HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab
Lab · 2026Prestige 72/100
A funded weekend in East Hampton with mentors like Celine Song and Debra Granik. Nothing taken in return.
Deadlines & fees
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.
Dates and fees checked against the official site 9 Aug 2026.
Key facts
- Formats
- Feature
- Eligibility
- Open worldwide
- Required materials
- A completed draft of a feature-length screenplay as a PDF · A non-refundable application fee · A cover letter, strongly encouraged, with a synopsis of one or two sentences, project status, development history, awards and labs attended · A brief CV or bio, encouraged but explicitly not required
A completed draft of a feature-length screenplay as a PDF is required: treatments, outlines, short films and episodic pilots are not eligible. Projects of any genre are welcome. Writing partners and teams are eligible and encouraged to submit. International screenwriters are welcome, though the project must be translated into English to be considered. Adaptations are eligible provided the submitter retains rights to the material. Only one version may be submitted per season, though re-applications with the same script are welcome across seasons. No page limit, age limit, residency requirement, credit requirement or prior-work bar is published. A cover letter is strongly encouraged, with a one or two sentence synopsis, project status, development history, awards and labs attended, plus a brief CV or bio, though the CV is explicitly not required to be considered.
Prizes
No cash prize to fellows. What is covered is the weekend itself: the festival states it will cover travel, accommodation and meals for its selected fellows, with a declared value of 3,000 US dollars. Fellows may choose to extend their stay in the Hamptons afterwards to keep working, at their own cost. One fellow a year also receives the Melissa Mathison Fund award, declared at 5,000 US dollars, which funds a staged reading of selected scenes from their project produced in New York later in the year; that figure is the production cost of the reading rather than a payment to the writer, and no cash transfer to the recipient is published. RIGHTS ARE NOTABLY CLEAN: no option, first refusal, exclusivity, premiere obligation, credit requirement or rights transfer of any kind is published. The only rights language runs the other way, requiring the applicant to hold rights to any adapted material.
Judging
The published mentor list is extensive and includes Celine Song, Debra Granik, Tamara Jenkins, Justin Kuritzkes, Rachel Shukert, Dan Janvey, Michael Covino, Bart Freundlich, Samuel D. Hunter, Ekwa Msangi, Jim Taylor, Mark Heyman, Michael H. Weber, Oren Moverman, Michael Cunningham, James Vanderbilt, Robin Swicord, Nicole Perlman, Darius Marder, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Alice Wu, Whit Stillman and Ira Sachs. Chief Creative Officer is David Nugent. No written feedback is offered: the value is live mentorship in session. The number of fellows selected is not published anywhere; a 2025 photograph caption suggests four, but that is inference from a caption rather than a stated figure.
The PreList verdict
A funded weekend in East Hampton with one-to-one mentorship from a genuinely extraordinary list of writers: Celine Song, Debra Granik, Tamara Jenkins, Whit Stillman, Ira Sachs and many more. Travel, accommodation and meals are all covered. Alumni projects include Short Term 12, Nancy, Dead Pigs and Resurrection, which is about as good a track record as a development lab can show. Any genre, teams welcome, international writers welcome with an English translation, and no credit requirement of any kind.
What makes it stand out beyond the mentors is what it does not ask for. No option, no first refusal, no exclusivity, no premiere obligation, no credit requirement, no rights transfer of any sort. The only rights language in the whole listing runs the other way, requiring you to hold rights to any material you have adapted. For a lab of this calibre that is remarkably clean.
The honest part is that two figures we would normally give you are simply not published. The application fee exists, and the festival calls it a non-refundable application fee, but no amount appears anywhere on the live pages. For scale, the previous two cycles ran 60 to 90 dollars and 55 to 85 dollars respectively, rising five dollars a tier each year, but we are not going to guess the current number for you. The number of fellows is not published either. There is also no cash prize: the Mathison award of 5,000 dollars funds a staged reading of your work rather than paying you.
Dylian Salvatore, Founder of The PreList · Updated 9 Aug 2026
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to apply?
A non-refundable application fee is required but the amount is not published on any live page. The previous two cycles ran 60 to 90 dollars and 55 to 85 dollars across four tiers, rising five dollars per tier year on year, so expect something in that range, but we have not projected a figure.
Is travel covered?
Yes. The festival covers travel, accommodation and meals for selected fellows, with a declared value of 3,000 US dollars. Fellows may extend their stay afterwards to keep working, but that extension is at their own cost.
Does the festival take any rights?
No, and this is unusually clean for a lab of this standing. No option, first refusal, exclusivity, premiere obligation, credit requirement or rights transfer is published anywhere. The only rights condition is that you must hold the rights to any material you have adapted.
Is there prize money?
No cash prize to fellows. One fellow a year receives the Melissa Mathison Fund award, declared at 5,000 dollars, but that funds the production of a staged reading of scenes from their project in New York rather than being paid to the writer.
Is your script right for HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab?
Upload your screenplay and The PreList scores how well it fits this lab: genre, format, eligibility and readiness, before you spend anything.
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