you get a truly objective and constructive perspective. Continue reading ‘Creative Writing course – markets, competitions and opportunities’

My First Poem competition

Published by
Fiona Veitch Smith
at 16 October 2007 in Competitions, Writing for Children and poetry. 0 Comments

On National Poetry Day I was delighted to receive an invitation to judge a poetry competition at my daughter’s nursery, Westerhope Village Nursery School. Megan is only two-and-a-half, so it was the ‘big’ children who entered the My First Poem competition run by Forward Press. With over a dozen budding poets completing a ‘fill-in-the-gap’ sheet, it was desperately hard to pick three winners. These were the ones that caught my eye … Continue reading ‘My First Poem competition’

Children’s writing competitions

Published by
Fiona Veitch Smith
at 19 September 2007 in Competitions and Writing for Children. 0 Comments

Unpublished children’s writers might want to check out this competition run by Chicken House and The Times. They’re looking for manuscripts of under 80,000 words in any genre, for 9 – 16 age group. Closing date is 17 November 2007.

‘Amateur’ (not sure if this means unpublished) children’s writers can enter the Academy of Children’s Writers competition. Any age. Any genre. Closing date 31 March 2008.

Short stories or books up to 1,000 words are wanted for the Writers’ Advice Centre Children’s Story Competition. Any age. Must be suitable for current market. Closing date: 31 August 2008.

If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration you may want to check out my free articles on writing for children: what makes a good children’s book, picture books, sex and romance, mysteries and thrillers. Or have a look at my children’s book Donovon’s Rainbow, which is available as a free download.