Lloyd Harvey and Spencer Harvey.
Spencer and Lloyd Harvey, a Sydney-based sister-brother filmmaking team, have been shortlisted for the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting for their script Photo Booth.
The Academy established the Nicholl Fellowships competition in 1986 to both identify and encourage talented new screenwriters from around the world.
The twelve scripts shortlisted this year were selected from a staggering 6,915 entries.
Photo Booth, set in Sydney, follows a successful performance artist who, after trying and failing to adopt a baby through the system, decides to adopt the unborn baby from her husband’s one night stand with a waitress.
“On a broader note, it is about choices and how near to impossible it is to pinpoint the moment, the choice, that defined who we are and how we got here. It is also about how women can be judged and often limited in choices when it comes to family versus career,” the Harveys told IF.
Spencer and Lloyd, hailing from Balgowlah, are known for their shorts such as The Gift and Sorry Baby. They have been working on the script for Photo Booth for around three years in and around other projects.
The Harveys described being shortlisted as an honour, if not also a little surreal.
“Suddenly people are interested in what we’ve been doing and want to talk to us about a story that has felt like a long and secret love affair until now,” they said.
“Being a finalist is already a win for us in so many ways. Our ultimate goal is to our make our film and we will feel like people are already taking note with having our script shortlisted in such a prestigious competition.
“We have already begun a group email with our fellow finalists and they are all so lovely and talented; all with ideas that should be assisted off the page and to the screen.”
The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee is set to meet later this month to select up to five winners for the year-long fellowships.
Winners each receive a $35,000USD prize, the first installment of which will be doled at an awards presentation on November 3 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The event also will include a live read of selected scenes from the winning scripts.
The full list of shortlisted writers:
Michele Atkins, Talking About the Sky
Josh Barkey, Marlene the Divine
Beanie Barnes, Little Toro
Todd Condie, John Wayne Slept Here
Spencer Harvey and Lloyd Harvey, Photo Booth
Geeta Malik, Dinner with Friends
Danielle Ownbey, The Blast-Off Inn
Elizabeth Oyebode, Tween the Ropes
Justin Piasecki, Death of an Ortolan
Michael Toner, Hey Jude
Arun K. Vir, Suburban Turban
Kirk Weddell, Alone