The Black List will invite six to eight promising non-professional writers as identified by the Black List to a month-long feature program in Fall 2023. The program will begin virtually and conclude at an in-person weeklong, intensive writers workshop in the greater Los Angeles area, from Monday October 2nd through Friday, October 6th. All writers involved in the Lab will workshop one feature screenplay through one-on-one sessions with each screenwriting mentor and in peer workshops. The program will also include attendance at several story-related events with professional screenwriters, executives, producers, lit agents and managers. 

THE SELECTION PROCESS

The selection process will work like this:

Up to 30 writers will be long listed based on the strength of their scripts as determined by the Black List, and will be invited to submit a one-page personal statement and professional resume. From those submissions, up to 15 writers will be selected for the short list. From the short list, select writers will be chosen to interview, via Zoom, and 6-8 writers will be selected by the Black List to participate in the Lab.

TENTATIVE LAB DEADLINES

**DATES UPDATED AS OF APRIL 2023**

Submission Period Opens - September 21, 2022
Submission Period Closes - July 16, 2023
Long List Writers Notified - August 14, 2023
Personal Statements Due - August 21, 2023
Short List Writers Notified - August 28, 2023
Interviews - September 5-6, 2023
Final Participants Notified - September 7, 2023
Lab Begins (Virtually) - September 14, 2023
In-Person Program - October 2-6, 2023

* There is no longer a separate evaluation purchase deadline for the Lab. In order for new script evaluations to qualify for consideration for the Lab, they must be purchased by the submission deadline.  Please note, purchase of an evaluation is not required for consideration to participate in the 2023 Lab. However, we strongly encourage having your script evaluated.

TRAVEL AND ACCOMMODATIONS

Air Travel (coach class round trip flights within the continental United States (if available and if used)), ground transport to and from the airport in Los Angeles and all Lab events, and accommodations (room and tax only)* will be provided by the Black List. Meals will also be provided. The Lab is a residential program.

If you are accepted into the Lab, you will be required to board in the provided accommodations for the duration of the program and, if air travel is required, must be available to be flown to Los Angeles from a major airport within the continental United States.

Participants must be able to provide proof of vaccination (including boosters per current CDC guidelines) and willing to test for COVID-19 infection prior to arriving at the in-person portion of the program. 

SLOAN FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP

Writers are also available to opt in to the 2023 Sloan Foundation Fellowship.

The Black List’s 2023 Sloan Foundation Fellow at the Annual Black List Feature Lab will be a science- and technology-focused writer with a science-rooted feature screenplay. Mentoring opportunities for the Sloan Fellow will continue throughout the year following the Lab. Writers will have the opportunity to be considered for this fellowship by selecting the “Sloan Foundation Fellow” option during the opt-in process. Writers applying for the Sloan Fellowship are encouraged to have a science advisor for the project. Scripts that are selected for the short list will be asked to submit the name and title of the advisor, a brief description of their scientific area of expertise, and a statement that he/or she has read the script and attests that it is accurate. Writers are encouraged to submit this information in advance of the short list announcement as well.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants in three areas: research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. Sloan's program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience and to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities.  

Sloan’s Film Program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past two decades, Sloan has partnered with top film schools in the country, supported screenplay development programs, and has helped develop over 30 feature films including Michael Almereyda’s Tesla, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler’s Radium Girls, Thor Klein’s Adventures of a Mathematician, Jessica Oreck’s One Man Dies a Million Times, Logan Kibens and Sharon Greene’s Operator, Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, and Matthew Brown‘s The Man Who Knew Infinity. The Foundation’s book program includes support for Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures, which became the highest grossing Oscar-nominated film of 2017 and a social and cultural milestone.  

For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, please visit www.sloan.org or follow the Foundation at @SloanPublic on Twitter and Facebook.