How do European script writers break in?

Harvey writes in with a question that I've gotten from a few other people recently:


Do you feel European scripts to be well-represented in your reading? According to the folk at Scriptapalooza last year, mine was the only UK script to make their last 100. I felt the combination of UK setting, European story tone (magical realism, after a fashion), and a central conceit from the US but globally-loved would offer plenty of incentive, but the script didn't seem to generate any interest from their shopping around. 

The two features I'm shopping around at the moment are movies I believe in as high-end indie pieces, particularly my 'other' script which is a character-driven sci-fi piece and culturally red hot (it is, also, something that has to play out stateside). I feel in both cases that I'm suffering a little for writing outside of my home territory, yet on the other hand I'm getting great responses from readers and peers the world over. Frustrating, all told, but the case for many I'm sure. 

What advice if any would you give to people working outside of the US, but pitching content which wouldn't play out anywhere else? I am assuming some folk are less turned off by remote contact than others in the early stages of negotiation over work.

Last question first - I have zero advice to give for people breaking in from outside the U.S.  That's pretty much outside my sphere of knowledge so rather than fill your head with misinformation, I'll just say I haven't got a clue.

I don't read a high percentage of European scripts.  When I have read them in the past, I do recall that the fact they didn't "feel" like typical American specs might have counted against them, but most of the time that was either a function of the pacing being too slow or the concepts not feeling strong enough.  I don't know if it's really wise to generalize based on the few that I read, though I feel like a European indie might have more issues because it's hard enough to get an American indie movie made!

I'll be honest, I can offer advice about how American writers might get their submissions read in large part because I'm right in the thick of it and I've seen how people pull that off.  I have zero practical knowledge of how the few European scripts that have reached me managed to end up there.  This is probably a better question for some European writers.

I got a recent question about how UK writers can break in over here, and my answer is pretty much the same for them as well.