Humanitas has started its call for submissions for three of its key honors: the 2024 Humanitas Prizes, the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards. The Humanitas Prizes are awarded to film and television writers, while the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship is a six-month mentorship program for emerging TV and screen writers and the Humanitas College Screenwriting Awards recognize student screenwriters, currently enrolled in a college or university program. In all three cases, the honors are meant to recognize writers “whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way.”
The final deadline for submissions to the Humanitas Prizes is April 1, while the deadline for submissions to the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards is April 15. (Additional details about early and regular deadlines are available online.) The Humanitas Prizes will be presented in September, with more details to come. Winners receive a trophy and a cash prize.
“The new year brings new possibilities for writers exploring the human experience across film and television,” Humanitas executive director Michelle Franke said in a statement. Franke noted that studios, networks and production companies’ awards teams can submit to the Humanitas Prize, but individual writers can also submit their own work.
“Humanitas is emerging from 2023 with a more expansive vision of how an organization like ours might ‘empower’ writers in our community,” she said. “We’ll spend 2024 working to connect writers to programs, conversations, and resources that impact their lives in measurable ways.”
Recent Humanitas Prize winners include “Pachinko,” “When They See Us,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Last of Us,” “Black-ish,” “Encanto,” “A Small Light,” “Women of the Movement,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and more.
As for the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship, the program selects five writers each year who are currently working on a TV pilot or feature film screenplay. The program has seen 68 participants since 2010 move on to jobs as staff writers, directors, producers and other endeavors. Partners for this year’s program include The Black List, Coverfly Pitchweek, Final Draft, MasterClass, Michael Wiese Productions, NFMLA (NewFilmmakers LA), UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and WriterDuet. More details can be found here.
(Above: Winners of the 2023 Humanitas New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards on stage at the 2023 Humanitas Prizes event; Luis Antonio Aldana, Jordan Guingao, Max Asayesh-Brown, Miguel Angel Caballero, Terron Jones, Julia Weisberg Cortés, Emma Fiske-Dobell and Lara Palmqvist.)
As for the Humanitas College Screenwriting Awards, the org hands out two prizes annually to recognize excellent student screen and television writing: The David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award and The Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award. The two student-writers each receive a trophy at the annual Humanitas Prize event in September, as well as $20,000, a professional notes session with a writer in the Humanitas community and a package of benefits from program partners The Black List, Final Draft, MasterClass, Michael Wiese Productions, WriterDuet, and NFMLA. Information can be found here.
“We’re also looking forward to welcoming a new cohort of New Voices Fellows and College Screenwriting Awardees,” said Franke. “Working with early career writers is a highlight of our year. Both programs are expanding in 2024 and feature an exciting list of offerings and partners.”
