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.