Popcorn Writing Award reveals 2025 shortlist

The shortlist for the Popcorn Writing Award has been revealed.

Now in its seventh year, the award celebrates new voices at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Popcorn Group, founded by filmmaker Charlotte Colbert, has once again joined forces with ten Edinburgh theatre venues, and has selected 26 pieces.

Colbert said: “The shortlist this year is exhilarating in its breadth and bravery. These plays interrogate power, challenge societal blind spots, and do so with extraordinary craft and humour. This award has always been about giving writers the space to be unapologetically bold.”

Past winners and finalists have seen their work transfer to major stages and have been commissioned by leading broadcasters. The 2024 Popcorn Writing Award was jointly awarded to VL by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair, and Weather Girl by Brian Watkins, which recently concluded a successful transfer run at Soho Theatre.

All shortlisted writers receive one-to-one meetings with both Popcorn Group and BBC Writers. UK and Irish longlistees are invited to submit work to the BBC Writers portal for consideration in BBC Writers Voices 2026. A committee of diverse industry voices, assembled by the Popcorn Group in consultation with BBC Writers, will be announced shortly.

This committee will be responsible for selecting this year’s finalists and overall winner, with awards presented on Wednesday, 20 August.

This year’s ten partner venues are Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, Summerhall Arts, theSpaceUK, Traverse, Underbelly, Greenside, ZOO Venues and Paradise Green.

The Popcorn Award 2025 shortlisted plays are (in alphabetical order):

Body Count by Issy Knowles, Pleasance

Bog Body by Jen Tucker, Paradise Green

Brainsluts by Dan Bishop, Pleasance

Cara and Kelly Are Best Friends Forever by Mojola Akinyemi, Pleasance

Consumed by Karis Kelly, Traverse

Don’t Tell Dad About Diana by Conor Murray and Hannah Power, Underbelly

Fuselage by Annie Lareau, Pleasance

HOLE! by Jake Brasch and Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, Underbelly

Hot Mess by Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, Pleasance

I Dream in Colour by Jasmine Thien, Underbelly

In the Black by Quaz Degraft, theSpaceUK

In the Land of Eagles by Alexandra Reynolds, Pleasance

JACKIE!!! A New Musical by Max Alexander-Taylor, Nancy Edwards and Joe McNeice, Gilded Balloon

KING by Jo Tan, Summerhall Arts

LEI – LDN by Na-keisha Pebody, Pleasance

Lovett by Lucy Roslyn, Pleasance

MILES. by Oliver Kaderbhai, Summerhall Arts

Ohio: The Bengsons by Shaun and Abigail Bengson, Assembly

Ordinary Decent Criminal by Ed Edwards, Summerhall Arts

PEOPLE WE BURY ALIVE by Anna Krauze, Zoo

r/Conspiracy by Ella Hällgren, Gilded Balloon

Refuse by Lucy McIlgorm, Assembly

Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working by Sadie Pearson, Gilded Balloon

Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak by Victoria Melody, Pleasance

Wanted by Eleanor Higgins, Underbelly

Woman in the Arena by Jen DiGiacomo, Greenside