Tisch Senior Wins First Collyer Memorial WGA Screenwriting Award for StudentsTisch Senior Wins First Collyer Memorial WGA Screenwriting Award for Stud

By Richard Pierce

      The Tisch School of the Arts’s Sara Van Acker, a senior in the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing, is the recipient of the first Michael Coll¬yer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Writers Guild of America, East Foundation. The award was presented by Tom Fontana and Marshall Brickman at the 61st Annual Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 7 in New York.
      The Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship is awarded to a student who plans to pursue a career in screenwriting upon completion of his/her undergraduate course of study. The recipient receives a stipend and will also be mentored by a prominent screenwriter.
      Van Acker was selected from a pool of nine nominees submitted by a corresponding number of U.S. universities invited to participate in the Collyer Fellowship’s pilot year. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman chaired the foundation’s fellowship selection committee and will serve as the mentor to Van Acker during her fellowship.
      “It wasn’t easy picking the winner because the submissions represented a refreshingly heterogeneous mixture of subjects, styles, and points of view—all of which had much to recommend them,” said Brickman. “The committee’s consensus was for Sara, whose two writing samples indicated a unique sensibility, a wide emotional range, and a sure instinct for drama. I look forward to working with this talented and dedicated young writer.”
      Van Acker, the oldest of four children, has spent much of her time telling stories to her brothers and sister and has been encouraged by her parents. During her four years at Tisch, Van Acker has been active in developing collaborations among the film and TV, acting, and writing departments. Her feature Not So Happily Ever After was a finalist in the NYU Fusion Film Festival. In addition, she helped produce several community-centered programs, as well as NYU’s nationally recognized program “Ultra-Violet Live,” a campus-wide talent showcase. She graduates this spring with a major in screenwriting and a minor in producing.
      “The foundation’s purpose is to discover voices which have previously been unheard,” said Tom Fontana, president of the WGAE Foundation. “Sara’s voice will be one which we’ll be hearing from for decades to come,”
      The Collyer Fellowship, which is funded by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation, honors Michael Collyer, a distinguished entertainment attorney in New York City who for four decades practiced primarily at his namesake firm Kay Collyer & Boose and specialized in television financing and production. Collyer was perhaps best known as a pioneer in devising legal structures for television syndication distribution, and for international co-productions taking advantage of favorable tax credits and other incentives.