NZ Writers Guild Seed and Seed Advanced Grants

Deadlines & fees

• Round 1Passed
  4 Sept 2026Pacific/AucklandNZ$60

Dates and fees checked against the official site 6 Sept 2026.

Key facts

Formats

Feature

Open to

New Zealand

Required materials

Biography or resume (PDF) · Budget and plan (PDF) · Logline of 35 words or fewer · Short synopsis of no more than 250 words · Potential audience statement · Treatment: five pages up to 2,300 words for Seed, five to ten pages for Seed Advanced · Ten-page screenwriting sample from the same feature, including dialogue, may be non-consecutive · All identifying details removed; 12pt Courier, single spaced, no pictures, links, casting references or director vision

Applicants must be New Zealand citizens or permanent residents and must hold the rights to the project, which means no producer or production company may be attached; an attached director is fine. Feature film scripts only: no television, documentary or short film. Seed is for writers with unproduced work across film, short film, television, new media, literary works or theatre where they are the primary creator, or under 90 cumulative produced minutes with a Written By credit. Seed Advanced requires over 90 cumulative produced minutes with a Written By credit through a recognised production company, platform or authority, or theatrical performance; experience in non-screen forms such as novels or poetry does not qualify. You may apply to only one of the two funds per round, may apply with the same project up to three times, and cannot reapply with a project that has already won. Generative AI must not be used for the treatment, sample or script, since AI-generated material cannot be copyright-owned and you would not hold the rights.

Prizes

Seed: up to four grants per round of 12,500 New Zealand dollars plus GST if applicable, of which 3,000 goes directly to a Guild-approved script consultant, leaving 9,500 to the writer, paid half on signing and half on delivery of a polished draft. Seed Advanced: up to two grants per round of 15,500 dollars on the same structure, leaving 12,500 to the writer. Caps of eight Seed and four Seed Advanced grants per year. Recipients also get consultant matching, meetings with the Guild Executive Director, guidance on pathways for the project, and participation in Guild networking and pitching events. Described explicitly as a subsidy, not a debt against the production, and the Guild takes no rights: the stated aim is to fund a draft before the writer parts with any rights.

Judging

Double-blind assessment against three criteria: Idea, Craft and Voice, scored one to three for Seed and one to five for Seed Advanced. Up to four assessors are appointed by the Executive Director with input from the NZ Film Commission and the Guild board, with at least two reading each application and up to four for shortlisted work, before two adjudication sessions. Assessor identities are kept confidential until the recipients are announced. Standing diversity commitments have applied since 2018, with at least half of judges female or Maori, Pacific, Asian or non-Pakeha, and at least one LGBTQIA+ judge since 2021. The assessors are under no obligation to award grants in any round.

Frequently asked questions