Map

Programs

How Iowa, Los Angeles, UEA, La Fémis, EICTV, FTII, KAFA, and other rooms actually train writers.

Program	Region	Focus	Model	Funding	Selectivity	Trains	Gap
Iowa Writers' Workshop Iowa City	United States	Books	Literary workshop	Fully funded	~2%	Voice and manuscript time	Little screen or industry training
USC John Wells Division Los Angeles	United States	Scripts	Professional screen	Limited aid	Very low	Volume and LA pipeline	Cost and formula risk
UCLA TFT Screenwriting Los Angeles	United States	Scripts	Feature or TV track	Limited aid	~4%	Rewrite culture	Must enter with scripts
AFI Conservatory Los Angeles	United States	Scripts	Conservatory	Aid available	Tiny	Mentorship, production culture	High cost
Michener Center, UT Austin Austin	United States	Both	Dual-genre	Fully funded	~1%	Primary plus secondary, three years	Not Los Angeles
Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars Baltimore	United States	Books	Literary workshop	Fully funded	4–8%	Tiny cohort, stipend	Fiction and poetry only
NYU Tisch Dramatic Writing New York	United States	Scripts	Film, theatre, TV	Partial	Low	Independent sensibility	Less studio pipeline
Columbia School of the Arts New York	United States	Both	Literary and film	Partial	Low	Story-first plus literary faculty	Cost
Helen Zell, Michigan Ann Arbor	United States	Books	Workshop plus post-MFA year	Fully funded	~1.2%	Funding and extra year	Not screen-focused
Antioch MFA Low-residency	United States	Both	Low-res plus screen track	Tuition	Higher	No relocation	Less literary cachet
UEA Creative Writing Norwich, UK	United Kingdom	Books	Literary MA workshop	Tuition + scholarships	Low	The UK's Iowa: Ishiguro, McEwan, a UNESCO city of literature	One year, not fully funded like Iowa
NFTS Screenwriting Beaconsfield, UK	United Kingdom	Scripts	Studio conservatory	Fees; some scholarships	Tiny	Scripts are tested in production with other departments	2027 intake already closed; internationals pay more
Arvon Devon / Shropshire / Yorkshire	United Kingdom	Books	Residential tutorial	Course fees + bursaries	Open with bursaries	Silence, a tutor, a house. The British short-course method	Not a degree; you must design your own year
National Centre for Writing Norwich, UK	United Kingdom	Books	Residencies and translation	Varies	Competitive	International exchanges, translation, UNESCO city desk	Not a taught MFA
Hawthornden Scotland / Italy / US houses	United Kingdom	Books	Silent residency	Fully hosted	Low	Weeks of quiet rooms. No teaching, no networking tax	2027 sessions closed; 2028 forms appear March 2027
La Fémis Paris	Europe	Scripts	National concours	State-funded	<5%	Department isolation; the concours itself trains rewrite under jury	French required; calendar drops mid-November
DFFB Berlin	Europe	Scripts	Author-cinema school	Low tuition	Low	Berlin School: political image, long development	German; 2026/27 window already shut
FAMU Prague	Europe	Scripts	Conservatory	Tuition (intl tracks)	Low	Image-first, East European mise-en-scène	Language split between Czech and international tracks
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Rome	Europe	Scripts	National school	State-supported	Low	Europe's oldest film school; craft departments plus restoration	Italian
Łódź Film School Łódź, Poland	Europe	Scripts	Conservatory	Tuition / aid	Low	Visual storytelling; Kieślowski's house	Polish-language core
Den Danske Filmskole Copenhagen	Europe	Scripts	State conservatory	State-funded	Tiny	Writers sit beside directors for four years; a personal signature is the brief	Danish; tiny intake
VGIK Moscow	Europe	Scripts	Conservatory	State / tuition	Low	The oldest film school; a dedicated scripting faculty	Russian first; geopolitics
TorinoFilmLab Turin	Europe	Scripts	Development lab	Lab fees / scholarships	Low	FeatureLab and ScriptLab treat the script as a co-production object	Not a degree; you arrive with a project
UBC Creative Writing Vancouver	Canada	Both	Multi-genre MFA	Tuition	Competitive	On-campus or distance; screen and literary under one roof	Funding is not Iowa-level
Banff Centre Literary Arts Banff, Alberta	Canada	Books	Residency	Fees + scholarships	Competitive	Time, altitude, Indigenous programs, self-directed rooms	Not a degree; apply per session
Canadian Film Centre Toronto	Canada	Scripts	Industry lab	Program fees / aid	Low	Canadian pipeline, cothink with producers	Often needs Canadian residency
EICTV San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba	Latin America	Scripts	Third-cinema conservatory	Scholarships exist	Tiny	Documentary plus fiction; a different politics of want	Visa, logistics, Spanish
Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica Mexico City	Latin America	Scripts	National school	State-supported	Low	Two-year scriptwriting track inside Mexico's public film school	Spanish; Mexican pipeline
AFDA Johannesburg / Cape Town	Africa	Both	Creative-economy school	Tuition	Open-competitive	Bachelor of Creative Writing plus MFA in motion picture; African industry literacy	Private fees, not a funded US MFA
Maisha Film Lab Kampala	Africa	Scripts	Lab intensive	Nonprofit / scholarships	East African focus	If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will — hands-on East African rooms	Not a degree; cycles vary
Sam Spiegel Film & Television School Jerusalem	Middle East	Scripts	Conservatory	Aid exists	Low	Four-year full track plus a two-year screenwriting track, including television	Hebrew; regional logistics
FTII Pune, India	Asia-Pacific	Scripts	National institute	Public fees	Low	India's oldest film school; short public courses in screenplay sit beside the diploma	Competitive national exam; Hindi/English mix
SRFTI Kolkata	Asia-Pacific	Scripts	National conservatory	Public fees	Low	MFA in Direction and Screenplay Writing; Ray's house of image	Indian entrance cycle
KAFA Seoul	Asia-Pacific	Scripts	Industry conservatory	Public / aid	Tiny	Korea's leading film school; prior filmmaking expected	Korean; tiny, experienced intake
Beijing Film Academy Beijing	Asia-Pacific	Scripts	National conservatory	Tuition	Low	Dedicated Department of Screenwriting and Film Studies	Chinese-taught; visiting year is the usual international door
Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) Yokohama	Asia-Pacific	Scripts	Graduate conservatory	Tuition	Low	Screenwriting as one of seven production courses; films get made in-house	Japanese
AFTRS Sydney	Asia-Pacific	Scripts	Industry conservatory	Domestic aid; intl fees	Low	Craft beside a studio lot; Campion's school	Far from US/UK rooms
Varuna, the National Writers' House Katoomba, Australia	Asia-Pacific	Books	Residential fellowships	Fellowships	Competitive	Two to three weeks of a private studio in the Blue Mountains	Not a degree; apply to a named fellowship round

38 of 38 schools. Methods differ by country — funding, language, and what counts as a draft.

Public desks

Archives, script libraries, collecting societies, and territorial funds. Open to read; money usually is not. Confirm every window on the source page.

Scripts · United Kingdom

BBC Writers Script Library

Online

Over a thousand BBC television, radio, and film scripts, plus 200+ from the Whoniverse, for private study. Fully protected: no sharing, no extracts to train models, no production without a licence. Format sheets live next door.

Portal

Craft · United Kingdom

BBC Writers: medium and format

Online

Downloadable example script formats for TV, radio, and film. The Open Call reads the first ten pages — these PDFs show the page they expect to see.

Portal

Funding · United Kingdom

BBC Writers opportunities

UK and Ireland

The desk that runs Open Call and posts other BBC and partner windows. Open Call itself is UK/Ireland residents only; the blog and Inside Scoop webinar are public craft.

Portal

Archive · United Kingdom

BFI Reuben Library

BFI Southbank, London

Free to everyone. Books, journals, digitised material, and a searchable database of films, TV, images, scripts, and journals. Scan-on-demand for remote readers. The largest public film-and-TV library desk in the UK.

Portal

Funding · United Kingdom

BFI NETWORK

England, nations and regions

Regional short-film and talent schemes. England Short Film Fund last closed 18 March 2026, 11:00; next round listed for spring 2027. Eligibility is almost always address-based. Read the hub that covers your postcode.

Portal

Archive · Europe

Gallica (BnF)

Paris / online

The Bibliothèque nationale de France's digital library: books, press, manuscripts, maps, sound. Free. Use it to watch how French sentences were revised, not as a dump of plots.

Portal

Archive · Europe

INA — Institut national de l'audiovisuel

France / online

France's public audiovisual memory. Tens of thousands of hours on the public site; deeper access via Ina Médiaspro. Dialogue, newsreel, and teleplay as they actually went out — a different school from coverage notes.

Portal

Funding · Europe

CNC — soutien au scénario

France

Selective grants for writing and rewriting French feature screenplays. Sessions are dated; always take the calendar from the CNC page, not from last year's PDF. French-language, French-eligible projects.

Portal

Archive · United Kingdom

British Library

London / Boston Spa

Manuscripts, sound, newspapers, and a legal-deposit collection. Reader pass required on site. The place to see how a published page used to look in draft.

Portal

Rights · United Kingdom

Society of Authors

Contract vetting, model agreements, and campaigning for UK authors. Membership organisation — the public guides on copyright and money are still the first briefing before you sign.

Portal

Rights · United Kingdom

ALCS

Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society. Secondary royalties from copying, retransmission, and educational use. Register the work even if a publisher 'handles it'.

Portal

Rights · United Kingdom

Writers' Guild of Great Britain

Agreements for film, TV, radio, theatre, games, and books. Minimum terms are the floor, not a suggestion. Credits and residual logic live here, not in a US WGA PDF.

Portal

Funding · Asia-Pacific

Screen Australia — Narrative Content Development

Australia

Always-open development (guidelines refreshed 2 July 2026). A$10,000–$50,000 per application via SmartyGrants. Australian projects and applicants. Documentary Development is a separate, also-open stream up to $30,000.

Portal

Archive · Asia-Pacific

Trove (National Library of Australia)

Australia / online

Newspapers, books, images, and archived websites. Free. Useful when a period Australian or Pacific voice has to be heard rather than invented.

Portal

Funding · Canada

Telefilm Canada — Development Program

Canada

Feature development through Prequalified, General, Indigenous, and Black / People of Colour streams. Canadian companies, Dialogue portal. Talent to Watch (first feature production) is a separate, usually April, window.

Portal

Funding · Canada

Canada Council for the Arts

Canada

Literary and arts grants for Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Read the Explore and Create family; nationality is the gate, not taste.

Portal

Funding · Asia-Pacific

KOFIC

South Korea

Korean Film Council: industry news, support programmes, and English-language updates on mid-budget and international policy. The map of how Korean production currently thinks.

Portal

Archive · Europe

Europeana

Europe / online

Aggregated cultural heritage from European libraries, archives, and museums. Images, texts, and AV with clear rights labels — check the licence on each item before you reuse.

Portal

Rights · Europe

PEN International

Worldwide

Centres, cases, and a charter on the freedom to write. Not a grant desk. The public case files are a briefing on what it costs, in some countries, to put a sentence on a page.

Portal

Scripts · United States

The Black List

Online

Hosted scripts, paid reads, and the annual survey of unproduced screenplays. Also a portal for Nicholl in season. A marketplace, not a school — still the widest public shelf of contemporary specs.

Portal

Craft · United States

Poets & Writers

Online / US

Grants and awards database, small-press map, and MFA coverage. US-centric, but the tools page is still the fastest public index of literary money.

Portal

Funding · Latin America

IMCINE

Mexico

Mexican Institute of Cinematography: public funds, calls, and industry data. Spanish. The CCC and the national film school sit in the same public film ecology.

Portal

Funding · Asia-Pacific

NFDC / Film Facilitation

India

National Film Development Corporation. Co-production, facilitation, and public film infrastructure beside FTII and SRFTI. Check live calls on the site; they are not on a US academic calendar.

Portal

Rights · Canada

Writers Guild of Canada

Canada

IPA minimums, credits, and Canadian series practice. If you are writing for a Canadian producer, this agreement — not the WGA MBA — is the floor.

Portal