away in a wave of emotion. "I had just gotten
home from work," Stahl recalls. "I was still
holding my briefcase, my handbag, my coat
and everything. Greg said, `Well, the commit-
tee met this morning and I want to congratu-
late you because you're a fellow.' All of a
sudden, I was taken out of my body. I couldn't
feel anything. I was trying to keep talking to
Greg and these big tears just started pouring
down my cheeks. It meant a huge amount."
long series of dinners, lunches and seminars
designed to welcome the new writers into the
Nicholl fold and introduce them to members
crazy emotional roller coaster," Cretton recalls.
Some seminars were inspiring, while others
were "a needed dose of reality about what a
ridiculous game this business can be."
that seems to reward mostly dramas. As
Krueger pointed out in his Nicholl awards din-
ner speech, "If drama is dead, then explain the
success of The Town!" Beal feels the statement
was more of a nudge to suggest to the writers
that they branch out into other genres. "That
doesn't mean that a drama can't function as a
writing sample," he says, "which is what most
scripts by new writers become."
lows are introduced by prominent members of
the Nicholl committee, an event that Stahl
said was "like nothing I had ever experienced
in my life and probably will not again." This
year's event was extra special given that it was
the 25
Story 3) delivered an inspiring keynote address
to the crowd.
Arndt's rejection letter saying, "Some really
liked it," with the word "really" underlined
three times. And though he didn't win the
coveted title of Nicholl Fellow, Arndt saved
up $25,000 on his own (an amount equal to
a fellowship at that time) and took a year off
to write a few scripts, one of which was Sun-
shine, for which he won an Oscar. Arndt
thanked Beal at the dinner and stated that,
"Those four words have kept me going over
the last 10 years."
http://www.oscar.org for official rules and
information on the 2011 Nicholl Fellowships.
includes $2500 cash and a 12
-month Fellowship working with two
Hollywood mentors
prizes
prizes
exclusive CineStory Writers Retreat where they work one-on-
one with Hollywood pros.
including key creatives behind films such as COWBOYS AND
ALIENS, CHILDREN OF MEN, IRON MAN, FIREWALL,
FINDING NEVERLAND, EVENT HORIZON, FRACTURE,
MAD MONEY, THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS
and many others.
first invited to compete in the Nicholl,
hundreds have entered (482 in 2010
alone) and from 2003-2009, at least one
fellowship per year was awarded to a
writing team, with two teams being de-
clared winners in the 2007 competition.
except where writers are adapting their
own work, be it a novel, stage play,
short story or short script. Destin
Daniel Cretton won in 2010 for the
adaptation of his Sundance short film
winner, Short Term 12. Why aren't
adaptations allowed? Simply put, the
goal of the program is to identify new
screenwriting talent, not a writer's abil-
ity to adapt another artist's work.