Screenplay Finalists 2026
In association with ScriptUp
The Manchester Film Festival Screenplay Competition is the prestigious script prize of the BAFTA-qualifying Manchester Film Festival, with writers warmly encouraged to attend the buzzing ten-day event. Now in its 13th year, Manchester Film Festival provides screenwriters with a chance to have their scripts read and appraised by filmmaking peers and industry insiders.
Find out more and enter your work to the competition via FilmFreeway.
2026 Competition, in association with ScriptUp Studios
Congratulations to Kathryn Robinson, winner of the 2026 MFF Screenplay Competition, with her script, Stationary.
After 50 years' dedicated service, Alys has five days until her Lost Property office closes. With her boss’ awkward son, Alfie, she must pack a lifetime's worth of forgotten things before the door's locked for the final time. Stuck where things are lost, they find a connection that will travel beyond the station.
A huge shout-out to our four other finalists for their work:
BOSS LADS by Pip Wright. A coming-of-age comedy that follows two 13-year-old boys in early 2000s Liverpool.
THE FOUNDATION by Mauricio Battistuci. A grieving woman's plans to honor her deceased construction magnate father are disrupted when a mysterious stranger from his past camps in front of their family apartment she now claims as her own.
THE CORMORANT by Erin Devine. When a protective teenage girl and her rambunctious one-legged brother on the brink of escaping the foster system are suddenly placed with a curmudgeonly lighthouse keeper in Kinsale, Ireland, they must do whatever it takes to get kicked out before they are separated forever.
TIME'S ARROW by Nicholas Hogg. When Robin Hood swaps places in time with an out-of-work designer from Nottingham, Sherwood Forest finds a new hero.