Elise Lappin

The Academy Honors Up-and-Coming Screenwriters at Inspirational Ceremony

by Elise Lappin

On the evening of Thursday, November 7th, at the regal Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences held their twenty-eighth annual Nicholl Fellowships Screenwriting Awards.

The inspirational awards ceremony recognized six up-and-coming screenwriters from a record-breaking sea of 7,251 submissions this year.

Additionally, for the first time in Nicholl history, professional actors participated in a live reading of selected scenes from the winning scripts.

Anton Yelchin (the Star Trek films), Elle Fanning (Super 8), Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter), and Oscar-nominee Taraji Henson (Hustle & Flow) brought the five winning scripts to life.

Legion (written by Frank DeJohn & David Alton Hedges) is an action-packed war film set in the dying days of the Holy Roman Empire.

Joe Banks (written by Patty Jones) is a coming-of-age tale about a young writer who learns that his father is not the esteemed-novelist he thought, but a drunk, airport-paperback novelist named Joe Banks.

Queen of Hearts (written by Stephanie Shannon) is the historical-fiction tale of author Lewis Carroll's affair with the wife of the Oxford dean and the inspiration he draws from her daughter, Alice.

Jersey City Tale (written by Alan Roth) illustrates a man's journey from, and return to, his painful childhood home.

And Sugar in My Veins (written by Barbara Stepansky) is the taboo love story of a 14-year-old violin prodigy and a lighting designer twice her age.

Each fellow received $35,000 to support them during a year of writing while they work on their next feature-length screenplay. The Nicholl Fellowship was established in 1986 by Gee and Julian Nicholl with the vision of identifying talented, undiscovered storytellers. The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee is composed of thirteen industry professionals and chaired by producer Gale Ann Hurd (The Walking Dead).

"The Academy Nicholl Fellowship has a personal significance for me dating back to 1975, my junior year in college, when I was lucky enough to have the uber-talented producer, the late Julian Blaustein, to be my advisor," Hurd told the ceremony attendees.

Blaustein went on to found the Nicholl Fellowship with benefactor Gee Nicholl in 1985.

Notable Nicholl Fellows include Mike Rich (Finding Forrester), Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road), Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging), Victoria Arch (Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights), Jeffrey Eugenides (The Virgin Suicides), Oscar-winner Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich), and Jodi Ann Johnson (Mulan).

For more information, see www.oscars.org

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