Academy Announces 2012 Nicholl Fellowship Finalists

Ten finalists, consisting of nine individual screenwriters and one writing team, have been selected for the 2012 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. Their scripts will now be read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, which may award as many as five of the prestigious $35,000 fellowships.

This year’s finalists are (listed alphabetically by author):

Nikole Beckwith, New York City, NY, “Stockholm, Pennsylvania”
Ryan Belenzon & Jeffrey Gelber, Los Angeles and Sherman Oaks, CA, “X”
RoBert Carter, Red Bank, NJ, “A.W.O.L.”
Sean Robert Daniels, Laezonia, Gauteng, South Africa, “Killers”
James DiLapo, New York City, NY, “Devils at Play”
Allan Durand, Lafayette, LA, “Willie Francis Must Die Again”
Laurel Minter, Seattle, WA, “When Thunder Sleeps”
Bob Roden, Berkeley, CA, “Return of the Dipsticks”
April Rouveyrol, Glendale, CA, “Life Copy”
Michael Werwie, Los Angeles, Calif., “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile”

The finalists were selected from a record 7,197 scripts submitted for this year’s competition. This is the first time an entry from South Africa has advanced to the finals.

The Nicholl competition is open to any individual who has not earned more than $5,000 writing for film or television or received a fellowship prize that includes a “first look” clause, an option, or any other quid pro quo involving the writer’s work. Entry scripts must be feature length and the original work of a sole author or of exactly two collaborative authors. The scripts must have been written originally in English. Adaptations and translated scripts are not eligible.

The recipients of the 2012 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting will be announced later this month. The fellows will be honored on Thursday, November 8, at a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire.

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 producer Gale Anne Hurd and includes writers Naomi Foner, Daniel Petrie, Jr., Tom Rickman and Dana Stevens; actor Eva Marie Saint; cinematographers John Bailey and Steven B. Poster; Costume Designer Vicki Sanchez; executive Bill Mechanic; producers Peter Samuelson and Robert W. Shapiro; marketing executive Buffy Shutt; and agent Ronald R. Mardigian.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, 123 fellowships have been awarded. Among the recent achievements by Nicholl fellows: Destin Daniel Cretton wrote and directed “I Am Not a Hipster,” which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Raymond De Felitta’s documentary “Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story” premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival; Andrew Marlowe created and executive produces the ABC series “Castle”; Rebecca Sonnenshine serves as a writer and story editor on the WB series “The Vampire Diaries”; Jeffrey Eugenides’ third novel, The Marriage Plot, was a 2012 National Book Critics Circle award nominee; Jason Micallef wrote “Butter,” premiering theatrically on October 5; and Jacob Aaron Estes wrote and directed “The Details,” premiering theatrically on November 2.

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