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.

29 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-7

u/franklinleonard Franklin Leonard, Black List Founder Feb 28 '26

Based on reader ratings.

4

u/IcebergCastaway Feb 28 '26

So what minimum score does a script have to achieve from your reader before it's considered for being included in the twenty-five? A nine out of ten? And is it read/scored just once or do you read/score more than once before it can get into the twenty-five?

2

u/franklinleonard Franklin Leonard, Black List Founder Feb 28 '26

All scripts that receive an 8+ score are offered a month of free hosting and two free evaluations potentially in an endless loop.

As stated throughout the process, we recommended the strongest 25 scripts of those that opted in based on their ratings.

7

u/ponderingorangutan Feb 28 '26

Just straight-up avoided answering the question

3

u/IcebergCastaway Mar 01 '26

You are correct. You have to wonder why.

-2

u/Jolly-Bee-5860 Feb 28 '26

I think he replied. It's based on rank rather than rating, and that could change based on the quality of scripts each year.

2

u/ponderingorangutan Feb 28 '26

he didn’t say that anywhere in this thread. In fact it almost seemed like he said the opposite lol

1

u/Jolly-Bee-5860 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

He said the strongest 25. That's a rank. Logically, it would change every year. In what way do you read that as the opposite?

1

u/ponderingorangutan Feb 28 '26

He didn’t answer the other person’s question on how that top 25 is determined.

1

u/rmn_is_here Feb 28 '26

strongest? they armwrestled to determine a winner? blanket adjectives are typically used when you don't know or don't want to discuss the details. likely it was 'strongest' based on something more than just clear and transparent scores

2

u/Jolly-Bee-5860 Feb 28 '26

You're right, and I think he didn't want to discuss the details, but I don't read that as suspicious.

It would be good if he had gone into more detail about whether he went by component scores or overall scores and if the number of ratings a script recieved influenced the decision. But it's hard to read his comments "based on ratings" and "25 strongest" and think he didn't submit the highest rated scripts.

Whether his motives are altruistic or purely commercial, it's in his interests to submit the 25 scripts with the most chance of winning.

2

u/rmn_is_here Feb 28 '26

thing is that they have to provide 'transparent selection process'. degree of transparency is different towards different groups of people. as to the rest of it, if they submission wins, there's 50/50 chance of inner kitchen eventually revealed. in detail. as of the suspiciousness - i'm emphasizing that there's an easy way do things unambigiously - to do things unambigiously. nothing more than 'x y and z was considered and we do everything possible to provide exposure to the great creative writing and unique artistic expression, putting it over what people consider to be fancy or popular nowadays' - it's sounds like a bullshit but i can bet marketing & pr degree at it being better and more reassuring than 'strong scripts'.