Festival Director Jill Burkhart and Artistic Director Mystelle Brabbee have announced that the 2004 Nantucket Film Festival will present two-time Oscar© nominated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman with the NBC Screenwriter Tribute. The annual festival celebrates the art of screenwriting.

Kaufman’s successful cerebral writing style is currently captivating audiences with ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, which opened to rave reviews. The singular Kaufman style was first glimpsed in the cult favorite BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and focused on the craft of screenwriting in his next film, ADAPTATION. Both films expanded the confines of traditional writing for the silver screen while garnering numerous awards including six Oscar nominations including two for Kaufman and one win for Massachusetts’s resident Chris Cooper in ADAPTATION.

“Given our firm mandate to honor screenwriters, we are thrilled to present Charlie Kaufman with this year’s screenwriter’s tribute,” commented Brabbee. “His work is refreshing, self-referential and jumps into the surreal head-first while often focusing on the endless mind-body dilemma. His story structures play with invention while his characters simply struggle with the awkward business of being human, giving us a wonderfully new film going experience,” Brabbee continued.

Past NBC screenwriter tributes include Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jay Presson Allen, Paul Schrader, Walter Bernstein, Ring Lardner Jr. and James Schamus.
“The backbone of every good film and television show is the written word, so it is fitting that an inspiring writer like Charlie Kaufman be recognized with the NBC Screenwriters Tribute at Nantucket this year,” commented GE Vice Chairman and NBC Chairman & CEO, Bob Wright.

Kaufman also penned CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND AND HUMAN NATURE. He has written for various television shows such as Get a Life, Ned and Stacey and The Dana Carvey Show. Kaufman is currently at work on another project with director Spike Jonze who helmed both BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and ADAPTATION.
The NFF has established itself as a premier U.S. film festival that continues to present an intimate forum for screenwriters, producers, agents and development executives to enjoy the many notable films that will unspool on the island. The festival screens both domestic and international features, world and U.S. premieres, shorts, docs and video from every genre, all selected with an eye towards storytelling. Q & A’s with the writers and filmmakers follow each screening.

For five days in June on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, screenwriting is celebrated with screenings of over 50 feature-length and short films and is further explored through panel discussions, a screenplay competition, an emerging screenwriter’s mentorship program an educational program for teens in addition to beach screenings. The Festival also hosts the popular evening of late night storytelling, which will be hosted by Rosie Perez and Alan Cummings this year in addition to staged readings of un-produced screenplays.

For more information please visit our website at www.nantucketfilmfestival.org.