The Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting is a fellowship program founded in 1986 to aid screenwriters. It is administered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Gee Nicholl, widow of producer Don Nicholl, worked with Julian Blaustein in 1985 to develop the program with the Academy. The original 1986 winners were Allison Anders, Dennis Clontz, and Jeff Eugenides. 1989 fellow Radha Bharadwaj wrote the first screenplay made into a film, the 1991 drama Closet Land . Clontz won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and Eugenides won one in 2003. 1992 fellow Susannah Grant was the first nominated for an Academy Award, for the screenplay for Erin Brockovich . The fellowship celebrated its 25th year in 2010. [1]
Beginning in 2013, a reading of scenes from winning screenplays have been performed by professional actors in front of an audience. In 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the reading was conducted virtually. Actors that have participated in these readings over the years include: Kathy Baker, Elle Fanning, Ken Jeong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Freida Pinto, Alia Shawkat, Wes Studi, Blair Underwood, Vince Vaughn, and Anton Yelchin.
As of the 2013 contest, 17 winning scripts have later been produced. [2]
2022 Nicholl Fellows [3]
2021 Nicholl Fellows [4]
2020 Nicholl Fellows [5]
2019 Nicholl Fellows [6]
2018 Nicholl Fellows [7]
2017 Nicholl Fellows [9]
2016 Nicholl Fellows [10]
2015 Nicholl Fellows
2014 Nicholl Fellows [11]
2013 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2012 Nicholl Fellows [12] [13]
2011 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2010 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2009 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2008 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2007 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2006 Nicholl Fellows [12] [14]
2005 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2004 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2003 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2002 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2001 Nicholl Fellows [12]
2000 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1999 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1998 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1997 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1996 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1995 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1994 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1993 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1992 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1991 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1990 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1989 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1988 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1987 Nicholl Fellows [12]
1986 Nicholl Fellows [12]
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American author. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: The Virgin Suicides (1993), Middlesex (2002), and The Marriage Plot (2011). The Virgin Suicides served as the basis of the 1999 film of the same name, while Middlesex received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in addition to being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and France's Prix Médicis.
Doug Atchison is an American motion picture director and screenwriter. He received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship for the screenplay for Akeelah and the Bee, which Atchison directed as a film in 2006.
Raymond De Felitta is an American independent film director, screenwriter, musician, blogger and podcaster.
Susannah Grant is an American screenwriter, director, and producer.
Seth Michael Donsky is an American filmmaker, producer/screenwriter and former journalist.
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T. J. Lynch is a screenwriter residing in Los Angeles. He was born and raised in Billings, Montana, and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Montana State University in Film & Television Production in 1986. In 1999 he was awarded the highly coveted Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his screenplay The Beginning of Wisdom.
The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study is one of three Los Angeles-area facilities of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located at 1313 Vine Street in central Hollywood. Precisely situated in the heart of Hollywood, the building site is endowed with terrific history of Hollywood. It is the oldest surviving structure in Hollywood that was designed specifically with television in mind. In addition to the 286-seat Linwood Dunn Theater, where numerous public events are presented throughout the year, the building houses several Academy departments, including the Academy Film Archive, the Science and Technology Council, and the Grants and Nicholl Fellowship programs.
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Radha Bharadwaj is an Indian-born American filmmaker, film producer and screenwriter based in Los Angeles.
Donald Nicholl was an English screenwriter and producer who later worked in the United States.
Mark Axelrod is an American writer and academic, who is a professor of Comparative Literature in Chapman University's Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences. For twenty-five years he has been the Director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing, which has received five National Endowment for the Arts Grants.
Valerie Brandy is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She is best known for her recurring role as Trixie on FX's Justified, and for her performance as Lola in the feature film Lola's Last Letter, which she also wrote and directed. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood as a competition feature at Dances with Films Festival, and earned Brandy a Best Principal Actress Nomination from the Los Angeles Film Review.
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay.
Toy Styles, pen names T. Styles, Reign and Mikal Malone, is an American author, screenwriter and film producer of urban fiction.
Matt Harris is an American screenwriter and television producer.
Steve Anderson is an American writer, freelance editor and translator of German fiction. He is best known for his novels The Kaspar Brothers.
Four individuals and one writing team have been selected as winners of the 2022 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Each individual and writing team will receive a $35,000 prize and mentorship from an Academy member throughout their fellowship year. They also will be featured at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Live Read on November 9 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where an ensemble of actors will read selected scenes from the winning scripts. The Nicholl Fellowships was established in 1985 through the support of Gee Nicholl in memory of her husband Don Nicholl.