Screenwriting is a largely invisible profession.
The fruits of the screenwriter’s labors are often
unapparent to the average movie-goer, hidden behind the talents of
the director and actors.
The Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award was established precisely to
remedy this invisibility ““ to prize the men and women behind
the typewriter. Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the famed industry
legend, now oversees the annual awards, hosted each year by UCLA.
Now in its 51st year, the Goldwyn is extremely sought after in the
amateur screenwriting arena.
Last Monday, in the James West Alumni Center, two Bruin
screenwriters made Goldwyn Award history by splitting first place,
each receiving the top prize of $15,000.
“I’m so supportive of this program because we should
encourage our screenwriters,” said film critic and Goldwyn
Award judge Leonard Maltin. “We need good writers and we need
good storytellers. For directors, if you don’t have a strong
script, you’re starting out with a terrible
handicap.”
UCLA screenwriting graduate students Andrew Cypiot and Brian A.
Larsen were two of five finalists chosen from over 100 entries,
each a University of California student. Angela Mrema, a UCLA
graduate student in directing, nabbed the third-place award (there
was no second-place award given this year).
After a preliminary judging process, the final judging panel
decided the final prize levels: first, second, third and honorable
mention awards. The panelists included Maltin, “Saturday
Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, “Mad Libs”
co-creator Leonard Stern and “Munich” scribe Eric
Roth.
Past judges have included playwright and filmmaker David Mamet
(“Wag the Dog”), actors Denzel Washington and Sidney
Poitier, and director David Lynch (“Mulholland
Drive”).
Though the screenplays of Cypiot and Larsen are sharing the
prize, they have little else in common.
Cypiot’s “Flying Start” is the true story of
Marshall “Major” Taylor, a 19th-century cyclist who
became the first black person to become World Champion in a
professional sport.
“He had a goal, which is he wanted to be World
Champion,” Cypiot said. “He wasn’t out to be a
role model for his race. (Audiences can) relate to that idea of
single-mindedness, the determination to achieve.”
Larsen wrote “Burning Down Phoenix,” which he
describes as a “psychological western.” A soldier
returns home from the Civil War only to find his wife dead.
Gradually, he finds evidence that the killer may be none other than
himself.
“It relates to us having worked in other industries and
having other professions, and then having a chance to start
over,” said Larsen, a history major turned writer.
“That’s the connection.”
Meanwhile, Mrema’s “The Sisters Crofton”
explores the story of three adult sisters dealing with the
possibility of murdering their father, who raped each of them
during their youth.
“I had a little bit (of the story) and I had to keep
developing it and developing it,” Mrema said.
The script, which Mrema began over two years ago, underwent
several rewrites before entrance into the competition.
“Thankfully I didn’t get discouraged and just kept
going at it,” she said. “The first draft, if you saw
that, it was God-awful.”
Though UCLA took the top three honors, with undergraduate
students from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara taking honorable
mentions, any kind of recognition in the competition helps pave the
future by virtue of the competition’s prestige.
“People forget that Francis Coppola, of
“˜Godfather’ fame, many years ago won (the award) in
second place,” Goldwyn Jr. said. “It isn’t a
question of winning; the script that he wrote was never made into a
movie, but it led him to get the job working on the dialogue of
“˜Patton.’ And the rest is history.”
Cypiot, Larsen and Mrema join the writers of up to 300 films and
TV series, including Coppola, Collin Higgins (“Harold and
Maude”), Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”) and Scott
Rosenberg (“High Fidelity”).
Whether this year’s winners join the ranks of successful
writers, Goldwyn Jr. recognizes the affirmation students receive by
participating in such a competition.
“Keep writing,” he said.