How to Apply

Review these guidelines before sending your application

Overview

Forecast’s mentorship program and Festival are designed to support audacious thinkers and creators in producing their project ideas with support from experts. We encourage applicants from all disciplines to propose concepts that demonstrate originality and a clear vision. The mentors in the 2026–27 edition are listed here.

Application Deadline: 11:59pm CET on Monday, February 16, 2026. 

To guarantee fair conditions for everyone, we cannot accept any applications that reach us after the deadline.

Applying is only possible via the online application form. 

Make sure that you hold the copyrights to all material submitted. 

Forecast only accepts applications in English. Furthermore, all public events and communication take place in English.

What should the application deliver?

There are no restrictions regarding formats, disciplines, or genres, and no overarching theme. We strongly advise you to reflect on the mentor’s approach to creative production before applying, as well as on the public nature of the Forecast Festival, which requires that you convey your project to an audience.

These elements are essential to your proposal:

  • Your Idea: Clearly define your project idea and express what you want to realize.
  • Mentorship Expectations: Describe what the project could gain from the mentorship, and your expectations of the mentoring process. Please be specific. Do you have a particular issue that you think the mentor could guide you through? What do you want to learn?
  • Participation Format: Sketch the content and format of your participation at the Forecast Festival in July. What is the relation between the format (performance, showcase, talk, workshop, screening, installation, etc.), and what you are seeking to convey?
  • Production: Identify the key materials that you need, as well as production steps.

Forecast aims to facilitate a productive working relationship between a mentee and a mentor, to promote a deep transdisciplinary exchange, and to help extend professional networks.

Forecast is not a grant. Although our nominees and mentees receive an artist fee and production budget, this should not be the main purpose for applying. A fruitful relationship between mentor and mentee is Forecast’s core purpose.

Forecast Timeline

Forecast mentorships unfolds in two phases, each culminating in a public presentation:

Phase 1

February 16, 2026, (11:59pm CET): Deadline for applications

March 23–April 1, 2026: Online interviews

April 15, 2026: Nominees announced (three in each mentorship field)

April to July: Online exchanges between each of the mentors and their three nominees.

July 12-19, 2026: Forecast Festival at Radialsystem, Berlin.
All 18 nominees will be invited to Berlin to workshop and showcase their project proposals, with public presentations taking place July 16-19.

After the Forecast Festival, each mentor will choose one nominee to continue to the next phase of the mentorship process.

Phase 2

August 2026 to March 2027*: One-on-one mentorship.
During these months, the mentor and mentee will convene for a short residency consisting of several days of creative exchanges and in-person mentoring at a hosting institution. The residency culminates in a public premiere of the project.

Outside of the residency, the mentorship will take place online.

*The residency and premiere can take place before March, depending on the hosting partner.

Each project receives a production budget, including an artist fee for participation in the Festival as listed in the Terms and Conditions.

For more information see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).