Final Draft Awards Honor Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion, and ‘Yellowjackets’ Creators

Final Draft shared the honorees for the 17th Annual Final Draft Awards today, lauding some of the most influential writers currently working in the entertainment industry. Dedicated to recognizing exceptional and elevated storytelling, the awards will be held in a virtual ceremony March 16, 2022.

This year’s batch of awardees include several major award contenders with regard to both the Oscars and Emmy Awards, among them:

• Academy Award winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (“Nightmare Alley”) who will receive the Final Draft Hall of Fame Award, which recognizes an artist whose body of work has left a lasting influence on the industry
• Academy Award winning filmmaker Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), who will be the inaugural recipient of the Final Draft Trailblazer Award, which honors a storyteller who has established a career-long commitment to crafting evocative and audacious stories
• Academy Award nominee Nicole Holofcener (“The Last Duel”) will be recognized with the Storyteller Award (Film), which celebrates a creator that consistently delivers tales that defy and exceed expectations
• Two-time Emmy Award winner Danny Strong (“Dopesick”) will also be recognized with the Storyteller Award (TV) for his Hulu limited series
• Jeymes Samuel, who made his feature debut with “The Harder They Fall,” will receive the New Voice Award (Film), which honors rising and incisive talent within the industry
• Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, a wife-and-husband writer/producer team, will also be honored with the New Voice Award (TV), for their breakout Showtime series “Yellowjackets”

“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.”

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This year, the Final Draft Awards will break from tradition and feature 15-minute conversations between each nominee and another respected writer about the particulars and process that the art of writing involves.

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 first 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.