Update: Fellowship/Mentorship Opportunities For Emerging Screenwriters

RESOURCES

May 6

Summer is coming. I don't know if I am alone in this feeling, but I often feel a burst of motivation each time a new season is around the corner. It feels like a chance to refresh and look for potential creative paths to take. A few months back, we presented a list of opportunities for emerging screenwriters. Now that some time has passed, we felt that this list was due for an update. The following list is presented in order of application deadlines:

Humanitas New Voices Fellowship

Four-month mentorship for both television and feature film writers.
Aims to set up early writers with the tools and skills necessary to eventually succeed as directors, showrunners, and staff writers for projects that explore the human condition in a meaningful way.
Application window: Present - May 18th, 2022. For more info, access their website here.

Walt Disney Television Writing Program

One-year program where writers work in TV development on a Disney General Entertainment show.

Submission package includes two original pilot scripts and a personal essay.
Application window: Present – May 30, 2022. For more info, access their 2023 FAQs here.

Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop

Workshop lets writers work closely with experienced WB writers and executives.
The program’s goal is to prepare writers for the potential of working as a future long term staff writer.
Program runs from October 2022 – March 2023 in Burbank, CA.
Submission package includes spec script from their accepted shows list.
Application window: Present – May 31st, 2022. For more info, access their website here.

Women Write Now Fellowship

Writing program “designed to champion and elevate Black female comedy writers through mentorship, advocacy, production, and exhibition”
Fellowship runs from approximately August 1, 2022 - January 30, 2023.
Submission package includes a short film screenplay (up to 10 pages).
Application window: Present- June 6,2022. For more info, access their website here.

Nickelodeon Writing Program

Comedy screenwriting program focused on finding new voices from underrepresented communities.
Applicants can submit a general track and/or a preschool track.
One-year program where writers work on children and family programming.
Program held in Burbank, CA.
Submission package includes an original comedy pilot script and a spec script from their accepted shows list.
Application window: July 1, 2022 – August 1, 2022. For more info, access their website here.

Sesame Workshop Writers’ Room

8 amateur writers are selected to work closely with industry professionals in the development of a pilot script for children's programming.
With a goal of increasing diversity and representation, applicants must have a diverse racial, ethnic, or cultural identity.
Submission package includes an original short form script (up to 11 pages) and a personal statement.
Application window: TBD Fall 2022. For more info, access their website here.

Black List X WIF Episodic Lab

Screenwriting program for writers who are of an underrepresented gender (women, NB/GNC, and/or trans, and others.)
Four-week program (Beginning March 7th, 2023) including script development, pitching, workshopping and classes with established writers and industry members.
Program held in Los Angeles, CA.
Submission package includes an original pilot script.
Application window: Present - January 8, 2023. For more info, access their website here.

Sundance Institute Film Programs

Screenwriters Intensive

For 10-12 selected writers or writer/directors from underrepresented communities who are developing a fiction feature screenplay.
The two-day workshop will take place virtually and include one-on-one sessions with creative advisors.
Application window: TBD. For more info, access their website here.

2023 Screenwriters Lab

For writers, writer/directors, and writer/director teams developing their first or second fiction feature film
Five-day workshop where participants get to work on their feature film scripts with the support of established writers.
Application window: TBD. For more info, access their website here.

CAPE New Writers Fellowship

Fellows get to work closely with experienced TV and Film professionals to gain both creative and business knowledge.
Submission package includes an original episodic pilot or an original feature.
Script “should be consistent with CAPE’s mission to champion diversity by educating, empowering, and connecting Asian American and Pacific Islander artists and leaders in entertainment.”
The program typically begins in early Spring.
Application window: TBD. For more info, access their website here.

Inevitable Foundation Screenwriting Fellowship

Provides disabled mid-career screenwriters with $25,000 and mentorship.
They are currently developing an emerging screenwriter fellowship.
Submission package includes an original TV or feature film script.
Submissions are on a rolling basis. For more info, access their website here.

All opinions expressed in this piece are our own.

Makenzie Hice

Makenzie Hice is a writer who has a passion for storytelling. She loves exploring coming-of-age stories in both films and children’s books. She spends her time reading the works of Shel Silverstein and watching new cartoons to ensure she hangs on to the childhood imagination that drew her to writing in the first place.