HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab

Eligibility and project requirements

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.

Formats

Feature

Eligibility

Open worldwide

Deadlines & fees

Dates and fees checked against the official site 10 Aug 2026. That is longer ago than we aim for; confirm on the official site before entering.

Prepare your entry

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.

Frequently asked questions