Screenplay Finalists 2026

In association with ScriptUp

Congratulations to the five finalists for the 2026 Manchester Film Festival Screenplay Competition, in association with ScriptUp Studios.

• 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.

• STATIONARY by Kathryn Robinson. 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.

• 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.