We are excited to announce that Europe’s leading Pay TV broadcaster, SKY has been announced as sponsoring the first-ever Funny Women Comedy Writing Award. Sky will commission 30 minutes of scripted programming from the winner – a fantastic foot in the door for any comedy writer.
Sky 1’s first-ever Head of Comedy, Lucy Lumsden, says about sponsoring the award, ‘Sky is delighted to be sponsoring the Funny Women Comedy Writing Award – a fantastic platform for new female comic voices to be heard. Sky 1HD's investment in new comedy has brought on many female writers from newcomers Michelle Terry (The Cafe) Abigail Wilson (Gates), Anne-Marie O'Connor (Trollied) to Sarah Hooper (Mount Pleasant) and the award-winning Ruth Jones (Stella) and we look forward to developing the talents of the lucky winner.’
We’re delighted that Sky has come on board, and this brings a few changes to our original vision for the Award – while initially we wanted to perform the entries we received, it will now be a written submission only. Entrants are required to write 10 pages of scripted material, be that a series of sketches or an excerpt of a longer work by the deadline of 31st August. A shortlist of six scripts will be presented to industry judges chaired by Lucy Lumsden, Head of Comedy for Sky Entertainment. Three finalists will be invited to the Funny Women Final on 26th September at Leicester Square Theatre where the winner will be announced. As this is a very different skill set, contestants who have entered the Funny Women Awards as a performer are also able to enter for the Comedy Writing Award, and will not have to register a second time.
Our executive producer, Lynne Parker says, ‘The Funny Women Awards seeks to recognise all sides of comedy and include as many voices as possible. We are thrilled to be adding a writing award for the funny women behind the scenes to that list.”
For more information on how to enter, as well as terms and conditions of the competition, click HERE.
