Project identity
Name the title, format, genre, and status. Page count can help when it answers an obvious question; it does not need to lead the email.
Write a concise screenplay query with clear project identity, a specific premise, truthful fit, useful context, and a simple request to read.
General guidance, not legal, financial, or career advice, and not a recommendation of any firm. Agencies change who they represent and how they accept work, so confirm anything time-sensitive on the firm's own site before you act on it.
Direct answer
A screenplay query should identify the project, deliver a specific one- or two-sentence premise, show one truthful reason you chose this representative, include only relevant context, and ask whether they would like to read. Keep the email short enough to scan. Follow the recipient's current policy, and do not attach the screenplay unless invited or instructed to do so.
The useful unit is not a formal business letter; it is a compact decision packet. The recipient should know what the project is, what makes the story move, why the message is plausibly for them, and what you are asking—all without opening an attachment.
Name the title, format, genre, and status. Page count can help when it answers an obvious question; it does not need to lead the email.
Give the protagonist, pressure, goal, and meaningful obstacle or consequence. A list of themes or comparison titles cannot replace the story.
Use one verified sentence about relevant work, taste, format, or stated interest. Generic praise and invented familiarity both waste the opportunity.
Ask whether they would like to read. Do not pressure the recipient, promise market outcomes, or turn the close into a second pitch.
Explain enough causality to make the read imaginable. The query is not a beat sheet, and mystery does not mean withholding the premise. A strong paragraph makes the central dramatic engine legible while leaving the screenplay to deliver voice, escalation, and ending.
Concrete choices, obstacles, and stakes travel better than adjectives such as gripping, timely, hilarious, or commercial.
Use one or two comps only when they clarify audience, tone, scale, or format. Do not imply commercial equivalence to a hit.
Include a credit, lived expertise, or relevant recognition when it changes how the project is read. Otherwise, a plain one-line introduction is enough.
Use the published channel and instructions. A precise subject line helps the recipient route the message. Send only requested materials, keep your own dated record, and let the recipient's stated response window control. Where no policy exists, one brief follow-up is a ceiling, not the start of a sequence.
An old interview or directory entry can outlive an inbox. Confirm the firm site immediately before sending.
Proof the representative's name, project title, logline, and links. The personalization should survive being read aloud as a factual sentence.
Record date, source, materials, and outcome. A quiet inbox is not evidence about the quality of the screenplay, and it should not consume the next writing week.
Build from decisions
Use the brackets as decisions to make, not mail-merge fields. The fit sentence should be researched anew for every recipient.
Subject: QUERY — [TITLE], [format and genre] Hello [Name], I'm seeking representation for [TITLE], a completed [format/genre]. [One or two sentences: protagonist, dramatic pressure, goal, and meaningful obstacle or consequence.] I'm contacting you because [one current, truthful reason the project fits this representative]. [One relevant credit, expertise, or short bio sentence, if it adds useful context.] May I send the screenplay? Thank you, [Name] [Requested contact details or relevant link]
Usually a few compact paragraphs are enough: project identity, premise, fit or relevant context, and the ask. The right limit is functional—if a sentence does not help the recipient decide whether to read, remove it.
Only when the recipient's current instructions ask for it. Otherwise, query first and send the screenplay if invited. This respects the firm's process and avoids sending an unsolicited attachment into an inbox that may not open it.
No. Use comps when they quickly clarify audience, tone, or scale. A forced pair of famous titles can obscure a clear premise, and it cannot prove that the project will perform like either comparison.
Current-source desk
These links support the role, search, outreach, and business-context guidance on this page. A directory entry never establishes current query policy; a general guide never reviews your agreement.
Writers Guild of America
Build a current U.S. agency research pool from the guild's live directory instead of a copied roster.
Sundance Collab
Hear a December 2021 practitioner discussion of timing, research, outreach, and the relationship itself.
MovieMaker Magazine
Add a working manager's perspective on respectful personalization, loglines, and handling rejection.
Writers Guild of Canada
Start current Canadian agency research from the guild's maintained directory.
Browse the screenwriting representation desk
Role choice, live research, query preparation, meetings, and red flags
Find an agent or manager
Build a representation search from strong samples, live directories, verified fit, careful outreach, and a process you can sustain while writing.
Representation meeting
Prepare for an agent or manager meeting as a mutual working session: discuss the pages, plan, communication, terms, conflicts, and next decision.
Agents vs. managers
Compare screenwriting agents and literary managers by services, working style, questions, and agreement terms—not a tidy Hollywood stereotype.