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About Us
"The producers were extraordinarily personable, receptive, and encouraging, and the delightful staff, including volunteers, could not have been more helpful. Thank you very much for the superb---and truly transformative!---conference."
Deborah Boehm
Santa Fe, NM
 


In order to mentor an Academy Lab, one must have won or been nominated for an internationally recognized, distinguished award for screenwriting.

An elite course for advanced screenwriters only: a stimulating 12-hour intensive on theory and practical applications as they pertain to structure, characterization, and market viability of your present or envisioned screenwriting effort. Bring a synopsis, brief treatment (fewer than fifteen double-spaced pages) and/or step outline - or just a logline or concept - to share with fourteen other advanced screenwriters and your Academy Mentor. An Academy Lab is a creative gold mine with fifteen rich veins to survey.

The final three hours of the Lab will shift to readings. Actors will be present to read scenes so the writers can learn what dialogue is working and what needs polish. Expect dramatic results. Leave with a logline and ideas for development.

Each Academy Lab is limited to only 15 writers.

ACADEMY LABS HONOR SYSTEM ADMITTANCE CRITERIA
To be accepted into an Academy Lab, I affirm that I have accomplished TWO (2) of the following five criteria:
  • I have written a minimum of three complete feature-length screenplays.
  • I have placed in the semi-finals or higher in a contest listed on MovieBytes.com (this includes the SCSFe Actors Choice Awards).
  • I have attended The Screenwriting Symposium component of SCSFe at least three times.
  • I have had a screenplay optioned in writing or sold.
  • I am a film school graduate (must be from a college or university).
You need not present evidence of your achievements. If you qualify, great. If not, it's a good goal to target for next year. Good luck. Any questions, please call us at 866.424.1501.
Kirk Ellis
Santa Fe-based writer/producer Kirk Ellis won two Emmys and the Humanitas Prize for his work on John Adams starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Ellis wrote and co-executive produced the seven-part HBO miniseries, which is based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. The miniseries scored a record 23 nominations, second only to Roots in Emmy history, and won a record breaking 13 Emmys in total, as well as four Golden Globe awards. Ellis has also received a Writers Guild of America nomination for his script.

Ellis will continue his association with McCullough and the American Revolution on his next project for HBO, 1776. Like Adams, the miniseries will be produced with Tom Hanks' Playtone Co. In addition Ellis is adapting the James Ellroy novel "American Tabloid" as a series for Playtone and HBO.

For the big screen, Ellis is working on the feature project Blood and Thunder, an epic drama of Kit Carson and the Navajo Wars, and Escape, the true story of Carolyn Jessop, who escaped from a plural marriage in a fundamentalist Mormon compound under the leadership of Warren Jeffs. Katherine Heigl will star and produce under her Abishag banner along with Michael Menchel of Relevant Entertainment.

Ellis' collaboration with Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks brought him the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Best Drama Script for Hell on Wheels, an episode of the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated TNT/DreamWorks miniseries Into the West on which Ellis served as supervising producer and writer. He also received the Wrangler Award for Best Television Feature from the National Western Heritage Museum for his work on the miniseries.

Previously Ellis received an Emmy nomination and won the Writers Guild of America and the Humanitas Prize for the ABC miniseries Anne Frank which he wrote and co-produced. Additional credits include writing the award-winning ABC miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family, co-executive producing Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (which earned him a Critics' Choice Award) and writing The Three Stooges telefilm.

Ellis made his feature film debut writing and co-producing The Grass Harp based on the coming-of-age novel by Truman Capote. He has also collaborated on projects with such esteemed directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Roland Joffe and William Friedkin.

Josh Olson
After writing and directing the horror/comedy cult movie INFESTED, Josh Olson broke into the studio world when he sold his original script THREE GUN BLUES to Paramount Pictures, with producer Gale Ann Hurd attached. That led to his first studio assignment, adapting the graphic novel A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE for New Line. Olson's work on that film was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA, the WGA award, and the Edgar.

Since then, Olson has collaborated with legendary author Harlan Ellison on an adaptation of Ellison's The Discarded for the ABC TV Series "MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION". The episode starred Brian Dennehy and John Hurt.

He worked on adapting the hugely popular video game HALO for producer Peter Jackson and director Neill Blomkamp, and has adapted the Dennis Lehane short story UNTIL GWEN, which he will also direct. He contributed the script for "HAVE I GOT A STORY FOR YOU" to the smash hit BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT project.

He recently wrote a sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ for Warner Brothers, and has just finished adapting the Lee Child bestseller ONE SHOT for Paramount. His Village Voice essay "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" became an internet phenomenon, getting upwards of two million hits, and is spawning a book.

He is currently developing a TV drama, "PLEASED TO MEET ME", with the legendary guitarist Slash, and is writing the pilot for "MEANWHILE", a dramatic series he created and sold to producer Peter Chernin and the Fox Network.

Olson can be seen commenting on classic film trailers at Joe Dante's website, TRAILERS FROM HELL.


This roster of Academy Mentors and their respective labs is based on the availability of the instructors and is subject to change without notification.

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