THE 2011 SCREENWRITERS TRIBUTE

Celebrating Our Commitment to Storytelling


Screenwriters Tribute to Paul Haggis

In 2000, at the age of 47, Paul Haggis was a successful television writer with credits on shows from The Love Boat to The Tracey Ullman Show, and the creator of the eight-season Chuck Norris vehicle Walker Texas Rangers. He’d won two Emmy Awards®. It was a dream career, but it was someone else’s dream. Haggis wanted to write movie scripts, so he left television behind and wrote two screenplays on spec: One was Crash, a Rashomon-like look at race relations in contemporary Los Angeles, and the other was Million Dollar Baby, an adaptation of two F.X. Toole short stories about a female boxer.

Million Dollar Baby (2004), directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood and Hilary Swank, snagged an Oscar® for Best Picture and earned Haggis an Academy Award® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Haggis then also directed and produced Crash (2005) himself, and he won an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, and a nod for Best Director. With his two initial screenplays, Haggis had become the first writer ever to pen back-to-back Best Picture Oscar®-winners. Crash reaped numerous awards during its year of release, such as an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, several Screen Actors Guild Awards, and several BAFTA Awards.

Haggis went on to write Eastwood’s 2006 World War II duo, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, nominated for an Oscar®. Haggis co-wrote the 2006 James Bond movie Casino Royale, and in 2007 he then wrote, directed and produced In the Valley of Elah. His latest film was The Next Three Days (2010), starring Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, and Elizabeth Banks.

Haggis joins a notable group of past winners of the Nantucket Film Festival’s Screenwriting Award, including Ring Lardner, Jr., Jay Presson Allen, Walter Bernstein, Paul Schrader, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, James Schamus, Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne, Charlie Kaufman, Steve Martin, Robert Benton, Judd Apatow, Harold Ramis, and most recently Barry Levinson.

The Nantucket Film Festival is honored to pay tribute to Paul Haggis for his commitment to crafting realistically flawed characters and exploring the human condition, and his outstanding contributions to the profession of screenwriting.

CREDITS:
The Next Three Days (2010)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Casino Royale (2006)
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
The Last Kiss (2006)
Crash (2005)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)


New Voices in Screenwriting Award to Ben Queen

Ben Queen wrote the screenplay for Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2, based on a story by John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, and Dan Fogelman.

Queen was creator and executive producer of the Fox television series Drive and a consulting producer on Century City on CBS. We’re delighted to recognize one of today’s strongest new screenwriters as he embarks on a diverse and interesting career.

Cars 2 opens the 16th Nantucket Film Festival on Wednesday, June 22 at the ‘Sconset Casino.

SCREENWRITING

From its inception, NFF has been dedicated to the notion that the screenwriter’s contribution is at the core of filmmaking.

We believe passionately that emerging screenwriters must be supported and we are immensley proud of the platform we've created through the Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition. Past recipients include Jenny Deller, Fred M. Strype, Marc Arneson, Sophie Barthes, Will Luers, Jennifer Maisel, Chase Palmer, and Debra Granik.

Our red carpet Screenwriters Tribute is hosted by Brian Williams, NFF Board member and NBC News anchor, who shows off his flair for humor. Past honorees include: Walter Bernstein, Charlie Kaufman, Ring Lardner Jr., Steve Martin, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jay Presson Allen, James Schamus, Paul Schrader, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor, Judd Apatow, and Harold Ramis.