ARTEF lines up partners for European screenplay hunt
Main Character will select 12 unproduced feature scripts after an anonymous review process, with winners due at Göteborg in 2027.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
ARTEF’s new hunt for unproduced European feature scripts has its first industry backers, with European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, Storyboard Collective, WIFT Sweden and the European Women’s Audiovisual Network among the organizations attached to the program.
The initiative, called Main Character, was launched this month at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival by ARTEF, the Anti-Racism Think Tank for European Film. Victoria Thomas, an ARTEF Steering Committee member and author of the group’s 2026 report, presented the program at the festival.
Main Character is asking writers across Europe to submit original, unproduced feature fiction screenplays that offer European perspectives ARTEF says are underrepresented on screen. The call is broad: all genres, time periods and settings are eligible.
ARTEF said writers of any age and experience level can apply, as long as they have a draft feature-length screenplay ready to submit.
How the selection works
Twelve projects will be chosen through the initiative and announced at the 2027 Göteborg International Film Festival. ARTEF also plans to publish a report at the festival examining the themes, viewpoints and narrative patterns that appear across the submitted work.
Submissions are open now, with the first round closing on Sept. 21, 2026, according to ARTEF.
The group said every entry will be assessed without the writer’s identity attached. In the first stage, a panel will read loglines and short synopses. A second independent panel will review long synopses. Shortlisted feature scripts will then go to a pan-European jury.
At each point, readers will assess the material without knowing the writer’s name, past credits or production company links, ARTEF said.
Built from ARTEF’s film report
ARTEF developed Main Character from its 2026 Think Tank Report, titled A New Europe Must Emerge: Rethinking Power, People and Pipelines in European Cinema. The report drew on research, think tanks and consultations carried out across the European film value chain during 2025.
According to ARTEF, that report looked at how stories travel through the European film system, from development through the wider industry pipeline.
Speaking at Karlovy Vary, Thomas said ARTEF’s research repeatedly returned to the question of what counts as a European story. She said writers wanted to bring new stories forward, while industry professionals wanted to find new narratives and reach new audiences.
Thomas said Main Character was designed to connect those aims, beginning with an invitation to writers to define their own European narrative.
She also said the anonymous, merit-based process is intended to help new stories be discovered, give the industry access to fresh perspectives and broaden the range of European narratives available to audiences.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.