Free to enter.

13 Sept 20265 days left

15 Sept 20267 days left

30 Sept 2026

30 Sept 2026

2 Oct 2026

30 Oct 2026

1 Dec 2026

4 Dec 2026

Opens soon

Channel 4 has confirmed that entries for the 2027 course open in September 2026. The last window ran 22 September to 6 October, closing at 5pm.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 competitions closed early: Austin states that submission volume reached capacity in all categories ahead of the published late deadline of 27 May, so the effective close fell somewhere between 1 and 27 May and no exact date was published. Winners are announced on 31 October 2026, with reader comments sent by mid-November. The 2027 competitions open in December 2026, which Austin has published. The annual shape is reliable across four evidenced cycles: entries open in the first half of December (7 December 2022, early December 2023, 9 December 2024 and 8 December 2025), early bird lands in late March, regular in mid-to-late April, and the late deadline in the last days of May. All deadlines close at 11:59pm Central. Winners are announced at the Awards Luncheon during the festival in late October or early November. Two changes make the late deadline less dependable than it looks. The capacity cap is new for 2026, pre-announced and then triggered for the first time, and the Extended tier that existed in 2023, 2024 and 2025 was abolished. Deadlines have also tightened year on year, from a late deadline extended to 31 May in both 2023 and 2024, to a firm 28 May in 2025 and 27 May in 2026. Enter early: the published date is now a ceiling rather than a promise.

Closed for this cycle

The 2025-26 cycle has closed and a new window has not been announced; windows usually open in late spring, and the site still shows the previous cycle.

Opens soon

The next call has not opened yet: Rocliffe's own terms page reads "coming soon, not open yet", and no dates, fees or featured format have been published for the round. A limited number of free-entry bursaries are promised.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round opened on 8 April 2026 and closed at 11.59pm on 6 May 2026, with no timezone published. The BBC states the scheme is open annually, but the pattern has just broken: the 2023, 2024 and 2025 rounds all opened in the second week of January and closed on 30 or 31 January, while 2026 moved roughly three months later and ran a week longer. The closing time has also drifted, from 5pm to midnight to 11.59pm. Do not model a 2027 window on the January pattern. One caution if you check the page yourself: it still displays an Open for applications banner for the 8 April to 6 May window three months after closing, with no closed or expired label.

Closed for this cycle

Applications for Pilot 2027/28 closed at 12 noon on 4 August 2026. BBC Writers runs Pilot every two years, so the next round is not expected until 2028. The 2027/28 programme is focused exclusively on emerging deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers. The annual BBC Writers Open Call is a separate opportunity.

Closed for this cycle

The last round closed at 11am on 18 November 2025 and no new window has been published. The evidenced pattern is an autumn opening with a deadline at 11am on a Tuesday in mid-to-late November: 18 November 2025 and 19 November 2024, with the 2024 round being promoted from October. Rounds before 2024 could not be evidenced from a primary source, so treat this as a two-year observation rather than a rule. Expect a November deadline, with no date announced yet.

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.

Closed for this cycle

No deadline is published and the next cycle is unannounced. CFC's own applications page lists the lab with an empty deadline field, and the programme page carries no application link. There is no pattern to extrapolate from: this has run exactly once. Applications for the inaugural cycle opened in June 2025, the cohort was announced on 19 January 2026, and the lab ran 19 January to 5 June 2026 with Jezabel Bamberg, Sandi Rankaduwa, Isabella Shibuta and Yemie Sonuga. Note that the announced schedule already moved once: launch materials said the lab would run October 2025 to March 2026, and it did not. Treat any forward-looking date here with suspicion.

Closed for this cycle

The last published cycle opened on 28 May 2025 and closed at 18:00 on 25 June 2025, and no window for the next cycle has been published anywhere. Be careful projecting from that: the window moved by roughly three and a half months between cycles, from 6 February to 1 March in 2024 to late May and June in 2025, and the programme year moved with it. Only two cycles are evidenced and they disagree, so there is no stable pattern. The careers page has been unchanged since at least January 2026 and still fronts the closed 2025/26 cycle, so watch Channel 4's talent schemes index rather than this page.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round opened on 15 May and closed at 12 noon on 26 June 2026, with all applicants hearing back by 30 September. New Writing North's index says the awards open again later in 2027 without giving a month. The pattern is consistent in shape but drifting later: opening has been stable at 15 or 16 May, while the deadline has walked from 4 June in 2024 to 16 June in 2025 to 26 June in 2026, always at midday. The production partners rotate annually, so treat the company list as year-specific. A caution if you go looking: the strand cards still display live Enter here buttons and present-tense deadline text after closing, and the dedicated 2026 page carries no closure indicator at all, though the underlying submission forms are genuinely shut.

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

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

The 2026 contest closed on 29 June 2026 and is in judging, with quarter-finalists announced on 28 August and grand prize winners on 18 December. No 2027 dates have been published, though the 2026 prize list includes a free 2027 entry, so a further cycle is expected. Across four evidenced cycles the final deadline has landed between 28 and 30 June every year, with the first tier in mid-to-late April, quarter-finalists in late August and grand prize winners in early-to-mid December. The opening date is only evidenced for two cycles, 10 March 2025 and 23 March 2026, so treat March as an observation rather than a rule. Note the tier names changed for 2026, from Early Bird, Regular, Extended and Last Chance to Early Bird, Regular, Final and Extended.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round ran from 3 October and was scheduled to close on 27 October 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific, but hit its 1,000 application cap first and shut early. FOX says only to check back next autumn for the next cycle. The programme is genuinely annual across three evidenced cycles, but the window has moved earlier and shortened each time, from a roughly 40 day window opening in December, to 16 days in mid-October, to 25 days in early October. The 1,000 cap was introduced for the second of those and has closed the window early both times since, so the published closing date is a ceiling rather than a plan.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round closed on 27 May 2026, with the pitch event on Sunday 12 July. The pattern is one of the most consistent we have found: across 2024, 2025 and 2026 the regular deadline has always fallen between 13 and 17 May, the late deadline exactly fourteen days later, fees frozen at 40 and 50 euro, ten finalists, a 3,000 euro prize, and the pitch always on the closing Sunday of the Fleadh in mid-July. The only drift is the weekday and the cut-off time, which moved from 5pm in 2024 to 23:59 from 2025. Two cautions if you check their pages: the submissions page carries a year typo giving the late deadline as May 2025, and it states GMT when Ireland is on Irish Summer Time in May, which would move the cut-off an hour earlier than most entrants expect.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle opened on 2 March and closed on 20 March 2026 at 5:00pm, with shortlist interviews in the week of 4 May and six writers informed by 12 May. No timezone is published, though the organisers are Irish. The 2027 window is unannounced, but the cadence is the most stable of any Irish scheme we carry: four consecutive years with a late February or early March open, a deadline in the first three weeks of March, a residential weekend in Galway in May, a second in Dublin in October, and six writers plus three shadow editors every single year. The only drift is the deadline itself sliding from the first days of March in 2023, 2024 and 2025 to the 20th in 2026, so a March 2027 deadline is a reasonable expectation.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle is complete and no dates have been published for the next round. That cycle ran an earlybird deadline on 13 November 2025, regular on 4 December, late in late December and extended on 15 January 2026, with notification on 12 March and the lab running 10 to 12 April 2026. On the application fee: one is required and the festival calls it a non-refundable application fee, but no amount is published on any live page. For reference only, the 2025 cycle ran 60, 65, 75 and 90 dollars across the four tiers and the 2024 cycle ran 55, 60, 70 and 85, rising five dollars per tier year on year. We have not projected a current figure from that. The calendar itself is the most predictable of its peers, opening at the end of October or start of November, four tiers to mid-January, notification mid-March and the lab in the first or second weekend of April, drifting only by days across three evidenced cycles.

Closed for this cycle

Entries for the 2026 contest closed on 1 June (fees ran $40 to $75 by deadline). The last cycle opened in late August, so the 2027 window is likely to open around then.

Closed for this cycle

The most recent round accepted applications from 9 September to 31 October 2025, with an early-bird discount for applications on or before 5 October, notification by mid-December and the forum held 17 to 19 March 2026. No times or timezone are published. Fees ran 650 Hong Kong dollars early and 800 at the official deadline, with a New Director concession at 500 and 650 respectively, and a 300 dollar bank charge added for telegraphic transfer. No call for the next edition has been published. The annual pattern is stable across three evidenced cycles: the call opens in early September, closes on 31 October, and the forum runs in mid-March.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round closed on 2 April 2026 at 5pm Central European time and 20 projects were announced in August. IFFR states that the 2027 deadline will be announced towards the end of 2026. The fund runs a single annual round; deadline dates for rounds before 2026 are not published.

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.

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.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 season closed on 19 March 2026, with no time of day or timezone published, and selected writers announced on 19 June. The pattern is consistent: a mid-March deadline every year, falling between the 14th and 19th, free every year, and three selections every year, with announcements in mid-to-late June. The 2025 season is confirmed to have run but its deadline could not be evidenced from any archived source.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round closed at 10pm on Sunday 8 February 2026 and applications are now shut. Do not try to plan around a pattern here: the deadline has moved across January, February, April, May and September in six documented cycles, and the gap between the 2025 close in September 2024 and the 2026 close in February 2026 was roughly seventeen months. The only durable features are a 10pm cut-off and a Sunday close in the most recent rounds. The page limit has also drifted, from 8 to 15 pages in the 2024 and 2025 calls to a maximum of 12 in 2026.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round opened on 11 June 2026 and closed at 11:59pm on 2 July 2026, with no timezone published. IMPORTANT: this is not an annual scheme, despite being long-standing. Evidenced cycles ran in October 2021, August and September 2023, and June and July 2026, and ITV's own run-count confirms no cycle in 2022, 2024 or 2025. The window has moved from October to late August to mid June across those three rounds, with two and three year gaps between them. Do not diarise against it.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round opened at 9am on 5 May 2026 and closed at 11:59pm on 26 May 2026, with placements starting late July or early August. No timezone is published. IMPORTANT: this is not an annual scheme. Only two windows are evidenced, in August and September 2022 and in May 2026, and we found no evidence of any cycle in 2023, 2024 or 2025. ITV describes the 2026 round as a return. The scheme also changed materially between cycles, from one partner label to four, from one required credit to two, and from a 500,000 pound fund to one million. The cadence is too irregular to predict, so no next window should be assumed.

Closed for this cycle

Entries closed on 10 May 2026 and winners are announced live at the festival, running 24 to 30 September 2026. No 2027 dates have been published. The last three cycles have been consistent: entries open in the first week of December of the preceding year, early-bird falls in the second week of January, regular in mid-March, late in late April and the final deadline in the first half of May. The 2023 cycle opened on 2 January and ran roughly a month later throughout, so treat the December opening as a three-year pattern rather than four. Results run quarter-finals in late June or July, finalists in early August, and winners at the festival in September. One practical caution: the competition no longer has its own page and now sits on a year-stamped festival entries page, with the rules delegated to FilmFreeway, so the official link is likely to move again around December 2026.

Closed for this cycle

The eleventh annual round closed on 16 February 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific at a fee of 70 dollars, with the lab running April through May 2026. The calendar is consistent: a mid-February final deadline in each of the last two cycles, both falling on a Monday, an April to May lab, and seven fellows selected each time. The pricing has drifted, though: the previous cycle offered a cheaper 60 dollar regular tier alongside the 70 dollar final deadline, and the most recent cycle published only the 70 dollar tier, so the cheaper route disappeared. Curriculum length has also changed from eight weeks to seven.

Closed for this cycle

The window for the January 2027 programme ran 1 to 21 June 2026 and is closed. No further window has been announced.

Closed for this cycle

Registration for the first India edition closed at 23:59 IST on 1 September 2026. Selected writers are announced on 15 December 2026, every applicant hears by email in December, and the workshop begins in February 2027. NextGen is a travelling programme that changes shape per territory (France, then the Netherlands, then India), so do not expect a second India cycle unless Netflix announces one.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round closed on Monday 27 July 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, with the programme running 22 September to 14 November 2026. The programme genuinely runs every year and claims more than twenty years and over 200 graduates, but the calendar slot has just moved sharply. The 2024 and 2025 rounds both closed on a Monday in mid-March, while 2026 jumped to late July, a drift of around four and a half months that left a sixteen-month gap between deadlines and moved the programme itself from mid-year to autumn. Do not predict a 2027 deadline from either the old March slot or the new July one.

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.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026/27 round opened on 30 April 2026 and closed on 19 June 2026, with decisions by the end of August and development running from September. One caution on that deadline: the guidelines PDF gives noon on its cover page and midnight on page four, and the news announcement says noon while the FAQ page says midnight. Noon is the likelier intent and matches the previous cycle. The annual pattern is otherwise consistent: announced in late April or mid May, closing in the second half of June, with development starting every September, running since 2015. No dates for the next round have been published, and note that the development funding page still describes the scheme as open seven weeks after it closed.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 challenge (the 23rd annual) finished with final round results on 29 July 2026, and no 2027 dates have been published. It has run every calendar year without a gap, always in three rounds, with entries closing in February and final results landing late July or August. The early-bird entry deadline falls in the first week or two of January, which is the moment to watch. One caution: the start date has moved earlier every single year (24 March 2023, 15 March 2024, 21 February 2025, 13 February 2026), so treat February as the shape rather than assuming a repeating date.

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.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round closed on 14 January 2026 at 11:59pm Eastern European Time, with the retreat running 1 to 9 July 2026. The 2027 cycle is unannounced. The cadence is consistent across the two cycles we could evidence directly: an annual mid-to-late January deadline always at 11:59pm EET, an eight-day retreat at Costa Navarino in late June or early July, always free and fully funded. The deadline crept eight days earlier between 2025 and 2026, and the published cohort number was dropped for 2026 having previously been ten.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 contest closed on 8 May 2026 and winners are announced on 15 October. PAGE publishes its opening date in advance and states that entries for the 2027 competition open on 1 December 2026. This is the most reliable calendar of any major contest we carry: it has opened on 1 December in every one of the last four cycles, run a ladder on the 15th of January, February, March and April, and announced quarter-finalists on 15 July, semi-finalists on 15 August, finalists on 15 September and winners on 15 October, unchanged year after year. The only moving part is the final tier, which has fallen between 8 and 20 May. Fees have risen once in four years. If you enter one contest on a diary reminder, this is the one to set it for.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 window ran 1 April to 1 May and is closed. The next window has not been announced.

Closed for this cycle

The most recent cycle opened on 21 November 2025 and closed on 19 December 2025 at 11:59pm ET, with sessions running from February 2026 and the table reads and Face2Face events in August 2026. The 2027 window is unannounced, but the annual cycle is well evidenced across 2024, 2025 and 2026 cohorts, all reported in the trade press. Announcement timing drifts between February and April; the cycle itself does not. Note that the programme is headed as five months with an end date of August 2026 while the FAQ says sessions run February to May with the table reads and Face2Face in August, so taught delivery is roughly four months with a gap before the August showcase events.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle closed on Friday 13 March 2026 at 12 noon, described as a strict deadline; no timezone is published, though RTÉ is Dublin-based. Finalists were named on 17 April, commissions on 15 May, with delivery in October 2026. The next cycle is unannounced, and this is one to watch rather than plan around: the cadence is reliably annual but the deadline month swings hard, running December for the 2022 edition, April for 2024, May for 2025 and March for 2026. The slate size moved too, from eight developed and three commissioned to ten and four in 2025 and back again in 2026, and 2026 switched from drama to comedy-only. Expect a call, but do not expect it in any particular month.

Closed for this cycle

Screenplay entries for the 2026 festival closed on 15 June (fees ran $42 to $77 by deadline). The 2027 window has not been announced.

Rolling applications

Always open. Applications can be made at any time through Screen Australia's portal, with assessment taking approximately eight weeks from the point eligibility is confirmed. There are no rounds and no deadlines to plan around. The guidelines were issued on 1 July 2025 and updated on 2 July 2026, so the stable pattern here is annual guideline revision rather than an annual application window.

Rolling applications

Open all year with no deadlines. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and decisions take up to six weeks from receipt of a completed form.

Open for applications

Applications opened at 12 noon on 27 July 2026 and close at 12 noon on Monday 7 September 2026. Interviews follow in November, with successful writers announced in early December and the programme running January to December 2027.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 contest (the 24th annual) closed on 31 May 2026 and no 2027 dates have been published. Across every cycle we could evidence, 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2026, the ladder has been strikingly stable: a Special Entry tier opens the preceding September, pre-registration closes at the end of December, an early tier lands in early March, and the regular deadline has fallen on 1 May with a late tier on 15 May in all four years. Results run through July into early August. On that pattern the 2027 contest would be expected to open around September 2026, but nothing is published yet, so confirm on the official site. Note the contest was renamed from Competition to Contest between 2024 and 2025, so older links may fail.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 contest (the 19th annual) closed on 31 May 2026 and no 2027 dates have been published. It has shared its deadline ladder with the Script Pipeline Screenwriting Contest in every year we could evidence: a Special Entry tier the preceding September, pre-registration at the end of December, an early tier in early March, regular on 1 May and late on 15 May. Results run July into early August. On that pattern the 2027 contest would be expected to open around September 2026, but nothing is published yet. Note the contest was renamed from Competition to Contest between 2024 and 2025, so older links may fail. Original pilots only: specs of existing shows are not accepted.

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.

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. The fee is waived for SFFILM members, though the cheapest membership is 100 dollars a year. Submitting early confers no competitive advantage, and one fee covers a single application across several SFFILM narrative grants.

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.

Closed for this cycle

Submissions for the 2026 forum closed on 20 August 2026 at 11:59pm Singapore time; the forum itself runs on 30 October 2026 during the festival. SGIFF's page shows the call as closed with no dates for 2027. The 2026 call opened on 20 July, so expect the next one around July 2027.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 competition closed at noon Eastern on 1 July; the winner is announced in October. Entries typically reopen in late April.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle is complete and no 2027 round has been announced anywhere. That cycle opened on 7 September 2025 and ran through six tiers to an extended deadline of 8 April 2026, with fees from 30 pounds at the lightning tier to 45 at extended for the main fund, and 25 to 35 for the First Time Filmmaker fund. Note the rules and the dates panel disagree on the final date, giving 5 April and 8 April respectively, with the only published time, 23:59 GMT, attached to the 5 April date. Nominees were notified on 6 July and the winner announced at the pitch event on 2 October 2026. The fund has run three years, so a further round is plausible but entirely unconfirmed.

Closed for this cycle

Applications for the January 2027 lab closed on 12 May 2026 (US$45 fee). The next Development Track window is expected to open in April 2027.

Closed for this cycle

Applications closed on 18 August 2026 (Netflix gave 11.59pm; most state agency portals cut off at the end of 17 August). Selected writers are notified on 28 September, the Sydney pitch day is 6 October, resubmissions are due 6 November and final feedback arrives by 1 December 2026. Netflix has announced no second round.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round closed at 11:59pm on Sunday 3 May 2026 and the competition returns in early 2027, with no date yet published. The recent pattern is consistent: across 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 the deadline has fallen on the last Sunday of April or the first Sunday of May at 11:59pm, with finalists in June and showcases in June and July. The fee rose from 20 to the current level between 2024 and 2025 and has held since. One caveat on calling it annual: the organisers' own previous-years list skips 2019, 2021 and 2022, and the 2020 finalists were never staged in a theatre because of the pandemic, so it has run annually since 2023 but has missed years before.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026-27 cycle closed on 3 February 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, with an early-bird tier on 13 January, and applicants updated by 20 April ahead of the weekend retreat in June. No dates have been published for the next cycle. The programme is structurally stable, running annually on a two-year cycle naming with a June start and a ten-month duration, but the application front end has drifted: the deadline moved almost four weeks earlier between 2022 and 2026, and a two-tier early-bird structure was introduced that did not exist before. The 2023-24 and 2025-26 cycle dates could not be evidenced from any archived source.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 window closed on 30 April and final selections are notified by 17 August. The next cycle has not been dated.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 application window ran from 11:00am Eastern on 19 May 2026 to 11:59pm Eastern on 21 June 2026, with judging through to the end of August and notification in autumn 2026. Workshop dates for this cycle have not been published. This is the only entry in its group that publishes exact times and a timezone. The workshop shape is stable, at three days in New York in mid-to-late September with five finalists, but two things make the calendar unreliable: no cycle ran at all in 2023, and application windows for the 2024 and 2025 editions were never published, only their workshop dates.

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.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle is closed and no dates have been published for a next round. That cycle opened on 19 February 2026 with an early-bird deadline of 23 March at 46.75 Canadian dollars and a regular deadline of 13 April at 55, with the lab running in September. No deadline times or timezones are published. Worth knowing: 2026 appears to be the first edition of the Writers' Lab, which succeeds TIFF's long-running Writers' Studio, so there are no prior cycles to establish a pattern from and no future date should be inferred.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle is complete and no dates have been published for the next round; the festival says to check back in autumn 2026. That cycle opened on 18 September 2025 and ran four tiers, early on 6 November at 45 dollars for a feature, regular on 15 January at 60, final on 19 February at 80 and extended on 5 March 2026 at 95, with notification on 22 May. Episodic and short categories run cheaper. The pattern across the two evidenced cycles is consistent: opening in mid-September, four tiers from November through early March, notification in May and the festival in the third week of June, with fees held flat between cycles. No deadline times or timezones are published anywhere.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 TV contest closed on 9 March with results due by 30 August (fees ran $99 to $119). A 2026 feature cycle has not been announced; previous feature contests opened between April and June.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 round opened on 6 April and closed on 25 May 2026 at 11:59pm Eastern, with winners announced at the Virginia Film Festival in October. This has one of the most predictable calendars we have found: across four consecutive cycles the closing date has fallen on US Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, every single year, with entries opening in early April in three of those four. No extensions are ever granted. One small note for verification: only the 2026 cycle published a timezone; earlier years stated 11:59pm with no zone.

Closed for this cycle

Applications for the 2027 cohort closed on 12 July 2026. Windows are announced on WBD Access's official social channels rather than the website.