17th Final Draft Awards to honor Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion, Jeymes Samuel and more
Final Draft, a Cast & Crew Company, now in its 31st year as the industry standard for screenwriting software, today announced the honorees for the 17th Annual Final Draft Awards. The awards, which recognize outstanding and elevated achievements in storytelling, will be held in a virtual ceremony on March 16, 2022. This year’s Final Draft Awards will break tradition and feature 15-minute conversations with each honoree and another esteemed writer about the process and challenges involved with the art of writing.
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley) will be presented with the Final Draft Hall of Fame Award, honoring a writer whose body of work has had a profound influence on the industry. The inaugural Final Draft Trailblazer Award will go to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), and recognizes a writer whose career exudes excellence and who consistently tells compelling and bold stories. Two Storyteller Awards will be presented recognizing writers who consistently maintain a level of excellence and surpass expectations. Academy Award nominee Nicole Holofcener will receive the Storyteller Award (Film) for The Last Duel and two-time Emmy winner Danny Strong will receive the Storyteller Award (TV) for the critically acclaimed limited series Dopesick, currently streaming on Hulu.
Additionally, Final Draft will present two New Voice Awards recognizing rising and vital talents in the industry. The New Voice Award (TV) will go to Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson, the husband-and-wife writer/producer team whose acclaimed new series Yellowjackets just recently wrapped its first season on Showtime. The New Voice Award (Film) will be presented to Jeymes Samuel, whose celebrated feature debut, The Harder They Fall, is currently streaming on Netflix.
“Storytellers have been revered throughout history for their ability to connect us,” stated Final Draft president Shelly Mellott. “This year’s honorees are using their considerable talents to tell brave, audacious stories in imaginative ways that entertain, provoke and enlighten audiences. We could not be more proud to honor them and their outstanding work and the impact their stories have on our culture.”
The winners of the 2020 Big Break Screenwriting Contest, an annual screenwriting competition that launches careers and awards over $100,000 in cash and prizes will also be celebrated at the event.
Previous Final Draft Award winners include Quentin Tarantino, Nancy Meyers, Aaron Sorkin, Lawrence Kasdan, Paul Schrader, Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, Callie Khouri, Steven Zaillian, Robert Towne, Oliver Stone, and Sydney Pollack, among others. The Storyteller Award was introduced in 2021 and was presented to Steve McQueen and Sofia Coppola. The New Voice Award was introduced in 2017 and past recipients include Ramy Yousef, Steven Canals, Lulu Wang, Liz Hannah, Issa Rae, Boots Riley, Radha Blank and Tanya Saracho.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2024 Camerimage Film Festival: Danish Oscar Entry ‘The Girl With the Needle’ Wins Golden Frog - November 23, 2024
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR (November) - November 22, 2024
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024
2024 Camerimage Film Festival: Danish Oscar Entry ‘The Girl With the Needle’ Wins Golden Frog 
Interview: ‘Gladiator II’ Cinematographer John Mathieson on Reuniting with Ridley Scott and Continuing the Legacy and Lore 
Interview: Alan Menken and Glenn Slater on Creating the Songs and Score for ‘Spellbound’ and the “Perfectly” Cast Rachel Zegler 
2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR (November)