Slamdance is a community, a year-round experience, and a statement in which everyone is invited to take part. The first Slamdance Film Festival was held in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work. Since then, Slamdance has proven year after year that independent grassroots communities can take risks on bold talent and launch careers that change the industry. Our artist-led community continues to discover and nurture diverse, international creators through various programs throughout the year, focusing on new writers, digital and interactive art, awards and mentorship, DIY film education, film screenings and of course, the Slamdance Film Festival.

Edel Rodriguez
Festival Key Artist

By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers. Nowhere is our guiding principle more evident than in programming at Slamdance. Each year, we invite the newest class of Slamdance alumni to join us in the effort to discover and support the most exciting new voices in filmmaking, and to have a hand in shaping the future of film.

As Slamdance programmers, we’re all filmmakers and we’re all volunteers. Almost all of us have screened films at Slamdance. Every film submitted is watched in its entirety by at least two different programmers and there are over 200 programmers watching submissions from wherever in the world we are. Every programmer has an equal voice in the debate whether it’s their first or 25th year programming at Slamdance. After every film is watched and scored, our programming teams meet and spend a few weekends in late October and November re-watching, debating, and duking it out until our Festival Lineup finally emerges from the rubble of our battles.

Here are the programmers who made Slamdance 2026 possible.

Our Screenplay Competition Readers are veteran readers with oodles of experience. They are comprised of previous screenplay award winners, professors, script consultants and of course they are all writers. This award winning team is extremely diverse and located all over the world. We pay all of our readers competitive rates and truly value the work that they do. We are proud to have them on board. 

All of our high scoring scripts are read multiple times in order to determine the Quarterfinalists. The Semi-Finalist scripts all move into deliberations where a smaller group of readers read and research all of the Semi-Finalists scripts to decide who will be the Finalists. The Finalists are all invited to Los Angeles where we have an awards ceremony and announce the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placing scripts. A total of $18,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winners each year. The Grand Prize winner will receive a total of $10,000 in cash. The winners of the Feature, Horror/Thriller, TV Pilot, and Short categories will each receive $2,000 in cash. The top three screenwriters in each category will receive prize packages that include Festival Passes good for all screenings and parties at the Slamdance Film Festival. Production companies, studios, top agencies and managers request to read our top scripts. We have many Screenplay success stories including Day Shift, The Woodsman and Maria Full of Grace. 

One entry from the competition will be awarded the Slamdance Screenplay Mentorship Award.

All submitted scripts are eligible for the Mentorship Award. Founded in 2018, the Mentorship Award is an opportunity for one-on-one script development with a small group of professional advisors. Our mentorship team nominates unique scripts that, with a little more development and support from a team of alumni, could turn into production-ready ventures. From these nominations, we will select the Mentorship Award winner, who will receive personalized feedback through Slamdance’s alumni network and screenwriting consultants. The mentorship process is broken into two distinct parts: revision and professional development. In part one, the writer will receive in-depth coverage from a panel of advisors, who will then work with the writer on sharpening, honing and refining their script. In part two, the writer will have an open forum to ask questions and discuss possible “next steps” for their work career in the form of representation, production and/or sales.

We are honored to present our 2024 reading team: