Michael Bucklin, graduate student in screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, has won first prize in the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards for his coming-of-age comedy, “Teenorama.”
The 47th annual awards recognizing excellence in dramatic writing were announced Oct. 28 by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., president of the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, in a ceremony on the UCLA Westwood campus.
The first-prize winner receives $10,000, second prize is $5,000, third prize is $3,000 and two honorable mention awards receive $1,500 each.
Judging this year’s screenplays were writer/director Allison Anders, actor/director Tony Goldwyn and writer/director/producer Debra Hill.
UCLA alumna Allison Anders wrote and directed such notable films as “Gas Food Lodging,” “Mi Vida Loca,” “Grace of My Heart” and, most recently, “Things Behind the Sun.” She won the Goldwyn Writing Award in 1986.
Tony Goldwyn is the director of the acclaimed Miramax film, “A Walk on the Moon, written by Pamela Gray, winner of the 1992 Goldwyn Writing Award. His film credits include “Ghost,” “Someone Like You” and “Bounce.”
Debra Hill is recognized as a trailblazer among women in the motion-picture industry. She wrote and produced the hit horror classic, “Halloween,” with John Carpenter. Her additional credits include “The Fisher King,” “Escape From L.A.” and “Crazy in Alabama.”
First-Prize Winner:
“Teenorama” by Michael Bucklin (Palo Alto, CA). 1979. Justin Reilly is about to escape his dreary San Jose existence for college in New York when he falls for Suzy Suture, the lead singer of a punk band, the Stumps. With his high-school friends in tow, Justin scours San Francisco in search of the spike-haired woman of his dreams. Will he turn down a scholarship to an elite school for the music and the girl he loves? He has two wild days to decide.
Second-Prize Winner:
“This Side of the Green Grass” by Jesse Spero (Costa Mesa, Calif.). Deep inside the world of seemingly perfect, suburban tract houses and unsuspectedly lecherous neighbors, a family struggles to survive in the face of surprise pregnancies, a viciously honest family memoir and the impending construction of a freeway that will run right through their living room.
Third-Prize Winner:
“Last Hope” by Paul J. da Silva (Concord, Calif.). In the last days of the Wild West, a retired gunfighter must draw upon his old skills in order to save his young son from his oldest and most volatile nemesis.
Honorable Mentions:
“Markings in Jade” by Chuck Bigelow (Birmingham, Mich.). A haunted U.N. epidemiologist in plague-torn Singapore rescues a kidnapped teen, but discovers she is a clone marked for organ harvest.
“Switchback” by David Gross (Atlanta, Ga.). Greed leads to betrayal, then murder, when a desperate motel owner is forced to choose between his wife and his brother on the hunt for a stolen fortune in the Grand Canyon.
Previous Goldwyn winners include such outstanding film directors and writers as Allison Anders, Francis Ford Coppola, Pamela Gray, Colin Higgins, Eric Roth and novelist Jonathan Kellerman.
This year more than 100 feature-length screenplays were submitted from students at seven University of California campuses. Entries were judged on the basis of originality, professionalism and artistic merit.
Started by Samuel Goldwyn Sr., in 1955 to encourage young stage, film and television writers, the award has been presented annually for more than four decades. “I’m proud that, at last count, 82 percent of people who have won this award are earning their living as writers today,” Samuel Goldwyn Jr. said.
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FIRST PLACE
Teenorama
Michael Bucklin
(UCLA graduate student, Screenwriting)
1833 North Edgemont Street, #6
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323.661.2704
backbiter51@earthlink.net
Hometown: South Bay Area, CA
SECOND PLACE
This Side of the Green Grass
Jesse Spero
(UCLA graduate student, Playwriting)
11611 Idaho Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90025
310.820.4585 – home
310.801.9295 - cell
jessespero@hotmail.com
Hometown: Costa Mesa, CA
THIRD PLACE
Last Hope
Paul J. da Silva
(UCLA graduate student, Screenwriting)
1756 Malcolm Avenue, #4
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.474.0169
pds888@earthlink.net
Hometown: Concord, CA
HONORABLE MENTION
Markings in Jade
Chuck Bigelow
(UCLA graduate student, Screenwriting)
P.O. Box 1432
Santa Monica, CA 90406
310.260.8580
bandh@usinter.net
Hometown: Birmingham, MI
HONORABLE MENTION
Switchback
David Gross
(UCLA graduate student, Screenwriting)
1761 Canyon Drive, Apt. D
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323.461.6992
davegross@sbcglobal.net
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
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