A few years ago I entered a songwriting contest for a new online cartoon show called The Zenoids.  The assignment was to come up with a 42-second piece of music to be used in the opening theme for this cartoon, involving alien characters.  The judges for this contest included William Shatner and Michael Giaccino (famous Hollywood film composer).  My entry was one of the top-40 finalists.  I was thrilled to get that far as the competition was very good!  You can see the entire list of competitors here.