Aug 14, 2014
Artist Development, SFFILM
The San Francisco Film Society today announced the six finalists for the sixth annual SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant. The $15,000 grant will be awarded to a screenwriter who has been practicing for at least five years and who has previously written a minimum of one feature screenplay. The grant is open to writers residing in the United States whose project expresses both a unique personal perspective and an artistic approach to the subject. Priority is given to writers whose previous short or feature screenplays have successfully been produced into finished films. The finalists were selected from submissions received in response to a nationwide call for entries. The winner will be announced in mid-October.
The SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant, supported by a gift from William R. Hearst III, is a component of the grants program administered through Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s robust filmmaker services department. For more information visit sffs.org/filmmaker360.
“Every great film begins its life on the page, and we are excited to be involved in helping great storytellers work through the screenwriting process,” said Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360. “We love our role in helping to shepherd a film from that moment of inspiration all the way to the screen, and the SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant is a great way for us to become a meaningful partner early in a project’s development. There is an enormous amount of talent in this group of finalists, which makes it a genuine pleasure to engage in the process ahead that will lead us to selecting our winner. We can’t wait to explore these worlds further!”
2014 SFFS / HEARST SCREENWRITING GRANT FINALISTS
A. Sayeeda Clarke and Micah Shaffer – White
It’s another sweltering 120-degree winter day with five more days to Christmas and hot is the only season left. The best protection from the sun remains the naturally occurring melanin in one’s skin. Like many valuable natural resources, in this future it is coveted, extracted, bought, sold and stolen. Bato enters into a race to save his daughter as he is forced to sell the new currency of this world.
Jed Cowley – Let’s Talk About Slavery
Bill is a white dude from Texas. He walks into Harlem and starts apologizing for slavery. He thinks he will be applauded for being open, honest and upfront about race issues. Why can’t Jamund, a black man Bill just met, simply accept his apology?
Rola Nashef – Nadia’s House
Second-generation Lebanese girlfriends, pursuing love, marriage and individuality under the watchful eye of their immigrant community, discover a secret gateway to a freer life at Nadia’s house.
Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet – Hinterland
Mike and Grace Mills have seen enough. Tired of living in a fear-driven, surveillance-state, broken-down version of the America they grew up in, they pack up their family and head into the barren hinterlands of Wyoming to build a new life “off the grid.” But when ATF and FBI agents suspect that the Mills might be domestic terrorists, they realize every trace of the life they left behind could lead to their unraveling.
Tom Putnam – Dark Divide
Dark Divide is the true story of renowned naturalist Dr. Robert Pyle’s month-long trek across the largest undeveloped wilderness in America. Intent on discovering a new species of butterfly, along the way he meets the loggers and environmentalists hotly contesting the unspoiled resource and finds himself confronting first-hand the area’s notorious Bigfoot legends.
Bethany Ashton Wolf – Midnight Juliet
A gothic coming-of-age tale of unrequited love between a beautiful, hauntingly pale girl who will never see the light of day because she has a disease that won’t allow her in the sunlight, and a handsome champion swimmer from the wrong side of town who loses his one chance at a better life after sustaining a serious injury that won’t allow him to ever swim again.
Previous winners of the SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant are Alistair Banks Griffin for Snow the Jones (2013), Maryam Keshavarz and Paolo Marinou-Blanco for The Last Harem (2012), Ian Olds and Paul Felten for The Western Habit (2011), Eric Escobar for Conveyance (2010) and Mora Stephens for Made in the USA (2009).
For more information on the SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant and the other Film Society grant programs, visit sffs.org/filmmaker360.
As with all Film Society grants, in addition to the cash awards, recipients will gain access to numerous benefits through Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s comprehensive and dynamic filmmaker services program. Filmmaker360 is a leader in the field of non-profit support of cinema and offers unparalleled assistance and opportunities designed to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers nationwide. Filmmaker360 oversees one of the largest film grant programs in the country, which disperses nearly $1 million annually to incubate and support innovative and exceptional films at every stage of production. Other elements of Filmmaker360 include project development consultation, FilmHouse residencies, fiscal sponsorship, information resources and a membership program with various discounts and benefits.
Recent Filmmaker360 success stories include Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; Short Term 12, Destin Daniel Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; and Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. For information visit sffs.org/filmmaker360.