NEW VOICES FELLOWSHIP
The New Voices Fellowship is an approximately six-month mentorship program for early career television and screenwriters who are exploring the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. The program identifies and empowers five writers each year who are working on a 30- or 60-minute pilot or feature-length screenplay.
Building a writing career in film and television requires strong writing samples, but it also requires social access that current industry patterns do not facilitate. Humanitas recognizes the importance of mentorship and peer-to-peer relationships, and continues to tailor this program to help develop these bonds through fostering a strong community.
Through mentorship, workshops, conversations on professional development, and networking opportunities, New Voices equips writers with the confidence and tools needed to advance their careers. Fellows are paired with a mentor, invited to the Humanitas Prizes event, and receive a trophy and $7,500 stipend.
Since 2010, 79 fellows have been named New Voices Fellows, with many becoming showrunners, producers, directors, and staff writers. Former New Voices Fellows include Will Pascoe (Absentia), J. Holtham (Supergirl, Jessica Jones), Jeanine Daniels (Snowfall), Rashaad Ernesto Green (The Chi, Searching for Alaska), Carlito Rodriguez (Empire), Emily Silver (Finding Carter), Martín Zimmerman (Ozark), Obiageli Odimegwu (All American), Eric Anthony Glover (Tom Swift), and Eugene Ramos (The Dragon Prince).
Click here to view the Humanitas Talent Guide, which offers individual bios and project information on the 2024-2025 fellows and College Screenwriting Award winners. The 2025-2026 Humanitas Talent Guide has a projected April 2026 release. In the meantime, you can learn more about the 2025-26 New Voices Fellows here and the 2025-26 College Screenwriting Award winners here.
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While the mission and core of the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Award programs remain unchanged in 2026, there are some changes to our process that returning applicants will notice.
For the last several years, the submissions and initial review processes for both programs was powered by Coverfly. While an excellent partner, their business is now closed, and Humanitas will be managing the submissions and initial review processes internally.
Submissions will be made through the Humanitas Submission Portal used to facilitate the organization’s namesake program, The Humanitas Prizes. Humanitas will be also be directly investing in the writing community by assembling its own team of readers for the initial review process. Those interested in acting as readers for Humanitas’s New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards program may express their interest via this form.
An additional change is that there will also be only one deadline and submission fee. Tiered submission fees and staggered deadlines is a practice largely incentivized by the algorithms determining where programs are positioned on a submissions platform’s search list. By taking the submissions process internal creates a different set of incentives and priorities, offering us the flexibility to simplify our structure for applicants.
Lastly, but significantly, there is a new required submission material for The New Voices Fellowship: a video statement.
This may feel daunting and atypical to some members of our community, but The New Voices Fellowship is not, strictly speaking, a screenwriting award. It is an artist development program with content that puts an emphasis on professional development. Writing and storytelling aptitude is of utmost importance in a career writing for film and television, but between pitching, networking, and discussions in a writers’ room, it inevitably involves public speaking, and the inclusion of a video statement component is the best tool available to measure a large number of applicants’ ability in this area. If you have never recorded something like this before, we encourage you to view it as a unique challenge and opportunity.
We are optimistic about these changes and the deeper connection with our community that they will bring, and we wish you the best of luck and a rewarding creative process.
SUBMISSIONS & DEADLINE
The application period for the New Voices Fellowship opens on February 18, 2026.
All submissions must be made via the Humanitas submission portal linked below.
Please carefully read all guidelines before submitting. All submissions are final.
Deadline: 11:59 PM PT on Monday, April 6, 2026
(Submission Fee: $55)
PROGRAM COMPONENTS & BENEFITS
Mentorship: Fellows are paired with professional writers for one-on-one mentorship focused on their project. Written notes are provided over a series of meetings. Former mentors include: Alan Ball, Jenny Bicks, Janine Sherman Barrois, Scott Z. Burns, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Steven Canals, Matt Carlson, Marissa Jo Cerar, Robb Chavis, Liz Craft, Sarah Fain, Tom Fontana, Gary Glasberg, Gary David Goldberg, Deborah Goodwin, Marc Guggenheim, Hart Hanson, Chris Harris, Felicia D Henderson, Winnie Holzman, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Jay Kogen, Bill Lawrence, Ali LeRoi, Melanie Marnich, Justin Noble, Nancy Pimental, Rashad Raisani, Robin Schiff, David Shore, Charise Castro Smith, Patrick Sean Smith, Robin Swicord, Pam Veasey, Ligiah Villalobos, Ben Watkins, and David Zuckerman.
Conversation & Workshops Series: The Humanitas staff and the New Voices Fellowship Program Advisor invite fellows to join a series of conversations and workshops focused on the most pressing issues facing emerging television and screenwriters. Topics have included the art of the pitch, general meetings, networking, representatives, “branding” yourself as a writer, the guilds, first jobs, career longevity tips, and more. Fellows are also encouraged to attend Humanitas public programming efforts like Industry 101 and participate in a mock writers’ room near the conclusion of the fellowships.
Professional Development & Networking: In addition to the community cultivated through the New Voices Conversation and Workshops Series, New Voices aims to present fellows with at least one networking opportunity per year. Once the New Voices Fellowship has concluded, the fellows’ creative materials and contact information are collected in the New Voices Fellowship Talent Guide and distributed to the Humanitas agents and managers network. New Voices Fellows also receive invitations to community events throughout the year.
Personal Support: Throughout the fellowship period, New Voices Fellows receive support from the Program Advisor and Humanitas Staff, primarily the Program Manager. The Program Advisor provides career and mentorship-related guidance, while the Program Manager oversees the fellowship’s calendar and logistics, and checks in weekly via a Friday Email.
Humanitas Talent Guide: Once the New Voices Fellowship has concluded, the fellows’ creative materials and contact information are collected in the New Voices Fellowship Talent Guide and distributed to the Humanitas agents and managers network.
Professional Headshots: Humanitas will coordinate a photoshoot for fellows to facilitate the creation of professional-grade photos for their use during and after the fellowship.
Stipend: Each fellow receives a $7,500 stipend paid in two installments, one-half at the commencement of the fellowship and the second half upon its completion.
Components and benefits are subject to change. If you’re a company or organization that would like to be considered for program partnership, please email info@humanitasprize.org with “Program Partnership” in the subject line.
NEW VOICES FELLOWSHIP CALENDAR:
February 18, 2026: Submissions Open
April 6, 2026: Final Deadline
May 2026: Semifinalist Announcement
June/July 2026: Finalist Announcement
August 2026: Announcement of New Voices Fellows
Autumn 2026: New Voices Fellows recognized at Humanitas Prizes event
September 2026 - March 2027: Fellowship Period
REQUIRED SUBMISSION MATERIALS:
Original 30- or 60-minute pilot, or feature-length screenplay no longer than 120 pages
Logline
Brief synopsis (approximately 250-300 words)
Supplementary materials: bio, resume, and a short artist statement that speaks to the applicant's professional aspirations and why they felt compelled to write the submitted project. The artist statement and bio should be 1 page, double-spaced. The Resume should be no more than 2 pages.
Video statement in which you describe, in no more than two minutes, your personal connection to the script and what you want an audience to experience from it.
IMPORTANT DETAILS:
The name(s) of the applicant(s) should not appear on the submitted script’s title page, in a watermark, in page headers, or anywhere else on the script. Applicants will not necessarily disqualify their application by failing to adhere to this, but will put themselves at a disadvantage.
All submissions are final. No revised or late material will be accepted.
Applicants are strongly advised to only submit one application and script per year.
A script may only be submitted in connection with one Humanitas program per year, meaning that a script submitted with a New Voices Fellowship application may not also be submitted with a College Screenwriting Award application, and vice-versa.
Scripts must be an original work. Adaptations or re-imaginings of true events or fictional stories are acceptable; by submitting you acknowledge you have secured all rights needed to adapt any material and can demonstrate with documentation if asked to do so.
Applicants for Humanitas programs may not submit literary material created through the use of generative AI.
The assessment to determine finalists weighs the quality of the applicant’s script, the script’s relevance to Humanitas mission, and the quality of the applicant’s supplementary materials.
All finalists are interviewed via Zoom. These meetings cover the submitted project, career aspirations, and play an essential role in determining who is selected for the annual New Voices Fellowship cohort.
Should a writing team be selected for the fellowship, the stipend will be split evenly amongst members of the team.
While the New Voices Fellowship accepts materials from all writers, writers with diverse backgrounds and social identities historically underrepresented in media are highly encouraged to apply.
ELIGIBILITY DETAILS:
Applicants must be 21 years of age or older by August 1, 2026.
Applicants do not need to be a U.S. permanent resident and/or citizen but must be residing in the United States. Humanitas is unable to provide visa support for writers.
Applicants must be available to participate actively in all dimensions of fellowship programming, which may be completed virtually.
The New Voices Fellowship is for emerging television and screenwriters who meet all of the following criteria:
Do not have a manager or agent representing them in the area of writing for film and television,
have not been previously staffed as a writer in a scripted television series’ writers room, and
have not otherwise received payment for produced scripted feature film or television writing services prior to the submission period.
Writers paid for options on unproduced scripts or for writing services on unproduced treatments, or on unproduced projects outside the WGA’s jurisdiction and below WGA-established minimums should, contact Humanitas with details on their situation to determine eligibility.
Self-produced and self-financed projects do not impact eligibility for the fellowship. Writers with questions on this should contact Humanitas with details on their situation to determine their eligibility.
Writing teams with a member who, as an individual writer, has produced credits will remain eligible so long as the writing team applying to the program does not have produced credits. The individual writer with credits, however, would be ineligible if applying on their own.
Former semifinalists and finalists are eligible to reapply so long as they meet all other criteria. Former semifinalists and finalists are advised that all application materials must have undergone notable revisions, including and especially the script sample if it is the same project as previously submitted.
Previous recipients of the Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award and David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award are eligible for the New Voices Fellowship so long as they meet all other eligibility criteria.
Former New Voices Fellows are not eligible to reapply.
Current Humanitas staff and interns are not eligible for the fellowship, nor are those engaged as the program’s readers/judges.
Humanitas has a limited number of submission fee waivers it can offer annually to those for whom the cost of submission presents a significant barrier to entry. You can use this form to request a fee waiver.
SELECTION PROCESS
The beneficiaries of the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards are determined through a multi-stage review process. Based on the submission patterns of the last several years, Humanitas anticipates approximately 1,000 applicants per program cycle.
In the first stage, an assembled team of readers will review submitted scripts across two rounds. At minimum, all first acts will be reviewed at least once. Readers will recruited on the basis of demonstrable experience as writers, analysts, and educators. Readers will not be volunteers; they will be paid. Those interested in acting as readers for the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards program may express their interest via this form. Readers will not be eligible for either program.
Following this reading process, Humanitas staff will review the top scoring applicants, their submitted scripts, corresponding reader notes, and supplemental materials in order to select semifinalists.
For the semifinal and final rounds, Humanitas staff curates reading committees that oversee the review of up to 25 semifinalists and 10 finalists to determine the five fellows. The semifinalist review committees consist of writers, assistants, and others with industry and/or organization experience.
The finalist review committee consists of Humanitas staff, the New Voices Fellowship Program Advisor, managers who have experience nurturing writers in the early stages of their careers, and executives who have experience developing projects. Members of reading committees who are not Humanitas staff are offered an honorarium in recognition of their time and expertise.
All readers are given an orientation sheet describing Humanitas and its mission, and a scorecard which asks them to evaluate scripts in the following areas: plot, characters, concept, structure, dialogue, originality, writing style, connection to the Humanitas Mission, and an overall impression.
To learn more about what we look for in a script, you may wish to read this article on our website about the art of screenwriting and exploring the human condition.
2026 NEW VOICES FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM ADVISOR
Emmylou Diaz is a first-generation Colombian-American writer, producer, and emerging director with more than a decade of experience in episodic television. She launched her career on the award-winning CW dramedy Jane the Virgin, rising from writers’ assistant to staff writer, and has since written and produced for acclaimed series including Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, the CW reboot of Charmed, Shondaland’s Station 19, and Freeform/Hulu’s The Watchful Eye. She works as a Co-Executive Producer, serving as a trusted “number two” to top showrunners and helping to guide writers’ rooms and productions from script to screen. Emmy is a recipient of the NHMC Series Scriptwriters Fellowship and the RTT Hollywood Impact Fellowship, and she is proud to serve as Advisor to the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship. She's currently co-chair of the WGA Latinx Writers Committee. As an emerging director, her short film A Peculiar Morning is currently on the festival circuit. She holds an MFA in Acting from Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre Institute and a BA cum laude from Williams College.
NEW VOICES FELLOWSHIP SUPPORT
New Voices Fellowship is supported through various fundraising efforts, including proceeds from The Humanitas Prizes event. The New Voices Fellowship is funded in part by a 2025 donation from Snap Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, and a 2025 donation from STARZ #TakeTheLead. New Voices Fellowship submission fees are used to cover administrative costs.
QUESTIONS?
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