The Portal Arts and Screen Scotland have announced the first cohort for First Draft, a new year-long programme supporting new and emerging screenwriters based across Scotland. First Draft forms part of Screen Scotland’s Talent Builder programme announced earlier this year.
The screenwriters selected are Alia Ghafar, Dawn Sievewright, Jason Bradbury, Lillian Salvatore, and co-writers Fin Cramb and Sean Watson. Beginning this month and running until November 2026, the screenwriters will work under the support and guidance of Development Executive, Lizzie Gray as they take their feature film scripts from early outline through to a polished first draft.
The chosen writers represent distinctive Scottish voices across comedy drama, horror, psychological mystery and intimate character-led storytelling. This inaugural round of First Draft received almost 200 applications from across the country. The breadth, ambition and creativity of submissions making the final selection is exceptionally competitive.
First Draft is a national feature film screenwriting development programme delivered by The Portal Arts in partnership with Screen Scotland as part of its Talent Builder programme. Over 12 months, participating writers will receive paid script development, editorial guidance, masterclasses, industry support and mentoring designed to strengthen their craft and progress their feature screenplays.
The First Draft programme is supported by Screen Scotland and delivered by Moya Crowley, Creative Director, and Helen Sim-Robertson, Programme Producer, at The Portal Arts.
Kieran Hannigan, Head of Scripted at Screen Scotland said: “First Draft is a key part of Screen Scotland’s Talent Builder programme and this first cohort includes an incredibly exciting line-up of compelling films from new voices from across Scotland. The team at Portal Arts are putting in place a strong programme to guide these projects and the writers achieve their potential, including the invaluable opportunity for them to have the dedicated support of such a brilliant script exec in Lizzie Gray. It will be great to see these scripts take shape over the coming weeks and months.”
Lizzie Gray, First Draft Development Exec said: “I am thrilled to be involved in this first year of First Draft with The Portal Arts and Screen Scotland. The standard and variety of applications was an honour and pleasure to read. It is an incredibly exciting journey to be part of, and I am delighted to begin working with this year’s selected cohort.”
More information
Image credits
First image (l-r): Alia Ghafar, Dawn Sievewright, Jason Bradbury
Second image (l-r): Lillian Salvatore, Fin Cramb and Sean Watson