MA Screenwriting / Application and selection

Year of entry: 2024

How to apply

Advice to applicants

There are only a limited number of places on this highly competitive course each year (15 in 22/23 and 23/24).

Once all places are taken, the programme will be closed. If the programme is closed before your application is assessed, any successful applicants chosen thereafter may be offered deferred entry to September 2025 and/or the opportunity to be retained on a waiting list for September 2024.

How your application is considered

The application cycle

The Programme Director will assess applications in rounds throughout the year at the following points:

  • Stage 1: applications submitted by 26th January
  • Stage 2: applications submitted by 29th March
  • Stage 3: applications submitted by 28th June
  • Stage 4*: waitlist review 30th August to 13th September.

Applications that pass the portfolio assessment by the Programme Director will be invited for online interview, after which a decision to make an offer, reject or waitlist, will be processed within a few weeks of the stage deadline.

Offers must be accepted within one month of the offer being made, or by 30th August for any offers made after 2nd August.

* After 30th August, if places remain (or become) available, waitlisted candidates may be informed of any available places up to 13th September. Candidates can apply during the waitlist review stage and considered alongside any remaining waitlisted applications. If the course is closed, we can make offers for 2025/6 entry.

We will update the website as soon as all places are taken and the course is closed.

Overseas (non-UK) applicants

We accept a range of qualifications from different countries that equate to a UK 2.1. For these and general requirements including English language see entry requirements from your country .

If English is not your first language, please provide us with evidence of:

  • an overall grade 7.0 (with a minimum writing score of 7) in IELTS; or
  • 100+ in the IBT Internet-based TOEFL).

The other language tests we accept can be found here: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/new-approved-english-tests.pdf

Exceptions to needing a language test (if English is NOT your first language) are:

  • if you have successfully completed an academic qualification deemed by UK NARIC as equivalent to at least a UK Bachelors Degree or higher from one of the following countries:

Antigua & Barbuda; Australia; Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Ireland; Jamaica; New Zealand; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; UK; USA.

Portfolio requirements

You must upload the following with your application:

  1. Three original ideas for film(s) or TV drama series (1 or 2 pages long each). Applicants should include the title of film and a logline, where and when the film is set (eg location, contemporary/period), the genre (eg drama/comedy/sci-fi) and what it is about thematically, as well as narrative and notes on character.
  2. One A4 page on why you want to do the MA, including references to films and TV series that have influenced and interested you.
  3. A separate writing sample (approx. 10 pages of screenplay format) to demonstrate that you can write dramatic scenes and dialogue. This writing sample could relate to one of the ideas you are applying with, or to another screenplay, theatre play, TV/radio drama, short film. It should demonstrate your potential and your ability to create characters, lively dialogue and tell a story dramatically.
  4. Your CV/biography.