Overview | Winner Announced | Finalists Announced | Eligibility | Guidelines


The San Francisco Film Society announced October 15, 2009 the winner and honorable mention for the Djerassi Residency Award / SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship.  Kathryn Mockler was selected from more than 65 applicants from all across the United States and beyond, for her project Weak People Are Fun to Torment.  Mahdi Fleifel was awarded an Honorable mention for his screenplay, Palestine 3-Zero.

FALL 2009 WINNER

Kathryn Mockler Weak People Are Fun to Torment
Thirty-year-old Gus, a college dropout, has just been asked by his father to move out of his house so that his father’s girlfriend and her daughter can move in, in spite of the fact that Gus has no job and no skills that would enable him to live independently. While coping with the death of his mother and his own feelings of guilt and resentment about her suicide, he struggles to move on with his life but finds himself being drawn back into familiar scenarios by his teenage brother, who not only has a drug problem but also seems to have the same mental illness as their mother. For more information: www.kathrynmockler.com.

Kathryn Mockler of Toronto, Canada is a writer and filmmaker. She received her MFA in creative writing with a major in screenwriting from the University of British Columbia and her BA in honors English and creative writing from Concordia University. She was a Praxis screenwriting fellow, a semifinalist in the Academy Award Foundation's Nicholl Fellowship and a quarterfinalist in the American Screenwriting Association's 10th Annual International Screenplay Competition for her feature script Piss Tank. Mockler is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre's Writers' Lab and was a participant in the Toronto International Film Festival's Talent Lab. She has also attended writing residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Sage Hill. Mockler has worked as a story editor and script reader, and currently teaches creative writing and screenwriting at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. She co-directed three video series and has had several short films produced. Mockler’s films and videos have screened nationally and internationally.

Read the press release

OVERVIEW

Sponsored by the the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Djerassi Residency Award/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship will provide a one-month residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program for an emerging or established screenwriter in 2010.

Located in a spectacular setting in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 40 miles south of San Francisco, the program provides artists with uninterrupted time for work, reflection and collegial interaction in a professionally supportive and inspirational environment. The Djerassi Residency Award/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship is supported by a gift from Dale Djerassi.

"With this San Francisco Film Society screenwriting residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, two important international arts organizations, dedicated to supporting and enhancing the creativity of artists, have joined forces," says Djerassi. "I very much look forward to seeing the fruits of this collaboration."

Open to both U.S. and international screenwriters, the Djerassi Residency Award/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship offers living and studio accommodations and all meals at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program from August 10 through September 9, 2010. Residents work and are housed in two buildings on the ranch according to artistic discipline and creative project. Living quarters and studio space consist of a four-bedroom house and a unique, remodeled twelve-sided barn. The Award/Fellowship does not include travel and writing supplies.

2010 Fellowship:
The dates for the 2010 Djerassi Residency Award / SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship for a 2011 residency will be announced early 2010.

ELIGIBILITY

Djerassi Residency Award/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship is open to screenwriters that satisfy the following criteria:

•    Applicant must be at least 18 years old.
•    Applicant must be either an emerging or mid-career artists, for whom   appointments as resident artists may make a significant difference to their careers, or an established artist with a national and/or international reputation.
•    The application, screenplays and treatments must be written in English.
•    Scripts must be properly formatted to industry standard. Digital submissions must be in PDF format only.

Priority will be given to:
•    Projects that are vibrant, intelligent, moving and innovative.

Evaluation Criteria
•    Filmmaker clearly articulates his or her intended goals for the fellowship
•    Filmmaker demonstrates how the fellowship will impact short- and long-term professional and artistic goals.

Restrictions
•    Filmmaker may not be a SFFS or Djerassi Resident Artists Program employee or member of any SFFS or Djerassi board.
•    Filmmaker may not be a full-time student.
•    Project is not work for hire.
•    Only one application per project will be accepted.
•    Script must not have been optioned, purchased, in production or produced.
•    Adaptations of any work (other than your own) are not eligible.
•    Scripts by more than one writer are not eligable

APPLICATION GUIDELINES
To be announced early 2010

How to Apply
Submit a Letter of Inquiry on the SFFS website.
Finalists will be asked to submit the following:
    * A three to ten page treatment
    * A minimum of ten pages of the script you are applying for
    * Work Sample: A minimum of ten pages of a previous screenplay (short or feature)
    * A work sample explanation

NOTE: Filmmakers with incomplete applications will not be considered.

Work samples and full application must be received by 5:00 pm on, or postmarked by, by the date to be announced early 2010.

Send materials to:

SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship
c/o San Francisco Film Society
39 Mesa Street, Suite 110
San Francisco, CA 94129

Review Panel
The Film Society will convene a panel to evaluate applications and award grants at its sole discretion.

Reporting Requirement
Grant recipients will be required to submit a progress report and a new work sample six months, from the date of the grant award.

APPLY ONLINE
Access online application.

Learn more about the Djerassi Resident Artists Program at www.djerassi.org.