The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition has received 6,304 entries for 2010, including first-time entries from Azerbaijan, Barbados, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Uganda and Uruguay. The Academy will award up to five fellowships of $30,000 each in November. This year marks the competition’s 25th anniversary.
The Nicholl Fellowships competition is open to screenwriters who have not earned more than $5,000 writing for film or television. 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.
This year, entries have come from all 50 states in the U.S., as well as from Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Uruguay.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, 113 fellowships have been awarded. Several past Nicholl fellows have gone on to successful screenwriting careers, including Oscar®-nominee Susannah Grant (“The Soloist, ” “Charlotte’s Web” “Erin Brockovich”), Doug Atchison (“Akeelah and the Bee”), Mike Rich (“Radio,” “The Rookie,” “Finding Forrester”), Ehren Kruger (“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “The Ring,” “Arlington Road”) and Andrew Marlowe (“Hollow Man,” “Air Force One,” ABC Television’s “Castle”).
Several other Nicholl fellows have had success in the film industry; to read more about them, visit http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/fellows/notable.html.
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.
