Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
Since 1994 the Independent Spirit Awards has given a prize for the Best First Screenplay of the year. Many of these rookies went on to become well-known, widely-honored filmmakers.
This year's nominees are:
> Kris Avedisian, Kyle Espeleta (story), and Jesse Wakeman (story) for Donald Cried (2016)
> Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for The Big Sick (2017)
> Ingrid Jungermann for Women Who Kill (2016)
> Kogonada for Columbus (2017)
> David Smith and Matt Spicer for Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Which of the past winners of the Best First Screenplay do you think has best lived up to the promise of that award-winning screenplay?
Discuss the list here
This year's nominees are:
> Kris Avedisian, Kyle Espeleta (story), and Jesse Wakeman (story) for Donald Cried (2016)
> Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for The Big Sick (2017)
> Ingrid Jungermann for Women Who Kill (2016)
> Kogonada for Columbus (2017)
> David Smith and Matt Spicer for Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Which of the past winners of the Best First Screenplay do you think has best lived up to the promise of that award-winning screenplay?
Discuss the list here
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- DirectorDavid O. RussellStarsJeremy DaviesAlberta WatsonBenjamin HendricksonA med student is forced by his traveling salesman dad to cancel a top summer internship and look after his hot mom, who's bedridden with a broken leg. Applying lotion to her legs arouses him.David O. Russell - career highlights include Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, The Fighter
- DirectorWayne WangStarsHarvey KeitelWilliam HurtGiancarlo EspositoA Brooklyn smoke shop is the center of neighborhood activity, and the stories of its customers.Paul Auster - career highlights include Blue in the Face, Lulu on the Bridge, The Center of the World
- DirectorCampbell ScottStanley TucciStarsTony ShalhoubStanley TucciMarc AnthonyNew Jersey, 1950s. Two brothers run an Italian restaurant. Business is not going well as a rival Italian restaurant is out-competing them. In a final effort to save the restaurant, the brothers plan to put on an evening of incredible food.Joseph Tropiano and Stanley Tucci - career highlights include Just Desserts, The Imposters, Joe Gould's Secret
- DirectorNeil LaButeStarsAaron EckhartMatt MalloyStacy EdwardsTwo business executives--one an avowed misogynist, the other recently emotionally wounded by his love interest--set out to exact revenge on the female gender by seeking out the most innocent, uncorrupted girl they can find and ruining her life.Neil LaBute - career highlights include The Wicker Man, Lake View Terrance, Your Friends & Neighbors
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsSean GulletteMark MargolisBen ShenkmanA paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.Darren Aronofsky - career highlights include Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, The Wrestler
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJohn CusackCameron DiazCatherine KeenerA puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.Charlie Kaufman - career highlights include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation.
- DirectorGina Prince-BythewoodStarsSanaa LathanOmar EppsGlenndon ChatmanMonica and Quincy love and play basketball together through many life challenges from childhood to adulthood.Gina Prince-Bythewood - career highlights include The Secret Life of Bees, Beyond the Lights, Shots Fired
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsSteve BuscemiThora BirchScarlett JohanssonTwo eccentric best friends graduate high school and respond to a man's romance-seeking newspaper ad as a gag, only to find their lives becoming increasingly complicated.Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff - career highlights include Art School Confidential, Wilson, Bad Santa
- DirectorSteven ShainbergStarsJames SpaderMaggie GyllenhaalJeremy DaviesA young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.Erin Cressida Wilson - career highlights include The Girl on the Train, Chloe, Men, Women & Children
- DirectorTom McCarthyStarsPeter DinklagePatricia ClarksonBobby CannavaleWhen his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.Tom McCarthy - career highlights include Spotlight, Win Win, The Visitor
- DirectorJoshua MarstonStarsCatalina Sandino MorenoGuilied LopezOrlando TobónA pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately-needed money for her family.Joshua Marston - career highlights include Complete Unknown, The Forgiveness of Blood, Come Sunday
- DirectorDuncan TuckerStarsFelicity HuffmanKevin ZegersFionnula FlanaganA transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.Duncan Tucker - no projects released since Transamerica
- DirectorJonathan DaytonValerie FarisStarsSteve CarellToni ColletteGreg KinnearA family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.Michael Arndt - no projects released since Little Miss Sunshine
- DirectorJason ReitmanStarsElliot PageMichael CeraJennifer GarnerFaced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes a selfless decision regarding the unborn child.Diablo Cody - career highlights include Jennifer's Body, Young Adult, United States of Tara
- DirectorGus Van SantStarsSean PennJosh BrolinEmile HirschThe story of American gay activist Harvey Milk, who fought for gay rights and was elected as California's first openly gay official.Dustin Lance Black - career highlights include When We Rise, J. Edgar, Big Love
- DirectorLee DanielsStarsGabourey SidibeMo'NiquePaula PattonIn New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.Geoffrey Fletcher - career highlights include Violet & Daisy
- DirectorLena DunhamStarsLena DunhamLaurie SimmonsGrace DunhamAbout a recent college grad who returns home while she tries to figure out what to do with her life.Lena Dunham - career highlights include Girls, Nobody Walks
- DirectorJonathan LevineStarsJoseph Gordon-LevittSeth RogenAnna KendrickInspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.Will Reiser - no projects released since 50/50
- DirectorColin TrevorrowStarsAubrey PlazaMark DuplassJake JohnsonThree magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified advertisement seeking a companion for time travel.Derek Connolly - career highlights include Jurassic World, Kong: Skull Island, Monster Trucks
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsBruce DernWill ForteJune SquibbAn aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.Bob Nelson - career highlights include The Confirmation, Highston
- DirectorJustin SimienStarsTyler James WilliamsTessa ThompsonKyle GallnerThe lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.Justin Simien - career highlights include Dear White People (TV show)
- DirectorLenny AbrahamsonStarsBrie LarsonJacob TremblaySean BridgersA little boy is held captive in a room with his mother since his birth, so he has never known the world outside.Emma Donoghue - no projects released since Room
- DirectorRobert EggersStarsAnya Taylor-JoyRalph InesonKate DickieA family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.Robert Eggers - no projects released since The Witch