Steelkilt
North America’s mixed-media festival
The Steel Kilt Media Festival was founded by comic book professionals who saw a lack of opportunities for comic book writers to get noticed. We created the Steelkilt Award to give writers, animators and artists a chance to get noticed, and we are driven by a desire to promote equality, justice and inclusion.
We are looking for new talent, period
The competition is open to any individual living in any country. We allow published authors to submit work that has never been seen, in recognition of the fact that editorial controls may prohibit them from creating freely. Both amateur and self-published authors as well as professional creators may submit work, and will be judged separately — yet all work must be new and never-before-seen.
Scripts and comics must not have been published. Work that has already appeared elsewhere, in any form including digital, is not eligible for entry.
Who is Steelkilt?
Steelkilt is a character from Melville’s Moby Dick. Melville called him “a Lakeman and desperado from Buffalo… wild-ocean born, and wild-ocean nurtured.” He was a rebel, a scrapper, a scoundrel — much like the founders of the festival. But he had pride. He refused to be beaten down and oppressed by the cruel and unfair captain Radney. And he had a deep connection with the white whale itself. Steelkilt warned Radney not to whip him, but Radney did not heed his warning, and paid the price. Moby Dick carried Radney to the bottom of the sea.
“Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him.”
— Ishmael
Why submit?
Our values
The Steel Kilt Media Festival and Awards is committed to supporting creatives and empowering storytellers of all walks of life. First and foremost we are a narrative festival that supports storytellers with bold vision and unique voices. You don’t have to know someone to get your script or story read — the submission process is open to all through FilmFreeway. We particularly seek hidden gems: unknown and unpublished writers and creators, first-time writers and newcomers to comics.
Transparency and fairness are at the heart of our core values. We understand that producing a comic book can be prohibitively expensive. Most comic book companies won’t read submissions without completed pages of sequential art, putting the writer in the financially challenging position of having to fund the pitch — and producing an entire comic book or graphic novel is not economically feasible for most writers. That is why our script competition is the heart and soul of the festival. Our student and early bird submission fees are priced as low as $5 so that anyone can enter. Nothing more than a passion for sequential art and a killer script is needed.
When winners are announced
Ready to be seen?
Submissions are open to creators anywhere in the world, and run through FilmFreeway.