Last Year, the Nicholl Fellowship Changed Its Format - How'd That Go?

Last year, I wrote about the Nicholl Fellowship overhauling its submission process and all the changes that went with it.

If you missed it, the short version: instead of accepting open submissions directly, they partnered with 40 universities, screenwriting labs, film festivals, and filmmaker programs. And they funneled public submissions through The Black List.

This caused quite a stir at the time. People were rightfully skeptical of the changes. But it's been a year since then, and the Nicholl actually ran and now has announced its winners.

The first cycle under the new system is done. And the results tell a pretty clear story.

Let's dive in.

Who Won the 2026 Nicholl Fellowship?

Before we get into all the information surrounding the fellowship and screenwriting contests, I thought we should congratulate the winners.

Below are the 2025-2026 Nicholl fellows:

**Leo Aguirre (San Antonio, TX), “Verano” ** Nicholl partner: Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab During a sweltering summer in Texas, a withdrawn teen’s world is upended when his parents decide to foster an asylum seeker from Central America — what begins as resentment evolves into unexpected friendship as the threat of deportation forces both boys to confront loss, identity and belonging.

**Omar Al Dakheel and Elie El Choufany (Los Angeles, CA), “The Washroom” ** Nicholl partner: Urbanworld Festival In small-town Texas, a young imam fights for his community’s right to bury their dead while hiding a forbidden love that could cost him everything.

**Sara Crow and David Rafailedes (Brooklyn, NY), “Satoshi” ** Nicholl partner: NYU Tisch School of the Arts After her family loses everything in the 2008 financial crisis, a teenaged anime-obsessed hacktivist realizes money isn’t fair…so she sets out to reinvent it with a new digital currency called Bitcoin.

**Lynn McKee (Queens, NY), “I’m Ready to Go Anywhere” ** Nicholl partner: The Black List Desperate to escape the heat, chaos and danger of 1980s Phoenix, ten-year-old Patty must protect and parent her mom and little sister while crafting a plan to get them all out.

**Katla Sólnes (New York, NY), “Eruption” ** Nicholl partner: Columbia University School of the Arts In the highlands of 1970s Iceland, a geologist’s wife finds her marriage tested when a wily American student arrives, stirring tensions as volatile as the surrounding volcanic landscape.

Here are the 2025-2026 Nicholl finalists:

• Natalie Cutler, “Offside” (Nicholl partner: The Black List)
• Adrian Morphy, “The 300-Year-Old Man” (Nicholl partner: MFA in Scriptwriting & Story Design at Toronto Metropolitan University)
• Benjamin Murphey, “Unconfirmed Bachelor” (Nicholl partner: The Black List)
• Michael Oosterom, “Giants” (Nicholl partner: The Black List)
• Shelley Patel, “With Her Hands Untied” (Nicholl partner: The Black List)

How Did The New Nicholl Fellowship Turn Out?

Alright, so the big conversation last year was centered mostly around gatekeeping. The Nicholl used to be a public contest where anyone could enter and try to make their screenwriting dreams come true.

Well, that didn't really change; it just turns out to be part of the public offering, you had to enter through the Black List website, and then opt into consideration for the Nicholl.

ALSO, everyone who thought it would just be film students who were selected, I have good-ish news for you.

Some research says that these 40 schools that picked people to send into the Nicholl were also allowed to consider alumni, so you should reach out to your programs to see if you can get a show next year.

So, how did all this turn out?

Well, The Black List recommended 25 scripts for consideration. The Academy considered 101 total. So the Black List represented about 25% of what was on the table.

Five of the top ten were from the Black List pool.

Now, I know you want to think of that as one website profiting, but it actually shows the public option was viable for anyone to enter and get into the top, and I think also says the Black List was a good website for vetting scripts that would be chosen.

To put it in another way: The Black List put up a quarter of the scripts and then produced half the finalists.

How Did The Winners Get Picked?

On the Academy side, more than 500 Academy members from all 19 branches volunteered to read and evaluate scripts to determine the 10 finalists. That's a 149% increase in Academy member participation.

That's actually impressive.

A group of 23 Academy members serving on the Nicholl Committee then selected the fellowship recipients from those finalists.

The committee was co-chaired by Kim Taylor-Coleman, Academy Foundation board president and Academy governor, and producers branch member Julie Lynn.

“We are thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2025-2026 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, a remarkable group of diverse and international new writers who represent the future of storytelling,” Taylor-Coleman said in a statement. “This continues the Academy’s longtime commitment to championing emerging talent from across the world. We extend our sincere thanks to all participating Academy members, to Franklin Leonard and The Black List for their collaboration, and to the universities, screenwriting labs, film festivals, and filmmaker programs who submitted scripts to this year’s program.”

Summing It All Up

Last year, I said the public submission route might be the only one with real accountability. I wondered whether institutional partners would actually vet their scripts or just flood the pool.

Well, I don't think we'll ever get full visibility into what happened inside each partner program. So, if I were a screenwriter who wanted to be in the Nicholl, I know where I'd be submitting.

The public route is the only one with direct accountability.

Even if you hate The Black List, you have to admit Franklin Leonard is on every Reddit board or X thread offering people who have had any bad service their money back, and clarifying people's questions.

These film schools are not doing that.

Now, none of this is meant to dismiss the institutional partners. Some produced finalists, that's great!

But the public portal outpunched everyone at the table. Yeah, it cost money to enter, but it always has, so at least you knew where your money went and got feedback, too.

We'll keep watching this as the program evolves.

Let us know what you think in the comments.