male, sparking new life in the story and paving
the way for the feature version of Short Term 12:
the story of a 25-year-old girl who supervises a
teen group home and struggles to care for her
teenage patients while desperately avoiding the
residue of her own dark past.
missed Beal's initial call and when he dialed
the number back to find out who had tried to
contact him, he got the receptionist at the Mo-
tion Picture Academy. "My heart dropped. I
got really nervous and didn't know what to
say." Finally, Cretton realized that he had en-
tered the Nicholl and was transferred to Beal
who gave him the good news.
Cretton remarks. "Even though my short film
won Sundance, I wasn't allowed to allude to
any of that when I submitted my screenplay.
And if a kid growing up in the dirt and living
out in the country in Maui, Hawaii, can win a
fellowship, anybody can."
life. If I hadn't had the kids and the family, I
wouldn't have anything to write because there
wouldn't be any soul there," Krueger explains.
well." The turning
point was when he
tried his hand at writ-
ing a play. After work-
ing on and off for
nearly eight years on
his screenplay, Krueger
decided to try some-
thing new. "I made an
exercise: two charac-
ters, one location, real
time and that's it. Forcing that to work gave
me the creative skill level that I didn't have be-
fore."
and brought a momentum to his writing that
couldn't be denied. "That day with that audi-
ence kind of made everything make sense."
Energized by the success, Krueger rewrote his
script and produced a gem -- And Handled with
a Chain -- the story of a delusional homeless
woman and a young drug dealer who have to
2009 STATS
a total of 22 reads for each finalist
with 5 fellows selected
1989-2009