By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Academy Names Five Nicholl Screenwriters

ACADEMY REVEALS WINNING NICHOLL SCREENWRITERS

Scripts to be performed at live read in November

LOS ANGELES, CA – Four individuals and one writing team have been selected as winners of the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition.  The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee announced the winners via Livestream today.  The fellows will each receive a $35,000 prize, the first installment of which will be distributed at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards Presentation & Live Read on Thursday, November 3, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.  For the fourth consecutive year, an ensemble of actors will be reading selected scenes from the winning scripts.

The 2016 winners are (listed alphabetically by author):

Michele Atkins, “Talking About the Sky” (Seattle, WA)
Spencer Harvey and Lloyd Harvey, “Photo Booth” (Balgowlah, Australia)
Geeta Malik, “Dinner with Friends” (Los Angeles, CA)
Elizabeth Oyebode, “Tween the Ropes” (Sunnyvale, CA)
Justin Piasecki, “Death of an Ortolan” (Los Angeles, CA)

A total of 6,915 scripts were submitted for this year’s competition.  Eleven individual screenwriters and one writing team were selected for the shortlist.  Their scripts were then read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, who ultimately voted the winners.

The other finalists are (listed alphabetically by author):

Josh Barkey, “Marlene the Divine” (Waxhaw, NC)
Beanie Barnes, “Little Toro” (New York, NY)
Todd Condie, “John Wayne Slept Here” (Brooklyn, NY)
Danielle Ownbey, “The Blast-Off Inn” (Glendale, CA)
Michael Toner, “Hey Jude” (Van Nuys, CA)
Arun K. Vir, “Suburban Turban” (Los Angeles, CA)
Kirk Weddell, “Alone” (Wimbledon, England)

Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year.  The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee is chaired by writer Robin Swicord, and marketing executive Buffy Shutt serves as vice chair.  The other members of the committee are writers Tina Gordon Chism, Naomi Foner, Eric Roth, Misan Sagay, Kirsten Smith and Tyger Williams; actor Eva Marie Saint; animation director Jennifer Yuh Nelson; cinematographer John Bailey; executives Marcus Hu and Bill Mechanic; and producers Stephanie Allain, Albert Berger, Julia Chasman, Julie Lynn, Peter Samuelson and Robert W. Shapiro.

The global competition, which aims to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters, has awarded 147 fellowships since it began in 1986.  In 2016 several past fellows added to their feature film and television credits:

  • Allison Anders directed two episodes of the ABC series “Murder in the First.”
  • Raymond De Felitta directed the ABC miniseries “Madoff,” which aired in February.
  • Amy Garcia and Cecilia Contreras wrote “Dear Eleanor,” which opened on VOD in July.
  • Susannah Grant co-wrote “The 5th Wave,” which opened theatrically in January, and wrote “Confirmation,” which aired on HBO in April.
  • Anthony Jaswinski wrote “The Shallows” and “Satanic,” which opened in theaters this summer.
  • Creighton Rothenberger co-wrote “London Has Fallen,” which opened theatrically in March.
  • Rebecca Sonnenshine concluded her five-season association with “The Vampire Diaries” as a supervising producer and writer.

Tickets for the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards Presentation & Live Read are now available at Oscars.org/Events.  Casting for the live read will be announced at a later date.

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ABOUT THE ACADEMY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a global community of more than 7,000 of the most accomplished artists, filmmakers and executives working in film.  In addition to celebrating and recognizing excellence in filmmaking through the Oscars, the Academy supports a wide range of initiatives to promote the art and science of the movies, including public programming, educational outreach and the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which is under construction in Los Angeles.

FOLLOW THE ACADEMY
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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?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

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.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon