ICAA opens its 2026 feature film screenwriting grants

The ICAA, Spain’s Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, has officially published its new call for feature film screenwriting grants for 2026, one of the most important lines of support for screenwriters developing a fiction or documentary project.

The call offers grants of up to €30,000 for fiction scripts and up to €20,000 for documentaries. In total, this year’s budget is €4 million, less than in the previous call, which is likely to make competition especially tough again.

The grants are aimed at adults legally resident in Spain, and co-written projects are also allowed, with a maximum of two people per project.

Applications are open from 3 to 23 July 2026, until 14:00 (CEST).

Among the most important points in the rules, each applicant can only submit one project and the script must be unpublished. The ICAA also states explicitly that projects developed with generative AI tools will not be accepted.

The call keeps several measures to encourage diversity. At least 45% of the funding is reserved for projects written exclusively by women, while at least 25% will go to projects written in Spain’s co-official languages other than Spanish.

Beyond the figures, grants like these remain one of the few real opportunities for many writers to devote time and stability to developing a story.

In an industry where many projects are written alongside other jobs, getting a few months to focus solely on writing can make a huge difference.