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HAILEY O’BRIEN OF WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
TO RECEIVE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, EAST FOUNDATION
MICHAEL COLLYER MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP IN SCREENWRITING

- Presented by Michael Winship at WGA Awards in New York -

NEW YORK CITY – Hailey O’Brien has been selected to receive the Writers Guild of America,
East Foundation's (WGAE Foundation) Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting.
The fellowship, which is funded by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation, is awarded
to a student who plans to pursue a career in screenwriting upon completion of his/her
undergraduate course of study. The recipient receives a $10,000 stipend to write an original
screenplay under the mentorship of a prominent screenwriter. Michael Winship, WGAE
President, will present O’Brien with her fellowship at the 64 th annual Writers Guild Awards on
Sunday, February 19, 2012 in New York City at the B.B. King Blues Club.

O’Brien is a senior in Film Studies and Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Wayne State University. Her fellowship project, Losing Grace, is about one woman’s struggle
and search for penance after an accidental drowning of a young neighbor while in her care.

“This is such an incredible opportunity; I cannot begin to express how excited and grateful I am
to be the 2012 recipient of the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting. I am
looking forward to attending the WGAE Awards and meeting the Collyer family as well as others
who have made this fellowship possible. I am so thankful for this opportunity that they have
provided me with. I would also like to thank Joel Silvers for nominating me for this award. It was
his insight and passion for screenwriting that fueled my own desire to make words and film
matter,” said Fellowship recipient Hailey O’Brien.

Marshall Brickman, Chair of the Collyer Fellowship Selection Committee, reflected on the wealth
of talent nominated for the 2012 Collyer Fellowship. “The job of the judges was especially
difficult this year, as all the Collyer submissions displayed impressive talent. With such a strong
field of applicants, we awarded the laurel to Hailey, whose story emphasizes material which is
character driven and personal. Her ability to convey emotion, her dialogue and construction, and
her skill in handling such challenging subject matter in a believable and compelling manner
moved us all.”

Diana King, chairwoman and president of the King Family Foundation, said, "We are deeply
gratified to have developed the Michael Collyer Fellowship in collaboration with the WGAE
Foundation and are thankful for their excellent stewardship. We are proud to support this
awards program in memory of our former board member, Michael Collyer. Michael was a
leading entertainment attorney and a champion of talented writers in all media. He would be
thrilled to see the development support provided by this program reaching an evergrowing
number of Collyer Fellows."

Eight universities and colleges participated in this year's Collyer Fellowship nominating
process. They are: Binghamton University, Boston University, Buffalo State College, Columbia
College-Chicago, Georgia State University, University of Miami, New York University, and
Wayne State University.

The first Collyer Fellowship was awarded in 2009. Recipient Sara Van Acker of New York
University completed her script under the mentorship of Marshall Brickman, which was named a
2011 semifinalist for the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Marshall Brickman also mentored
2010 recipient Antal Zambo of Wayne State University. Richard LaGravenese mentored 2011
recipient James DiLapo of New York University. Both Antal Zambo and James DiLapo are
continuing to work on their scripts with their respective mentors.

The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation was established in 1988 to support educational
excellence and professional development in the film, television and related media fields, and
has provided scholarships to hundreds of outstanding U.S. undergraduate students in these
disciplines. For more information on the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship, contact WGAE
Foundation Program Coordinator Jenna Jackson, (212)767-7843, jjackson@wgaeast.org.

Collyer Fellow Sara Van Acker moved to Semi-final round of the 2011 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting

Our 2009 Collyer Fellow, Sarah Van Acker, continued her success with her screenplay, Bloodlust, by becoming a semi-finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bloodlust, about the fearsome female pirate Anne Bonny, was Sarah’s Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship script, developed under the guidance of Marshall Brickman.

Sara explains the origins of Bloodlust: "[A few] years ago during lunch with a couple of writers, somebody in the group started listing “out-of-the-box” pairings for screenplay ideas: Werewolves and Abe Lincoln, Children Arms Dealers and Female Pirates. While the rest of the table discussed kindergartners swapping Uzis, I fixated on the idea of female pirates."

Sarah Van Acker graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2009 and was awarded the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship the same year. Bloodlust won first place in the 2010 Bahamas International Film Festival’s Filmmakers’ Residency Program. Of 6,730 scripts entered for the Nicholl Fellowship, 351 were chosen to go to the Quarterfinals and Bloodlust was one of 120 selected to proceed to the semi-final round of judging.

The Nicholl Fellowship, founded in 1985, awards up to five $30,000 fellowships to talented writers each year.

Fellowship recipients were announced in October along with the listing of the quarter and semi-finalists. We wish Sarah much luck and continued success!

JAMES DILAPO OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
TO RECEIVE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, EAST FOUNDATION
MICHAEL COLLYER MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP IN SCREENWRITING

- Presented by Marshall Brickman and Jenny Lumet at WGA Awards in New York -

NEW YORK CITY - James DiLapo has been selected to receive the Writers Guild of America, East Foundation's (WGAE Foundation) Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting. The fellowship, which is funded by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation, is awarded to a student who plans to pursue a career in screenwriting upon completion of his/her undergraduate course of study. The recipient receives a $10,000 stipend to write an original screenplay under the mentorship of a prominent screenwriter. Marshall Brickman and Jenny Lumet will present DiLapo with his fellowship at the 63rd annual Writers Guild Awards on Saturday, February 5, 2011 in New York City at the AXA Equitable Center.

DiLapo is a senior in the Department of Dramatic Writing, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. His fellowship project, Devils at Play, is about a Soviet detective and enforcer of Stalin's Great Terror who finds his life destroyed after he is accused of treason. Marshall Brickman, Chair of the Collyer Fellowship Selection Committee, reflected on the wealth of talent nominated for the 2011 Collyer Fellowship. “Once again, it was difficult to decide on our recipient, as all of our candidates had much to recommend them. After much discussion and (friendly) gnashing of teeth, we awarded the laurel to James, who impressed us with his versatility and whose project was timely, involving and well-structured. James is a big talent and, along with my colleagues on the committee, I look forward to his involvement with our mentoring program and to his future work and accomplishments.”

Diana King, chairwoman and president of the King Family Foundation, said "We are deeply gratified to have developed the Michael Collyer Fellowship in collaboration with the WGAE Foundation and are thankful for their excellent stewardship. We are proud to support this awards program in memory of our former board member, Michael Collyer. Michael was a leading entertainment attorney and a champion of talented writers in all media. He would be thrilled to see the development support provided by this program reaching an ever-growing number of Collyer Fellows."

Nine universities and colleges participated in this year's Collyer Fellowship nominating process. They are: Boston University, Binghamton University, Columbia College, Chicago, Drexel University, Georgia State University, University of Miami, New York University, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Vanderbilt University.

The first Collyer Fellowship was awarded in 2009 to Sara Van Acker of New York University; the second in 2010 to Antal Zambo of Wayne State University.

The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation was established in 1988 to support educational excellence and professional development in the film, television and related media fields, and has provided scholarships to hundreds of outstanding U.S. undergraduate students in these disciplines. For more information on the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship, contact WGAE Foundation Executive Director Marsha Manns, 212-767-7805, mmanns@wgaeast.org.

The Writers Guild of America, East Foundation is created to perpetuate the art and craft of storytelling, either by professionals or amateurs, through education and practical experience, on local, national and global levels; to find the next generation of writers in fiction, non-fiction, television, radio, film, theater, and new media; to encourage WGAE members and staff to contribute their expertise to Foundation activities, thereby expanding the base and breadth of knowledge, as well as increasing the solidarity and power of the writing community in the larger world; and to work with other like-minded organizations in order to facilitate and expand the needs and goals of writers everywhere. For information about the Foundation's programs, go to www.wgaefoundation.org

2009 Collyer Fellow wins at the Bahamas International Film Festival

December 8th, 2010

The Writer's Guild of America, East Foundation's first Collyer Fellow, Sara Van Acker, was one of three winning screenwriters at the 2010 Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) this past weekend. She won first place of the festival's Filmmaker's Residency Program with her screenplay, Bloodlust. The screenplay, about the fearsome female pirate Anne Bonny (read more about it here), was developed through the Michael Collyer Fellowship under the mentorship of Marshall Brickman.

Upon winning the BIFF Filmmaker's Residency Program Sara will be provided with a full day to talk with and be mentored by industry professionals, further securing the growth of her great talent. Congratulations to Sara on her accomplishment!

Antal in Lithuania

My research trip to Lithuania was quite a bit harder than I originally thought it would be. I was already familiar with the history, having learned about it in Lithuanian school and hearing accounts from my grandparents and their brothers. However, going through the archives in the Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius made it much more “real” to me. There were handwritten letters, photographs, and underground resistance literature that engaged me on a visual level that just hearing the stories couldn’t do. I oftentimes found myself choking back tears in the reading rooms poring over the accounts of the partisan soldiers (the majority of whom were barely out of their teens) and of people who were exiled to Siberia. The museum itself was housed in the old KGB headquarters where thousands of Lithuanians were imprisoned, tortured and executed by the Soviets which infused everything there with a subtle but pervasive sinister aura.

That’s not to say that the trip was all doom and gloom by any means. The country was incredible, from its lush green countryside with gently rolling hills, its centuries old cities with labyrinthine cobblestone streets to the powdery sand beaches on the Baltic Sea. I had a wonderful time getting lost riding a bike through the streets of Vilnius after doing my research, and visiting the coastal town of Šventoji (shven-TO-yih) where my story takes place is definitely going to make it easier to bring it to life.

It was also amazing to finally be able to connect with my family’s culture at its source, since while I was growing up we adhered to many of the traditions that my grandparents brought over with them. I’d again like to extend my most sincere gratitude to the foundation for providing me with the opportunity to travel to Lithuania, for the first time since I’ve started working on this project over a year ago I’m starting to get a very clear vision in my head of how I want it to turn out.