Screenwriters honored with film academy's Nicholl award

Five emerging screenwriters gained the film academy's stamp of admission into Hollywood with help from an ensemble of actors that included Tyrese Gibson and Rosa Salazar.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored each screenwriter at the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting awards and presentation on Thursday night. The five individuals each received $35,000 fellowships and had their work brought to life through live readings by Gibson, Salazar, Amandla Stenberg and Wes Studi.

The event was held at the academy's headquarters in Beverly Hills, California.

Actors, from left to right, Wes Studi, Rosa Salazar, Tyrese Gibson and Amandla Stenberg pose at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Live Read at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Danny MoloshokInvisionAP)

The five screenplays selected include: Aaron Chung's "Princess Vietnam," Karen McDermott's "Lullabies of La Jaula," Renee Pillai's "Boy With Kite," Sean Malcolm's "Mother" and Walter McKnight's "Street Rat Allie Punches Her Ticket."

"I want to write scripts in Hollywood. What kind of fool would want to do that?" asked Pillai, sarcastically, while pointing at herself before the audience burst into laughter. She is the first Nicholl fellow from Malaysia and faced a series of obstacles that almost kept her from attending the event.

Pillai applied for her U.S. visa, was told the earliest appointment she could get wouldn't be until the day after the ceremony. But a fellowship official contacted the cultural affairs office at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Pillai's behalf, arranging a meeting to appeal to the consul general to expedite her visa request.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Academy Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Governor and Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Committee Chair, third from left, poses with Nicholl fellows, from left to right, Karen McDermott, Aaron Chung, Walker McKnight, Renee Pillai and Sean Malcolm at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Live Read at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Danny MoloshokInvisionAP)

Pillai then drove two hours to Kuala Lumpur to attend the granted interview, with only the $160 donated by her friends to pay the visa application fee. She ultimately obtained the visa and took 30 hours to travel by air from Malaysia to Los Angeles — that including layovers in China and Seattle.

"If it wasn't for the academy and my friends, I wouldn't be here," she said. "I would've missed out not only this ceremony, but also the seminars and preparations for the life you want to live. This is the start of my career."

Winners will receive guidance from academy members as they complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year. The winning screenplays were chosen from just over 7,300 submissions.

Peter Samuelson, right, and Eva Marie Saint pose at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Live Read at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Danny MoloshokInvisionAP)

Since 1986, the competition has awarded hundreds of fellowships, aiming to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters. The academy says it doesn't acquire rights to screenwriters' work and doesn't involve itself commercially in the completion of scripts.

Past fellows include writer-director Allison Anders, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides and Oscar-winning screenwriter Susannah Grant ("Erin Brockovich"). The films "Finding Forrester" and "Transformers: Age of Extinction" were also written by past Nicholl fellows.

Chung gave a heartfelt speech that nearly left Salazar in tears. He said he wants to show how people aren't that different from each other.

Eva Marie Saint poses at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Live Read at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Danny MoloshokInvisionAP)

"I want to connect everyone's problems and beliefs together just to show how much we are the same," he said.

Geeta Malik, a 2016 fellow, returned to direct the live reading. She highlighted the importance of the Nicholl Fellowship.

"If you want to get your script made, this is the perfect place to do it," said Malik, who turned her Nicholl-winning script into a feature called "India Sweets and Spices," currently in post-production. "This is the place where you can find people who really support your dream and visions."

Online: https://www.oscars.org/nicholl

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrLandrum31

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)