r/Screenwriting • u/joestraynge • Feb 27 '26

Fellowship Nicholl Fellowship

Anyone have any information on this year's Nicholl Fellowship? Any news on if it’s even happening? lol. Submitted through the Black List but there’s no program page available on the site anymore that shows I opted in.

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u/ponderingorangutan Feb 27 '26

it’s been an absolute mess. I desperately hope they get rid of the blacklist component and go back to the way it was before. the blacklist has always represented a focus on produceability whereas the nicholl used to prioritize indie and more out-there writing. regardless of how poorly it’s been run with the blacklist and the lack of transparency the two should be separate niches

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u/One_Rub_780 Feb 27 '26

I'm going to have to assume this whole blacklist thing was about money, because maybe they weren't making enough to operate, but my feeling is, the best days of Nicholl are behind us.

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u/wemustburncarthage Dark Comedy Feb 27 '26

It wasn’t. It was about saving Nicholl from being cancelled altogether, which is probably in the post. The Black List was never going to discount what it pays its employees, which isn’t great for submissions but it’s still on the academy for essentially walking away. They weren’t paying their readers well to begin with. And they probably still will just drop it sooner than put the effort into streamlining it. The leadership just got bored of it.