Winners announced for Academy’s Nicholl Fellowships

Oct 03, 2014 by Ian Evans

The Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that three individual writers and one writing team have won the 2014 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. Each individual winner and the combined writing team will receive a $35,000 prize, the first installment of which will be distributed at an awards presentation on Thursday, November 13, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. For the second consecutive year, the event will also feature a live read of selected scenes from the fellows’ winning scripts by members of the Academy.

This year’s winners are (listed alphabetically by author):

  • Sam Baron, Cambridge, United Kingdom, The Science of Love and Laughter
  • Alisha Brophy, Los Angeles, CA, and Scott Miles, Austin, TX, United States of Fuckin’ Awesome
  • Melissa Iqbal, London, United Kingdom, The Death Engine
  • Sallie West, Charleston, SC, Moonflower

A record 7,511 scripts were submitted for this year’s competition. Eight individual screenwriters and two writing teams were chosen as finalists. Their scripts were then read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, who ultimately chose the winners.

This year’s finalists were (listed alphabetically by author):

  • Sam Baron, Cambridge, United Kingdom, The Science of Love and Laughter
  • Alisha Brophy, Los Angeles, CA, and Scott Miles, Austin, TX, United States of Fuckin’ Awesome
  • Robert D. Cain, Los Angeles, CA, Gagarin
  • Josh Golden, Los Angeles, CA, Road to Oz
  • Melissa Iqbal, London, United Kingdom, The Death Engine
  • Ben Jacoby, New York, NY, Earthwalkers
  • Duncan Samarasinghe, Dandenong, Australia, The Caretaker
  • Ryan Trevino, Seal Beach, CA, and Robert Wolfe Dunn, Los Angeles, CA, Arcadia
  • Mike Van Waes, West Hollywood, CA, Grave Hearts
  • Sallie West, Charleston, SC, Moonflower

Tickets to the 2014 Academy Nicholl Fellowships Screenwriting Awards Presentation & Live Read are now available at Oscars.org/Nicholl. Casting for the live read will be announced at a later date.