Sally Wainwright awarded Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship

23 November 2016

• FELLOWSHIP WORTH £30,000 AND INCLUDES CURATED JOURNEY INTO A WORLD OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
• AWARD OPENED FOR THE FIRST TIME TO TV SCREENWRITERS
• AWARD BRINGS SCREENWRITING AND SCIENCE CLOSER TOGETHER #

Wellcome Trust, London, 23 November 2016: British multi award-winning screenwriter Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax, Scott & Bailey) receives the 2016 Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship, in partnership with BFI and Film4. The Fellowship carries an award of £30,000 together with a year-long tailored experience including unparalleled access to some of the most exciting scientific and humanities research in the world.

Selected from over 100 names nominated by the film and television industries, the award was made in recognition of Wainwright’s distinct voice and clear commitment to research and authenticity.

Now in its fourth year, the Fellowship is celebrated as a major annual award designed to nurture enquiring minds and unique voices and bring the worlds of film and science closer together. Previous fellowships have been awarded to Clio Barnard (2013), Jonathan Glazer (2014) and Carol Morley (2015).

This year the Fellowship was opened to individuals working in television as well as film, in recognition of television’s exceptional quality and the innovative vision of its writers. Receiving the award Sally Wainwright said: “It was an unexpected delight and honour to be offered the Fellowship. My career has taken me in many directions, so I am curious and excited to see where this opportunity leads me.  I cannot think of a better place to research, explore and understand the human condition than Wellcome. I look forward enormously to being inspired by everyone and everything”.

Simon Chaplin, Wellcome’s Director of Culture and Society, said: “The Fellowship provides a unique opportunity to delve into what it really means to be human and is the start of what we hope is a lifelong exploration into the world of science. We’ve had the pleasure of following the journeys of Carol Morley, Jonathan Glazer and Clio Barnard over the last three years and are incredibly excited that Sally Wainwright is taking up the 2016 Screenwriting Fellowship. She will undoubtedly bring a new perspective to the world of Wellcome.”

The intention of the Fellowship is to give a screenwriter time and space to explore without the constraints of a specific project. In doing this, the partners hope to make the Fellowship’s influence profound and long-lived, and hopefully inspire films for years to come. The Fellowship is the start of a long-term relationship with Wellcome, with all fellows enjoying continued access and support.

The Fellowship, awarded by the Fellowship Panel, is chaired by Kate Leys with Lizzie Francke (Senior Development and Production Executive, BFI), Eva Yates (Creative Executive, Film4), Meroë Candy (Development Manager, Film and Drama, Wellcome) and Iain Dodgeon (Broadcast, Games and Film Manager, Wellcome).

Talking about her year, 2015 Fellow Carol Morley, said: “Wellcome has expanded my brain, and my heart - I have discovered so much that speaks so potently about the human condition. Meeting and sharing ideas with archivists, librarians, scientists, and project managers has been incredibly significant, and has had a major impact on the stories and films I am developing. The Fellowship has been a highlight of my filmmaking years, the most brilliant experience, and a total privilege”.

Whilst there is no obligation for the fellow to produce anything as a result of the bursary, the influence and legacy of this unique experience is beginning to emerge. Last year’s fellow Carol Morley has announced that she’s in the research stage for a film titled Typist, Artist, Pirate, King about the undiscovered life of artist Audrey Amiss, whose archive is held in the Wellcome Library. While 2013 Fellow, Clio Barnard is now in post-production with her latest film Dark River, which was developed during her Fellowship when she met with psychologists and psychiatrists working on traumatic memory. The film is backed by Film4, Screen Yorkshire, the BFI and Wellcome, produced by Moonspun Films/Left Bank Pictures and was developed by Film4, the BFI and Wellcome.

Lizzie Francke, BFI Senior Production and Development Executive said: “We need our artists - our novelists, poets, playwrights and filmmakers and screenwriters even more now to raise their voices above the cacophony and cleave their audiences together in some collective story telling harmony. As this year's Wellcome screenwriting fellow, Sally Wainwright has provided some incredible, memorable collective moments in her work so far - bringing a mythic sensibility to the contemporary, a freshness to the familiar. It is incredibly exciting to think what her relationship with Wellcome might bring - her research here today transformed by her brilliant sense of story becoming a nation's talking point tomorrow."”

Eva Yates, Creative Executive at Film4 said: "It's a great privilege for us at Film4 to continue partnering with Wellcome and BFI on this unique opportunity. Sally is such an exceptional and brilliant writer and director, a determined creator of deeply truthful and ambitious works. There's no more exciting prospect than to throw open the doors of Wellcome so that Sally and her characters may roam."

Details of Fellowship

• A £30,000 bursary for one year

Plus Fellows can elect to take-up some or all of the following:

• Access and introductions to leaders in the fields of science and medical history
• Behind-the-scenes access to Henry Wellcome’s library, archive and collection of curios
• Visits to research institutions and programmes which carry out work in areas such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis and mental health conditions
• A personal MRI brain scan and genome analysis for insight into neuroscience and genetics
• Direct access to contemporary science research trials
• A new interdisciplinary space to work alongside scientists, scholars and creative practitioners – The Hub at Wellcome Collection.

Notes to editors

For further information contact:

Sarah Harvey Publicity 020 7732 7790
Sarah Harvey sarah@sarahharveypublicity.co.uk
Hayley Willis hayley@sarahharveypublicity.co.uk

 

Sally Wainwright biography

Sally Wainwright is a multi BAFTA award winning Writer, Executive Producer and Director. This year alone sees the return of three of her most celebrated, critically acclaimed and award credited TV dramas: Happy Valley, Last Tango In Halifax, and Scott & Bailey.

 

Sally began her writing career on the Radio 4 series The Archers and ITV’s Coronation Street. She created and wrote her first original series At Home with the Braithwaites in 2000. It ran for 4 series (2000–2003), selling worldwide and earning Sally several award nominations including an International Emmy nomination. In 2009 Sally created and wrote the ITV three-parter Unforgiven starring Suranne Jones. Sally next co-created, wrote and executive produced the female led detective series Scott & Bailey (2011-2016), garnering 2 more BAFTA noms. Last Tango in Halifax, (2012-), created, written and executive produced  by Wainwright, based on the true story of her mother’s second chance at happiness when she married her long lost childhood sweetheart, brought her 2 BAFTA wins in 2013, Best Writer and Best Drama Series.  In 2014, Wainwright created, wrote, executive produced, and made her directorial debut on Happy Valley, winning BAFTA’s Best Writer as well as Best Drama Series Awards in 2015. As well as her original work, Sally has adapted The Taming Of The Shrew and The Wife Of Bath’s Tale, and this year is creating To Walk Invisible, a hotly anticipated one-off film for BBC One on the Brontë sisters which she will write, direct and executive produce.

 

About Wellcome

Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate.

Wellcome and Film and Drama

We work closely with the film and television industries to inspire and develop original, authentic and diverse stories for screen which explore the questions that biomedical research is trying to answer and the impact of science and health on our lives.

We do this by:

Connecting people

We identify and broker connections between science and health research and film/drama industries and encourage the right researchers to be engaged throughout the creative process.

Creative encounters

We offer a range of opportunities for the film and television industries to encounter and engage with relevant content and be inspired with new story ideas, such as:

• Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship www.wellcome.ac.uk/screenwriting
• Edinburgh International Film Festival Write to Research lab and Screenwriter in Residence http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/talentdevelopment/wellcomelab

http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/news/2016-10-07-eiff-name-first-screenwriter-in-residence-news-story-by-amber-wilkinson

• The National Film and Television School Bridges to Industry for Drama completion in partnership with Wellcome and Sky Atlantic
• Industry events and workshops at Wellcome for writers and directors

 

Funding

We support film/drama projects through development and co-production funding. Recent projects include Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Rachel Tunnard’s Adult Life Skills and BBC comedy drama, Quacks by James Wood.

We offer studentships for NFTS students in Screenwriting and Directing Fiction who have a Phd in biomedical research.

For further information visit www.wellcome.ac.uk/screen

 

About the BFI

With over £50 million of Lottery funding to invest each year, the BFI is the UK's largest public investor in film, and the BFI Film Fund supports first-class British filmmaking from talent and project development, through production, to audience development across exhibition, distribution and international sales.

 

Films supported by the BFI include this year’s Cannes Film Festival Palme d’or winner I, Daniel Blake directed by Ken Loach and the Jury Prize award winning American Honey by filmmaker Andrea Arnold, Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom and Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire which were the opening and closing galas respectively at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, Roger Mainwood’s Ethel & Ernest, Colm McCarthy’s The Girl With All The Gifts, Jim Hoskin’s The Greasy Strangler, John Michael McDonagh’s War on Everyone, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise starring Tom Hiddleston; Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, John Crowley’s BAFTA-winning and Oscar® nominated  Brooklyn; James Spinney and Peter Middleton’s Notes on Blindness, Sean McAllister's A Syrian Love Story, BAFTA-nominated and Grand Jury prize winner at Sheffield Doc/Fest, Yorgos Lanthimos’ BAFTA-nominated and 2015 Cannes Competition selection The Lobster, Andrew Haigh’s Berlin award winning and BAFTA and Oscar® nominated 45 Years .

 

Highly anticipated films backed by the BFI include William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Andy Serkis’ Breathe, Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, Gurinder Chadha’s Viceroy’s House, Nick Park’s Early Man, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, Lucy Cohen’s Fly Away, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Alex Taylor Spaceship, Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country, Hope Dickson Leach’s The Levelling, Peter Mackie Burns’ Daphne,Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Delivr’d, Haifaa Al Mansour’s A Story in the Stars, Mercedes Grower’s Brakes, and Pete Travis’ City of Tiny Lights.

 

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive by:

• Connecting audiences to the widest choice of British and World cinema
• Preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations
• Championing emerging and world class film makers in the UK - investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work
• Promoting British film and talent to the world 
• Growing the next generation of film makers and audiences

 

bfi.org.uk / @bfi

About Film4

Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, whether new or established.  

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and David Mackenzie’s Starred Up.

Film4’s recent releases include Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, Susanna White’s Our Kind of Traitor, Todd Haynes’ Carol, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years. Forthcoming releases include Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, Benedict Andrews’ Una, Adam Smith’s Trespass Against Us, Baltasar Kormákur’s The Oath and Danny Boyle’s T2. Films in production include Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties and Toby MacDonald’s Old Boys.

For further information visit www.film4.com/productions