Warner Bros. Discovery Access Writers Program

Closed for this cycle

Entries closed on 10 May 2026 and winners are announced live at the festival, running 24 to 30 September 2026. No 2027 dates have been published, and as of 12 September 2026 the festival site carries no screenplay competition page at all while it runs this year's edition, so there is nothing to read even for the fee ladder. The last three cycles have been consistent: entries open in the first week of December of the preceding year, with the final deadline in May.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 challenge (the 23rd annual) finished with final round results on 29 July 2026, and no 2027 dates have been published. It has run every calendar year without a gap, always in three rounds, with entries closing in February and final results landing late July or August. The early-bird entry deadline falls in the first week or two of January, which is the moment to watch. One caution: the start date has moved earlier every single year (24 March 2023, 15 March 2024, 21 February 2025, 13 February 2026), so treat February as the shape rather than assuming a repeating date.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026-27 cycle closed on 3 February 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, with an early-bird tier on 13 January, and applicants updated by 20 April ahead of the weekend retreat in June. No dates have been published for the next cycle. The programme is structurally stable, running annually on a two-year cycle naming with a June start and a ten-month duration, but the application front end has drifted: the deadline moved almost four weeks earlier between 2022 and 2026, and a two-tier early-bird structure was introduced that did not exist before. The 2023-24 and 2025-26 cycle dates could not be evidenced from any archived source.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle is complete and its six participants announced. Applications closed on 25 May 2026. No 2027 window has been announced.

Closed for this cycle

Applications for the 2027 course closed on 13 September 2026 at 11.59pm Pacific. The course runs on Thursday evenings over Zoom in the first half of the year. The next window has not been announced.

Closed for this cycle

The 2026 cycle is complete and no dates have been published for the next round; the festival says to check back in autumn 2026. That cycle opened on 18 September 2025 and ran four tiers, early on 6 November at 45 dollars for a feature, regular on 15 January at 60, final on 19 February at 80 and extended on 5 March 2026 at 95, with notification on 22 May. Episodic and short categories run cheaper. The pattern across the two evidenced cycles is consistent: opening in mid-September, four tiers from November through early March, notification in May and the festival in the third week of June, with fees held flat between cycles. No deadline times or timezones are published anywhere.