By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Nantucket Gives Its 2016 Screenwriters Tribute To Oliver Stone

 NEW YORK, NY (March 29, 2016) — The Nantucket Film Festival announced today that acclaimed Academy Award®-winning screenwriter and director Oliver Stone will be honored with the 2016 Screenwriters Tribute Award. The award will celebrate Stone’s extraordinary career, whose achievements span both fiction and documentary features, as well as television. The 2016 Screenwriters Tribute will take place on Saturday, June 25. The 21st annual festival will run from June 22 to 27 in Nantucket, MA.

The Screenwriters Tribute is the crown jewel of the festival, and recognizes and raises the visibility of outstanding screenwriters in the entertainment industry. Previous awardees include luminaries such as Aaron Sorkin, David O. Russell, Judd Apatow, Nancy Meyers and Barry Levinson.

Comedian and writer Seth Meyers, host of the NBC late-night talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers will host the event.  Meyers was formerly a head writer for Saturday Night Live and also hosted the show’s news parody segment Weekend Update.  In addition, he hosted the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2014 and is also the co-creator, co-writer and executive producer behind the IFC mockumentary TV series Documentary Now!.

Stone is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer. With a career spanning over 40 years he has written and directed over 20 full-length feature films, including some of the most influential and iconic films of the last decades. Some of his works include PLATOON, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, JFK, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, NIXON, WALL STREET, WORLD TRADE CENTER, ANY GIVENSUNDAY, and W. In 1986 Stone won the Academy Award for Best Director for PLATOON and again in 1989 for BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.

 

Stone has also written screenplays for films including MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (for which he won his first Academy Award), SCARFACE, and CONAN THE BARBARIAN. In addition, he has produced or co-produced a dozen films including THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, THE JOY LUCK CLUB, and REVERSAL OF FORTUNE.

 

Stone’s upcoming film SNOWDEN, which he co-wrote and directed, will be released in Fall 2016 and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Scott Eastwood, and Melissa Leo.

 

Born in New York City, he served in the U.S. Army Infantry in Vietnam in 1967-68, and was decorated with the Bronze Star for Valor. He is a graduate of the New York University Film School.
“Oliver Stone has brought some of the most thought-provoking, illuminating and iconic cinema to audiences over the years. The vastness of his body of written work can be seen in both breadth and depth. Very few screenwriters have consistently reached as high or have taken as many chances in screenplay after screenplay. For us, that is what makes him an exciting filmmaker. We are honored to present him with the 2016 Screenwriters Tribute Award, and could not be more thrilled to have him as a part of our festival,” said Mystelle Brabbée, Executive Director of the Nantucket Film Festival.

 

The Nantucket Film Festival will feature over 100 screenings, signature programs, and events, including In Their Shoes…®, Late Night Storytelling, and the daily Morning Coffee With… series. Stone will discuss his work during In Their Shoes…, a conversation with moderated by award-winning documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (WHY WE FIGHT, FREAKONOMICS).

 

Further 2016 awardees and additional information for the festival will be announced in the coming weeks. The 21st annual Nantucket Film Festival runs from June 2227, 2016. Passes are currently on sale on the NFF website (www.nantucketfilmfestival.org).

 

ABOUT THE NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL
The Nantucket Film Festival was founded by brother and sister team Jonathan and Jill Burkhart in 1996 to promote the cultural awareness and appreciation of the fine art of screenwriting in the world of cinema. These days, NFF has become one of the premier destination film festivals in the world. Visitors come from all over to experience the preview screenings, unique signature programs, and stand out hospitality on a magical island rich with history, a friendly atmosphere, and beautiful sandy beaches. In addition to screening over 75 films across six days, NFF presents the Screenwriters Tribute, In Their Shoes… hosted by Chris Matthews, Late Night Storytelling, and our daily Morning Coffee With… series.

 

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

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So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

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