Shore Scripts Feature Screenplay Contest

30 Sept 2026

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 competition closed on 3 August 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, and winners are announced on 31 October. No 2027 dates have been published. Across four evidenced cycles the shape is very consistent: entries open between mid-February and mid-March, the final deadline lands in the last week of July or the first days of August, and winners are announced in the last week of October, preceded by a four-stage announcement cascade through late September. One drift worth noting: both the opening and the final deadline have moved a little later every year, from 14 February and 25 July in 2023 to 18 March and 3 August in 2026. Fees have been identical across 2024, 2025 and 2026.

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 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 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

IMPORTANT: the next edition is on hold. In July 2026 European Short Pitch announced that the call for its 2027 edition was suspended after Creative Europe MEDIA funding did not come through, saying it was facing a genuinely uncertain moment and exploring smaller, more focused activities for 2027 instead. The most recently completed cycle was the nineteenth edition: applications closed on 12 September 2025, extended to 19 September, with selection announced in mid-December, the development workshop in mid-January 2026 and the forum in early June 2026. Until 2027 the annual rhythm had been strikingly stable, with a September deadline, December selection, January workshop and June forum, which makes this pause a genuine break rather than drift.