4 Common Reasons Moonshot Film Challenge Applicants Could Get Waitlisted

Applying to the 2025 Moonshot Film Challenge in NYC or the Hudson Valley? Here are 4 common reasons you might get put on the waitlist — and how to avoid them.

If you’re applying to our New York film challenge and you want a higher chance of getting accepted, here are 4 of the most common reasons we might put applicants on the waitlist:

1. You didn’t provide enough material for us to make a decision. Depending on what roles you apply for, you can share reels and work samples, as well as links to your website, IMDb or resume. We also have applicants outline their experience level. If you leave your application pretty bare-bones and don’t give us enough information to assess your skills, we’re going to have a much harder time placing you on a team. We need to see that people can handle their role since it’s a super tight schedule.

2. You applied for a super competitive position as your only role choice, and there simply wasn’t a spot for you. Applicants can apply for up to three roles, and you should definitely only apply for roles you’re excited to accept. But if you have multiple roles you’d be excited to take on and you just want to get on set, apply for all of them!

3. You were a past participant applying for a competitive role. Even if we loved having you on set, we have never put someone as a director, actor, or team leader twice, and it would be super rare for writers. That’s because we get so many applicants for these roles and we want to spread out the opportunities. We would definitely love to see you apply again, but add more role choices if you’re open to that. However, this is not the case for every position! We have had many repeat selected participants in roles like sound, G&E, editing, etc. since those roles don’t get quite as many applications. Definitely apply for these roles again!

4. You aren't located in New York City or the Hudson Valley. This year's film challenge will be hosted in New York. Most of our teams will be New York City-based, and for the first time, we are also hosting a satellite crew in the Hudson Valley in partnership with Hudsy. We require our participants to be local to one of these areas because the purpose of the film challenge is to create a network for people to hire, refer, and collaborate with one another down the line. We also have several different events for this program that are scattered over two months, so this is not something you could travel for. Please only apply if you are local to NYC or the Hudson Valley. (So far, we have only held challenges in NYC and LA, but other cities are on our radar for the future! Follow us on Instagram @moonshotinitiative to stay in the loop.)

   
   

We hope this helps! We hope to see your application for this year's Moonshot Film Challenge! Make sure to apply between August 1-31 for consideration.