Japanese Screenplay Competitions?

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

>There are numerous screenplay competitions in the States, sponsored by
>groups such as Sundance and the American Screenwriters Association. Is
>there anything similar in Japan for aspiring writers?

Japan has a very vibrant screenplay culture, one which supports magazines 
like Scenario. Especially in the 1950s, most of the major film magazines 
published screenplays and numerous books of screenplays were available. 
This stems from the prewar when the word "scenario literature" signalled 
a strong interest in screenplays as an individual art form.

So there are many screenplay competitions, some of which have been around 
for a long time. The most famous is probably the Kido Award, named after 
the famous Shochiku producer, the results of which are published in 
Kinema Junpo every year. Scenario, which is published by the Scenario 
Writers Association, helps sponsor two awards: the Nihon Scenario Taisho 
and the Shinjin (New Face) Scenario Concours. There are several 
screenwriting schools, and I think some of them sponsor their own awards. 

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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