by Sean Gannon
Former ISA president Bill Coleman will be heading to Los Angeles next month to receive his award for first place in the American Cinema Foundation’s 1999 writing contest. Coleman’s screenplay “Pillars of Fire” was selected as the best script. The ACF is awarding Coleman $10,000 and flying him out for an awards luncheon where he will be honored.
In addition to the prize, Coleman’s script will be passed on to agents and a full-page advertisement promoting his work will appear in the Hollywood Reporter.
“If you persist and hit the wall long and hard enough, you can succeed,” says Coleman. “The ISA, as a group, helped me in developing that persistence. The support of those who read my scripts and commented on them have kept me going. If I can do it, so can you. I think that is what we are all about. Any achievement by any one of us gives us all permission and incentive to keep hitting that wall.”
Also, in January, Coleman received a letter from the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference/2000 that his play “Life Study” had passed through the first screening of over 700 entrants in the selection process for this summer. Twelve plays are selected for workshopping in the final cut.
Congratulations, Bill!