NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship: Playwriting and Screenwriting

Eligibility and project requirements

New York State only, and the residency test is strict: current residents of New York State or one of the Tribal Nations located within it, who have maintained that residency for at least the last two consecutive years, with documentation required before payment. Applicants must be 25 or older by the deadline and not enrolled in any degree-seeking programme. You must be the originator of the work rather than an interpretive artist. Anyone who received a fellowship in any discipline in the past five consecutive years is ineligible, and artists who have won five fellowships reach emeritus status and can no longer apply. Collaborations of up to three people are allowed, with the grant divided evenly. You may apply in a maximum of two categories per cycle. The discipline definition names screenwriters explicitly, covering stageplays, screenplays, teleplays, libretti, radioplays, audiodramas, puppet plays and experimental web series; audiotapes are not accepted in this category. Note NYFA prioritises applicants living outside the New York City metropolitan area.

Formats

Feature, TV Pilot

Eligibility

US residentsNew York State only

Open to

United States

Deadlines & fees

Dates and fees checked against the official site 9 Aug 2026. That is longer ago than we aim for; confirm on the official site before entering.

Prepare your entry

Prizes

An 8,000 US dollar unrestricted cash grant with no project attached and no deliverable, plus 1,000 dollars to each of three finalists per category. Named awards are drawn from the same selection process without a separate application, and Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award fellows receive 10,000 dollars instead of 8,000. This is the cleanest award in our grants category on both money and rights: no repayment, recoupment or profit participation exists anywhere in the terms, there is no production to recoup against, and NYFA states explicitly that applying with work samples does not put your materials in the public domain. The only obligations are documenting your New York State residency before payment and your own tax liability, since fellowships are taxable income.

Judging

Judged by a peer panel of New York-based artists, cultural workers, educators and community leaders, whose names are kept confidential until the awards are announced and who change every year, with a unique panel per discipline. Three elimination rounds assess artistic merit, clarity and cohesiveness, and originality and innovation. NYFA receives between 2,000 and 4,000 applications a cycle and awarded 92 fellowships and 15 finalists totalling 753,000 dollars in 2025. The number of awards per discipline floats with application volume. No feedback is offered.

Frequently asked questions