Final Draft, a Cast & Crew Entertainment Company, now in its 27th year as the industry standard for screenwriting software, today announced the honorees for the 13th Annual Final Draft Awards. Former WGA West President and screenwriter Howard A. Rodman (Savage Grace) will be given the Hall of Fame Award for his longtime devotion to writers and the writing community through his work with the WGA, USC and the Sundance Institute. This year’s New Voice Award will be given to Liz Hannah whose screenplay The Post has garnered critical accolades and announced her as a major talent. The event will be co-hosted by comedy duo Randy and Jason Sklar and will be held at the Paramount Theatre on the Paramount Studios lot on February 8, 2018.
“We are truly honored to induct Howard A. Rodman into our Hall of Fame,” commented Scott McMenamin, President of Final Draft. “His dedication to the field of screenwriting and education as well as commitment to the WGA makes him the perfect candidate for this award.”
Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, novelist and educator. He is past president of the Writers Guild of America West; professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts; an artistic director of the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs; a member of the National Film Preservation Board; chair of USC’s Scripter Awards; a former member of the executive committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities.
His films include Savage Grace, directed by Tom Kalin and starring Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne; and August, starring Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie—both of which had their US premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Rodman’s screenplay for Savage Grace was nominated for a Spirit Award in the Best Screenplay category. Rodman also wrote Joe Gould’s Secret, which opened the 2000 Sundance Festival. His original screenplay F. was selected by Premiere Magazine as one of Hollywood’s Ten Best Unproduced Screenplays.
“Final Draft is also proud to be honoring Liz Hannah with this year’s New Voice Award,” McMenamin continued. “Her journey with The Post is an inspiration to all screenwriters, and the themes of the film could not be more relevant.”
Liz Hannah is the co-writer of The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The thrilling drama follows the story of the unlikely partnership of Katharine Graham (Streep), the first female publisher of The Washington Post, and its volatile, driven editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), as they come together with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spanned four decades and four U.S. Presidents. The script was written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer.
Originally from New York, Hannah moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school at AFI. After graduating with an MFA in Producing, Hannah spent the next few years working in development at Denver & Delilah before eventually leaving to write full time. Hannah’s script for The Post was ranked second on the 2016 Black List before being purchased by Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures two days before the US Presidential election.
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