Slamdance Names Screenplay Competition Winners for 2026 — Read the Full List

A stranger hiding inside the walls is just the beginning of the trouble in this year’s Slamdance screenplay competition grand prize winner. IndieWire can exclusively announce that James Oxyer’s “Termite” has earned the contest’s top accolade, with a story about a lonely teenager whose unexpected houseguest sets the stage for an increasingly fraught drama.

AGBO hosted the 2026 winners at an awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday night. That’s the independent studio founded by “Avengers: Endgame” directors Anthony and Joe Russo. AGBO chief creative officer Angela Russo-Otstot welcomed the honorees and presented the night’s biggest award, worth $10,000.

Now in its 29th year, Slamdance’s annual screenplay competition received nearly 5,000 submissions from around the world in 2026. This year’s contest recognized emerging writers across feature scripts, a dedicated horror/thriller race, TV pilots, short films, and a special screenplay mentorship category, giving out more than $18,000 in prizes. To date, the awards program reports it has distributed more than $450,000 to emerging filmmakers.

“Termite,” which also won first place in the horror/thriller competition, follows a teenager who discovers a homeless man has taken refuge in the walls of his family home. The kid lets him stay, but their bond comes with a sharp shift in the balance of power.

“’Termite’ kept us on the edge of our seats, in a way that was unmatched to any script that we read this year,” said Anna Lee Lawson, screenplay competition and festival manager, in a press release sent to IndieWire. “’Oxyer’ was inspired to write the script after he was pushed to a physical and mental breakdown to make it onto a sports team and created this thriller that embodied the rush of chasing the masculine ideal.”

Meanwhile, first place in feature went to Wes Andre Goodrich’s “Citizens.” The script follows a burned-out social studies teacher at a failing high school who must decide whether to protect a troublesome student from immigration officers or let him be taken into custody. As part of its winning package, “Citizens” will receive script coverage from Sony Pictures Classics.

Category winners receive $2,000 each, and all 12 scripts that placed in the four ranked contests will also receive legal services from Pessah Law Group, Slamdance’s official sponsor and festival legal counsel. They’ll also get one-year memberships to the industry social media platform Roadmap Writers.

Finally, Aisha Amin received the 2026 Slamdance Screenplay Stowe Fellowship, the mentorship award, for “The Redeemer.” Its story follows a grieving widow and a struggling young mom whose unlikely connection changes after a disturbing request blurs the line between closeness and control. The fellowship covers the full fee and associated benefits for attending the Stowe Story Labs Narrative Lab in Vermont. Jake Allgeier’s “Ravenous” received an honorable mention.

Read on for the complete list of the 2026 Slamdance screenplay competition winners.

Grand Prize Winner

“Termite” by James Oxyer

Stowe Fellowship/Mentorship Winner

“The Redeemer” by Aisha Amin

Honorable mention: “Ravenous” by Jake Allgeier

Best Feature

1st place: “Citizens” by Wes Andre Goodrich

2nd place: “They All Died Happy” by W. Alex Reeves

3rd place: “Participation Award” by Zane Bhansali

Best Horror/Thriller

1st place: “Termite” by James Oxyer

2nd place: “Bah Humbug” by Jo Garrett

3rd place: “Aeternum” by Jennifer Levinson, Nicholas Woods, and Almog Avidan Antonir

Best Pilot

1st place: “The Wild Life of Archer Dagwood” by Madeline Brestal

2nd place: “Alfie and Friends” by Kat Folker

3rd place: “Do I Know You From Somewhere?” by Angela Wong Carbone

Best Short

1st place: “The Ashtray” by Robert Pierosh

2nd place: “YOYO” by Hongyu An and Hadley Rose

3rd place: “Subscribe” by Christopher Glass