ABOUT THE CANADIAN SHORT SCREENPLAY COMPETITION
The Canadian Short Screenplay Competition (CSSC) is the premier competition dedicated to celebrating and promoting the art of short screenwriting. Founded in 2008, our mission is to discover and nurture emerging talent, providing a platforms for writers to gain recognition and advance their careers. The CSSC is the single-most competitive, prestigious, short screenplay festival in Canada, a champion for screenwriters everywhere, a financier and producer of short form content, founder of the #WriterWednesday hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) and serves as a launching pad for writers’ professional careers.
Our History
The CSSC was established in 2008 by International Emmy Award-nominated Producer, Screenwriter and Showrunner, David Cormican (ShadowHunters, Tokyo Trial). The festival was quickly considered a top-destination script writing contest for short film screenplays worldwide and has, to-date, produced from page-to-screen five winning scribes work which have gone on to premiere at esteemed festivals and networks, generating official selections, special presentations, nominations, accolades and awards at esteemed venues such as Festival de Cannes, CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival, BravoFACT!, CBC and Yorkton Film Festival, among countless others up until the last awarded edition in 2013.
After a 12 year hiatus, the Canadian Short Screenplay Competition re-launched in 2025 with renewed vigour, rekindling its legacy of championing emerging screenwriting talent from across Canada and abroad, and recently wrapped production on its 6th short film script from amongst the winning screenplays. Since 2011, the CSSC has partnered with the Yorkton Film Festival—the first and longest running film festival in North America—and awards the celebrated Writers’ Block Crystals to the top-three screenplays and their respective screenwriters as part of YFF’s Golden Sheaf Awards gala.
Prizes*
In accordance with the terms and conditions of the CSSC, the organization will select one, or more, of the top three winning screenplays to be produced by a production company. Any resulting short film will be premiered at film festivals worldwide and made available to global audiences through international distributor Screen Wizards Pictures.
BEST IN FEST — GRAND PRIZE
The best overall screenplay deemed by the panel of competition judges will be awarded the ‘Best in Fest’ title and the Writers’ Block Crystal Award with an option and purchase agreement for One Thousand Canadian Dollars (CAD $1,000.00).
FREE All-Access Accreditation to the 2026 Yorkton Film Festival ($350.00 Value)
FREE 1 Year Membership to WIFT+ ($199.99 Value)
GOLDEN CINEMA — FIRST RUNNER-UP
The 1st runner-up deemed by the panel of competition judges will be awarded the ‘Golden Cinema’ title and the Writers’ Block Crystal Award with an option and purchase agreement for Five Hundred Canadian Dollars (CAD $500).
FREE All-Access Accreditation to the 2026 Yorkton Film Festival ($350.00 Value)
FREE 1 Year Membership to WIFT+ ($199.99 Value)
SILVER SCREEN — SECOND RUNNER-UP
The 2nd place prize deemed by the panel of competition judges will be awarded the ‘Silver Screen’ title and the Writers’ Block Crystal Award with an option and purchase agreement for Two Hundred and Fifty Canadian Dollars (CAD $250).
FREE All-Access Accreditation to the 2026 Yorkton Film Festival ($350.00 Value)
FREE 1 Year Membership to WIFT+ ($199.99 Value)
THE TOP 13
The subsequent top 10 screenplays will be awarded as ‘Finalists’.
FREE All-Access Accreditation to the 2026 Yorkton Film Festival ($350.00 Value)
6th Edition Judges
Claire Urquhart
Claire Urquhart is an RTS award- winning producer, Development VP & former BBC Head of BBC Features & Formats development. Currently heading the commercial film and TV fund at S4C International, productions premiering in 2025 include theatrical documentary The Peace Particle, Welsh-language feature film Effie directed by Mark Evans and several international co-productions in development.
Her directorial debut was short feature Andromeda which premiered Clermont Ferrand Festival and over 20 years she has devised, written and produced more than 30 prime time shows and high-value commissions in both Unscripted and Scripted.
Claire is a member of the prestigious International Emmys (International Academy of Arts & Sciences), BAFTA (British Academy Film & Television Arts), Woman in Film & TV and has served as a Royal Television Society and Canadian Short Feature Festival juror.
Toby Fountaine
Toby Fountaine is a multi-award-winning director, screenwriter and producer. His film A Love Worth Fighting For has won over 40 awards globally including Best Script, Best Film, Best Director and Best TV Pilot. It is being developed into a series. Toby has just produced and directed a cutting-edge virtual production of The Contractor, a satirical series on Wall Street banking and greenwashing, written by him. He is currently bringing a major World War II drama to a global audience. As a screenwriter he specialises in historical drama. He is CEO and founder of Screenography, a London-based production company with numerous drama and comedy titles on its slate. He has contributed heavily to the creative and writing content of the slate, and oversees financing and deal structuring, bringing a strong commercial insight to his projects.
Suri Parmar
SURI PARMAR (she/they) is a Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, and professor. An alumna of the Stonecoast MFA Program, the Canadian Film Centre’s Writers’ Lab, and international residencies that include RIFF Talent Lab and the Writers Guild of Canada’s Diverse Screenwriters program for TV writing, she has studied under writers Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Hand, Susan Swan, and Nancy Holder, playwright Tom Coash, and filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Guillermo del Toro. Since 2018, she has taught screenwriting, film production, creative writing, and literature at both undergraduate and graduate levels. As a studio producer and coordinator, her portfolio includes docu-series, immersive media, and live event activations for Yahoo Life and Yahoo Entertainment, In The Know, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, and New York Fashion Week. Her award-winning film work (which includes shorts and features) has screened at festivals around the world, and her short stories have appeared in New Haven Review and The Spectacle. Through her personal creative work, Suri explores the human condition in all its depravity and complexity, taking readers and audiences to the edge of wonder and back.
David Cormican
David Cormican is an Emmy®-nominated producer, film and television tastemaker. He is Founder, President and CEO of Fun Republic Pictures (2016), Founder of the Canadian Short Screenplay Competition (2008) and Co-Founder of Screen Wizards Distribution (2018) and Washington Square Entertainment (2021). He is a member of the prestigious International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (where he serves on the nomination committee), the Canadian Media Production Association (where he served on the board from 2011-17), the Producers Guild of America (p.g.a.), where he serves the international committee, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) and is the CEO and president of Screen Wizards Distribution. Past productions include the International Emmy®-nominated Tokyo Trial for NHK, Between, the Emmy®-nominated The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, ShadowHunters and the Venice TV Award nominee Northern Rescue which bowed worldwide at #1 for Netflix. Tulipani, Love, Honour & A Bicycle, from two-time Academy Award® winning director, Mike van Diem, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Tua Harno
Tua Harno is a Finnish screenwriter and author, currently working as an in-house headwriter at Helsinki-filmi. Harno has worked on several tv-series, written her debut feature Urban Family and published three acclaimed novels. Harno holds a master’s degree in both dramaturgy and law.
Glenn Cockburn
Glenn Cockburn is the founder of Meridian Artists. Along with the rest of the Meridian Artists team, Glenn currently represents a select roster of some of Canada’s most talented writers, directors, and producers. His clients work on leading shows across Canada and the US. Glenn’s career started in 1996 working as a script reader for New Line Cinema and Innovative Artists Agency. From 1997 through 1999, Glenn worked as a Creative Executive at Templeton Productions’ first look deal with New Line Cinema. In 1999, Glenn returned to Toronto to run the packaging department at The Characters Talent Agency. Glenn also acted as Executive Producer on the feature film, Young People Fucking, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007 and became one of the most successful and highest grossing Canadian comedies of all time. Glenn’s work as a producer further includes the feature Stay the Night, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2022 and earned rave reviews from critics. Glenn’s other professional activities include speaking at industry events and schools across Canada and the States, including the Banff World Media Festival, Austin Film Festival, Toronto Metropolitan University, and York University. He founded the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, which offers masterclasses given by some of the top showrunners, creators, and writers in the business. He also leads the Canadian Black Screen Office’s Writers’ Retreat to assist with the writers’ understanding of TV writing and the business of the industry.
The 2026 7th Edition Jury will be announced at the end of April, along with our Finalists.
