Screenwriting competitions directory · 2026
Screenwriting fellowships.
Fellowships back a writer rather than a single script, usually with money, mentorship and time, and they are the most selective category in the directory. Some are open to anyone with a feature; others are built for a specific group of writers, and eligibility is where most applications fail before a page is read.
Each listing carries the eligibility rules as the organiser states them, the current deadlines, and a verdict on what the fellowship has actually done for its past fellows.
14 entries, soonest deadline first, then anything currently open, then everything between cycles.
MacDowell Fellowship
Fellowship · 2027
10 Sept 20262 days left
A private studio, a bed and three meals a day in New Hampshire for up to eight weeks. Screenwriters explicitly eligible.
Feature
Checked 30 days ago
CineStory Foundation Retreat and Fellowship
Fellowship · 2026
20 Sept 202612 days left
Contest-fed Idyllwild retreats plus a $10,000 fellowship and a 12-month industry mentorship.
FeatureTV PilotActionAdventure+18
Checked 29 days ago
Festival de Cannes La Résidence
Fellowship · 2027
30 Sept 2026
Four and a half months writing in a Paris apartment, free, if you are under 35 and not French.
Feature
Checked 30 days ago
NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship
Fellowship · 2027
4 Dec 2026
Free to enter, and it gives you a paid evaluation for nothing. 20,000 dollars each to three writers.
FeatureTV Pilot
Checked 29 days ago
Black List Parenthood Writers Fellowship
Fellowship · 2026
Closed for this cycle
The 2026 opt-in closed at midnight Pacific on 1 September 2026. A longlist of up to forty follows, then a shortlist of up to ten with interviews, and four recipients are chosen by 30 October 2026, with the fellowship starting in November. No 2027 cycle has been announced; check the Black List's programmes page before planning around one.
15,000 dollars each to four writers for scripts about becoming a parent. Fifty fee waivers available.
FeatureTV Pilot
Checked 29 days ago
CAPE New Writers Fellowship
Fellowship · 2027
Closed for this cycle
Applications for the 2027 fellowship open in autumn 2026, with no date published. The 2026 round closed on Monday 15 December 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific. This runs genuinely annually, with four consecutive named cohorts, but the deadline has slipped roughly three weeks later each year, from 13 November for the 2024 cycle to 25 November for 2025 and 15 December for 2026, so do not project a date from that trend. The fee is 65 dollars per submission, non-refundable, with no waivers or discounts available, and CAPE notes it is subject to change.
Four fellows, a high-level mentor and a script CAPE actively markets to industry. Sixty-five dollars, no waivers.
TV Pilot
Checked 29 days ago
Humanitas New Voices Fellowship
Fellowship · 2027
Closed for this cycle
The 2026 window ran 18 February to 6 April and has closed, with fellows announced in August 2026. The next cycle has not been announced.
Six-month Humanitas mentorship for early-career TV and feature writers exploring the human condition.
FeatureTV PilotActionAdventure+18
Checked 29 days ago
Inevitable Foundation Accelerate Fellowship
Fellowship · 2026
Closed for this cycle
Applications for the 2026 cohort ran 28 May to 17 June and are now closed. The next window has not been announced.
Funded four-month rewriting sprint for disabled film and TV writers, with US$30,000 and mentorship.
FeatureTV PilotActionAdventure+18
Checked 29 days ago
ISA Fast Track Fellowship
Fellowship · 2026
Opens soon
Both 2026 seasons have closed. The fall season's final deadline was 30 July, extended to 13 August; second-round selections follow on 17 September, the top 50 on 1 October, fellows on 22 October, and Fast Track Week runs from 16 November 2026. ISA's spring page still shows the Spring 2026 season, which closed on 5 February. That season opened with a mega-early tier on 23 October 2025, so expect Spring 2027 to open around late October 2026, at 39 US dollars mega-early rising to 79 by the February final deadline, 10 dollars less for ISAConnect members.
Twice-yearly fellowship: a week of exec meetings plus a year on the ISA Development Slate.
FeatureTV PilotActionAdventure+18
Checked 2 days ago
Nipkow Programm
Fellowship · 2026
Closed for this cycle
The last round closed on 5 January 2026 at 11pm Berlin time, for residencies scheduled between 1 June and 30 November 2026, and no new window has been published. The cycle before closed on 17 February 2025 for the equivalent 2025 window. Note the deadline moved by around six weeks between those two cycles, so expect a single annual round closing in the northern winter rather than a repeating date. Also be aware the live page still carries stale 2025 text alongside the 2026 conditions.
A Berlin residency paying 1,500 euro a month, out of which you fund your own flights and Berlin rent.
Feature
Checked 29 days ago
NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship: Playwriting and Screenwriting
Fellowship · 2028
Closed for this cycle
Playwriting and Screenwriting is part of the 2028 award cycle, with applications opening in autumn 2027, roughly fourteen months away. Exact dates are not yet published. For scale, the last time this discipline ran, applications opened at 10am Eastern on 8 October 2024 and closed at 5pm Eastern on 17 December 2024, with notifications the following summer. The cycle typically runs from autumn into early winter with decisions by mid-summer.
Eight thousand dollars, unrestricted, no project attached. Screenwriting next opens in autumn 2027.
FeatureTV Pilot
Checked 30 days ago
Sesame Workshop Writers' Room
Fellowship · 2025
Closed for this cycle
DORMANT: the last evidenced cycle is 2025 and no 2026 or 2027 window has been announced. The live page says applications are currently closed and this year's application period has ended, while every date on it remains a 2025 date, the governing terms are still headed 2025, and the fellows roster runs 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 then stops. On the established pattern of a March open, an April close and August-to-November sessions, a 2026 cohort would be starting sessions about now; neither a window nor a cohort has appeared. There is no hiatus or discontinuation notice anywhere, and the operator actively invites people to subscribe for an update on when the next application opens, so this is a programme in limbo rather than a dead one. Worth re-checking each March. FOR THE RECORD, THE 2025 DEADLINE WAS PUBLISHED TWO DIFFERENT WAYS: the programme page and FAQ said 28 April 2025 at 12PM EST, while the governing terms and conditions said the entry period ended at 12:00pm EST on 14 April 2025. Two weeks apart in the operator's own documents, with the legally governing one being the earlier. We have therefore stored no deadline at all rather than pick one. Context, not causation: Sesame Workshop announced major layoffs in March 2025, reported at around 20 per cent of staff; no source connects those cuts to this fellowship, and the 2025 cycle ran to completion afterwards.
Free, virtual, no experience needed. Dormant since 2025, and it takes first negotiation and last refusal over everything you write on it.
TV PilotFamily
Checked 30 days ago
SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship
Fellowship · 2026
Closed for this cycle
The 2026 cycle is closed and no 2027 dates have been published. That cycle opened on 10 February 2026 with a regular deadline of 8 May at a 30 dollar fee and a final deadline of 22 May at 50 dollars, finalists notified in late September and recipients announced in late October. The fee is waived for SFFILM members, though the cheapest membership is 100 dollars a year, so the waiver only saves money if you are already a member. One fee covers a single application across several SFFILM narrative grants.
Thirty-five thousand dollars to each of two writers, with a science advisor attached. Science fiction is almost always out.
FeatureTV Pilot
Checked 29 days ago
TIFF Sloan Science and Technology Writer Fellowship
Fellowship · 2026
Closed for this cycle
The 2026 cycle is closed and no 2027 dates have been published. That cycle opened on 19 February 2026 with an early-bird deadline of 23 March at CAD 46.75 and a regular deadline of 13 April at CAD 55, notification at the end of July and the Writers' Lab in September. No deadline times or timezones are published.
Thirty-five thousand Canadian dollars to one writer, plus a place in TIFF's Writers' Lab. Sole writers only.
Feature
Checked 30 days ago
We are not affiliated with the competitions and programmes listed here, and nobody pays to appear. Verdicts are our editorial opinion, formed from public information on the date shown. Deadlines, fees and eligibility change, so confirm the details on the organisation's own site before you submit or pay anything. More in our Terms.
Questions writers ask about screenwriting fellowships
How many screenwriting fellowships are listed?
14 at the last count. Each one is checked against the organiser's own site and carries the date it was last verified; the newest stamp is 6 September 2026. Entries are added in verified batches, and anything that goes dormant is unpublished rather than left to mislead.
Which screenwriting fellowships are open right now?
4 of the 14 are open for applications or carry a dated deadline ahead, and 2 more are marked as opening soon. The page regenerates every hour from the directory, so the counts move as deadlines pass and windows open.
Are screenwriting fellowships free to enter?
10 of the 14 charge no entry fee at any deadline and nothing if you are selected. The rest charge at some point, and every listing shows the fee at each deadline. The free to enter page gathers the free ones across the whole directory.
Plan the season rather than reacting to it. The deadline calendar shows what closes next across the whole directory, the cost of entry shows how fees climb at late deadlines, and the free Contest Fit-Finder narrows the list to your script in five questions. Or go back to the full directory.