Congratulations to the recipients of the 2020 Writers’ Room Ready Awards: Haley Bartels, Christina Kingsleigh Licud, Kenda Greenwood Moran and Alessandro Pederzoli! The award recognizes outstanding work by AFI Conservatory Screenwriting Fellows, and the winners will be paired with mentors, giving them an opportunity to work directly with established artists. 75% of the past winners…

Congratulations to AFI alum and Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter Scott Silver who received a BAFTA nomination and a WGA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing JOKER, alongside writer/director Todd Phillips. This marks his second BAFTA and WGA nominations, after he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for THE FIGHTER in 2011. JOKER, which premiered at…

Earlier this week, the AFI Conservatory lost a dedicated faculty member and Hollywood lost a trailblazing writer with the passing of D.C. Fontana. She was the first female writer for STAR TREK and wrote 11 episodes of the original series, which ran for three seasons from 1966-69. She co-wrote the pilot for STAR TREK: THE…

AFI has named incoming AFI Conservatory Screenwriting Fellow Taryn Procsal as recipient of the Kirk Douglas Fellowship, a full-tuition two-year scholarship awarded to an AFI Conservatory Fellow. Procsal is a single mother of three who was selected to receive the Fellowship due to her extraordinary talent and unique voice. She is entering the Conservatory this fall…