We’re excited to share that London Film School is now an official partner of the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting is a programme that identifies and nurtures talented emerging screenwriters and one of the most respected screenwriting competitions in the world.
As part of this partnership, LFS has the opportunity to submit two screenplays for consideration This number was determined by The Academy for parity across its partnerships for the inaugural year.
Eligible to enter are current MAS students and graduates from the past five years (MAS 17 – MAS 21).
If you would like to be considered by LFS, you must:
- Submit to LFS a finished screenplay
- Meet the scoring rubric set by the Nicholl Fellowship
- Meet the eligibility criteria set by the Nicholl Fellowship (read below)
- Submit to LFS no more than one page that includes the screenplay title, logline, a paragraph on the premise and a mission statement – why you think it is right for the Nicholl Fellowship
Anyone interested in applying for the Nicholl Fellowship should submit their screenplay and one page to NichollFellowships@lfs.org.uk. Applications will be open from Tuesday 9 June until Sunday 5 July 2026. This deadline is final and no exceptions will be made. We encourage you to begin preparing your screenplay and one pager if you’re interested in this opportunity.
Please note, the Nicholl Fellowship is also working with the Black List and Writers Guild Foundation which are serving as portals for public submissions. You may submit your screenplay via the Black List or Writers Guild Foundation instead however you cannot submit to either the Black List or Writers Guild Foundation and via LFS. The deadline for the Black List is 6 July 2026 and deadline for Writers Guild Foundation 20 July 2026.
Entry criteria:
- Full eligibility details can be found here
- The entrant is responsible for ensuring their name, address, phone number or any other identifying information does not appear on the title page or any other page of the script when applying
- An entrant’s total lifetime earnings for motion picture and television writing may not exceed $25,000 USD before the end of the competition. This limit applies to compensation for motion picture and television writing services as well as for the sale of (or sale of an option on) screenplays, teleplays, stage plays, books, treatments, stories, premises and any other source material.
- Submitted scripts must have been written originally in English; translations will not be accepted. No multi-part, episodic scripts can be submitted.
- Collaborative work by two writers who share equally in its creation is eligible. Collaborative work for which one writer developed the idea and another writer wrote the screenplay is not eligible. Collaborative work by three or more writers is not eligible. The collaborator’s name must be added during the online application process. Writing partners selected as Fellows will divide the fellowship stipend equally.
- Submitted scripts must be the original work of the entrant(s).
- An entrant (or writing team) may submit a maximum of one screenplay in the current competition.
- The Nicholl only accepts feature length screenplays in standard industry format to fit on U.S. letter paper size or A4 paper size in PDF format. The minimum page count must be 80 with a maximum page count of 125.
- We do not accept television pilots, episodic material or parts of a multi-part feature.
- We are unable to accept screenplays in any other format other than PDF format
FAQ
- WHAT HAPPENS IF I AM RECOMMENDED?
- Partners will notify their writers if they’ve been recommended. Then, the Nicholl Fellowships will reach out to official partner-recommended writers for additional information.
- WHAT KIND OF MATERIAL WILL YOU ACCEPT?
- The Nicholl Fellowships only accepts feature-length screenplays in standard industry format to fit on U.S. letter paper size or A4 paper size in PDF format. The minimum page count must be 80 with a maximum page count of 125. Scripts in non-standard industry format, and/or smaller margins and/or using less than 12-point font to circumvent the 125-page maximum may have this counted against them during judging. We do not accept television pilots, episodic material or parts of a multi-part feature. We are unable to accept screenplays in any other format other than PDF format.
- CAN I PROVIDE AN UPDATED DRAFT AFTER I AM RECOMMENDED TO ENTER THE NICHOLL?
- Upon the partner’s submission of a recommended writer’s script to the Academy’s Nicholl office, no substitutions of either corrected pages or new drafts of the entry screenplay are allowed.
