Against the advice of Samuel Goldwyn Jr., UCLA screenwriting
graduate student Michael Bucklin has decided what to do with his
$10,000 Samuel Goldwyn Award prize.
“I finally get to buy a car,” Bucklin said with his
arms in the air, as if from a Toyota commercial.
However, he assures people that it will be a very cheap car.
Bucklin knows that the prestigious award does not automatically
equal success, but with past winners like Francis Ford Coppola, he
has reason to be proud.
The annual Samuel Goldwyn Awards were announced Monday afternoon
in the James West Alumni Center. By invitation only, the event
featured Goldwyn Jr., UCLA faculty, “Gas Food Lodging”
filmmaker Allison Anders, and “The Basketball Diaries”
producer John Bard Manulis.
Bucklin was caught by surprise when his script,
“Teenorama,” won. He describes it as a “punk rock
“˜American Graffiti,'” risky material for a big
studio, but just the right mix of milieu, character and story to
win the Goldwyn Award.
“It’s a very personal script about the music I love
and people I knew who I could reference,” said Bucklin, a
punk rock fan.
Both Goldwyn judge Anders (a past winner and UCLA alumna) and
Goldwyn Jr. stressed not resting on the laurels of the award.
Anders became a waitress even after winning the award.
“It’s not going to be your career,” Anders
said. “You have to make that yourself.”
“Your phone is going to be ringing tomorrow
morning,” said Goldwyn Jr., referring to the agents and
producers who solicit Goldwyn winners. “Don’t take it
seriously … Don’t look to destroy Hollywood overnight.
It’ll more likely destroy you first.”
This year, as often happens, all the finalists were UCLA
students despite the award being open to all University of
California students. Eighty-three of the 106 scripts submitted this
year were from UCLA students, an indication of the strength of the
UCLA screenwriting program. Five finalists were chosen and given
first, second, third, and honorable mention awards, judged based on
a blind reading in regards to school. Yet the judges gravitated
towards UCLA graduate screenwriting students with only one
finalist, Jesse Spero, being a playwriting student.
The awards started at UCLA in 1955 when Samuel Goldwyn senior
and then Chair of the UCLA
Department of Theater Arts Kenneth MacGowan decided that the art
of screenwriting needed a publicity boost.
“People think directors direct pictures and actors make up
the dialogue,” Goldwyn Jr. said.
“Neither studios nor directors would have anything without
the solitary work of … screenwriters,” said Robert Rosen,
dean of the UCLA theater, film, and television department.
You could even sense the emotions from a tear-eyed Goldwyn Jr.
when he told a story about how people wanted to become filmmakers
based on watching the films of past Goldwyn winners.
“You have no idea how good that makes us feel,”
Goldwyn Jr. said.