The 2017 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Finalists Announced

Date: 
Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 09:45

The Academy established the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting in 1986 to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters from around the world. Since the program’s creation, the Academy has awarded 147 fellowships.

This year’s finalists include nine individual screenwriters and one writing team. The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, chaired by writer Robin Swicord, will meet in October to select up to five winners to receive year-long fellowships. A total of 7,102 scripts were submitted.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically):

Vigil Chime (New York, NY)
“Bring Back Girl”

SJ Inwards (Marina del Rey, CA)
“Jellyfish Summer”

Donn Kennedy (Sherman Oaks, CA)
“Roll the Bones”

Max Lance and Jen Bailey (Los Angeles, CA)
“The Queen of Sleaze”

KG Rockmaker (Montclair, NJ)
“Last Days of Winter”

Cesar Vitale (Santos, São Paulo, Brazil)
“The Great Nothing”

Lillian Wang (Moorestown, NJ)
“P.O. Box 1142”

Sharon Walker (Scotland, UK)
“The Cutting Season”

Michael A. Wright (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
“Still Life”

Chris Ryan Yeazel (Playa del Rey, CA)
“The Savage”

The fellowship winners will each receive a $35,000 prize, the first installment of which will be distributed at an awards presentation on Thursday, November 2, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. For the fifth consecutive year, the event will also include a live read of selected scenes from the fellows’ winning scripts.