CineStory Foundation Retreat and Fellowship

Closed for this cycle

The 2027 programme window ran 4 May to 1 June 2026 and is closed. The next application window has not been announced.

Closed for this cycle

This year's contest closed with the extended deadline on 20 August 2026 (early 20 May, regular 20 June at 45 US dollars, late 20 July at 50, extended 59). Filmmatic posts results on 15 October. The page gives no dates for the next season; the tiers have run from May to August, so expect the 2027 call around May 2027.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 season closed on 30 June 2026 with accolades announced by 15 August, and no 2027 dates have been published. One caution if you go looking: filmmatic.com's own page currently shows a deadline ladder headed 2025 which is actually the 2023 season's dates, so use the FilmFreeway listing, which is the reliable source. We could only evidence two seasons, and every 2026 milestone fell exactly one month earlier than its 2023 counterpart, so treat the shape loosely rather than as a fixed calendar: entries open around March, the final deadline falls around the end of June, and results land in mid-August.

Closed for this cycle

The call opened on 19 May 2026 and closed at 17:30 on 31 July 2026, extended from an original date of 21 July. IMPORTANT: this is a one-off anniversary award, not an annual competition. It was launched to mark ESB's centenary and the festival's 25th anniversary, there is no prior cycle of any kind, and an archive search returns no earlier captures of the page. Do not expect a next window: if it recurs at all, that will be new information. Two errors on their own pages are worth knowing: the website gives the premiere as February 2026 while the guidelines correctly say February 2027, and the award appears under three different official names across the page, the guidelines PDF and the required email subject line.

Closed for this cycle

IMPORTANT: the next edition is on hold. In July 2026 European Short Pitch announced that the call for its 2027 edition was suspended after Creative Europe MEDIA funding did not come through, saying it was facing a genuinely uncertain moment and exploring smaller, more focused activities for 2027 instead. The most recently completed cycle was the nineteenth edition: applications closed on 12 September 2025, extended to 19 September, with selection announced in mid-December, the development workshop in mid-January 2026 and the forum in early June 2026. Until 2027 the annual rhythm had been strikingly stable, with a September deadline, December selection, January workshop and June forum, which makes this pause a genuine break rather than drift.

Closed for this cycle

Submissions for 2026 closed with the late deadline on 15 August 2026 (earlybird 15 June at 20 pounds, regular 15 July at 25, late 35, or 30 for students and FilmFreeway Gold members). Finalists were notified on 4 September; the Awards Evening is at Komedia in Bath on 19 October 2026, during the festival (16 to 25 October). Submissions opened on 19 May this year, so expect the 2027 call around May 2027.