AceShowbiz - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed the recipients of the 2025-2026 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, an esteemed international program designed to nurture emerging non-professional screenwriters. The announcement, made on Monday, recognizes three individual writers and two writing teams for their distinctive screenplays that promise to enrich the future of film storytelling.

The honored fellows include Leo Aguirre from San Antonio, Texas; Lynn McKee of Queens, New York; Katla Sólnes from New York City; the Los Angeles-based duo Omar Al Dakheel and Elie El Choufany; and the Brooklyn team of Sara Crow and David Rafailedes. These writers were selected from a highly competitive pool, reflecting the program’s commitment to diversity and international talent.

Recipients of the Nicholl Fellowships gain access to a comprehensive support network provided by the Academy. This includes direct assistance, ongoing resources, and networking opportunities, such as events featuring Oscar nominees and winners, pitch workshops, media training sessions, and exclusive meet-and-greets. Additionally, fellows benefit from the Gold Alumni Network Program, which offers continued professional development, educational opportunities, and career advancement support long after the fellowship year concludes.

All fellowship-winning scripts are preserved in the Academy Collection at the Margaret Herrick Library, ensuring these fresh voices remain accessible and influential within the cinematic community.

To identify this year’s fellows, the Nicholl program collaborated with 40 universities, screenwriting labs, film festivals, and filmmaker programs, including The Black List, which facilitated public submissions. The evaluation process involved over 500 Academy members from all 19 branches, marking an impressive 149 percent increase in participation compared to previous years. These members helped narrow down submissions to 10 finalists, from which a dedicated Nicholl Committee of 23 Academy members selected the fellowship winners.

The 2025-2026 Nicholl Committee was co-chaired by Kim Taylor-Coleman, president of the Academy Foundation board and Academy governor, alongside Julie Lynn, a member of the producers branch. Both played pivotal roles in overseeing the fellowship selection process.

In a statement, Taylor-Coleman expressed excitement about the new fellows: “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. 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, Franklin Leonard and The Black List for their collaboration, and to the universities, screenwriting labs, film festivals, and filmmaker programs that submitted scripts to this year’s program.”

The 2025-2026 fellows and their projects are:

• Leo Aguirre (San Antonio, TX), “Verano”
  Nicholl partner: Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab
  Set during a scorching Texas summer, this story follows a withdrawn teenager whose life changes when his parents foster an asylum seeker from Central America. What starts as tension evolves into an unexpected friendship as both boys confront themes of loss, identity, and belonging amid the looming threat of deportation.
• Omar Al Dakheel and Elie El Choufany (Los Angeles, CA), “The Washroom”
  Nicholl partner: Urbanworld Festival
  In a small Texas town, a young imam struggles to defend his community’s right to bury their dead while hiding a forbidden love that could jeopardize everything he holds dear.
• Sara Crow and David Rafailedes (Brooklyn, NY), “Satoshi”
  Nicholl partner: NYU Tisch School of the Arts
  Following her family’s financial ruin during the 2008 crisis, a teenage anime-obsessed hacktivist discovers the unfair nature of money and embarks on a mission to reinvent currency with a new digital form called Bitcoin.
• Lynn McKee (Queens, NY), “I’m Ready to Go Anywhere”
  Nicholl partner: The Black List
  Set in 1980s Phoenix, this narrative centers on ten-year-old Patty, who must protect and parent her mother and younger sister while devising a plan to escape the city's heat, chaos, and danger.
• Katla Sólnes (New York, NY), “Eruption”
  Nicholl partner: Columbia University School of the Arts
  In 1970s Iceland’s highlands, a geologist’s wife faces challenges to her marriage when an American student arrives, stirring tensions as volatile as the surrounding volcanic landscape.

The program also recognized five finalists, whose screenplays demonstrated exceptional promise:

• 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)

Since its inception in 1986, the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting program has awarded 191 fellowships, building a respected legacy of discovering and fostering new voices in cinema. The fellowships were endowed by Gladys “Gee” Nicholl in honor of her husband, writer-producer Don Nicholl. Recipients agree to complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year. Importantly, the Academy acquires no rights to the fellows’ works and remains uninvolved in any commercial ventures relating to their scripts.

The Nicholl Fellowships continue to be a vital component of the Academy’s global talent development initiatives, fueling the next generation of storytellers and enriching the film industry with fresh perspectives and stories.