For two Columbia alumni, a film class assignment has paid off in a big way.
A script written by two M.F.A. ’08 graduates of the School of the Arts, Ken Kristensen and Colin Marshall, was selected Monday as one of five winners of this year’s Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Kristensen and Marshall won a prize of $30,000 for their jointly written script “Out of Breath,” which they penned as part of a master’s class at Columbia. The script combines three narratives that explore death’s ramifications on family relations.
“The two of us wanted to write something together, and we both had gone through experiences that were tragic and comic at the same time,” said Kristensen, whose script introduces characters at pivotal moments in their lives. “So we decided to make a tragicomedy.”
During the Columbia University Film Festival this past spring, the script was awarded Faculty Selects in the screenplay competition, as well as the Ezra Litwak Award for distinction in screenwriting.
“Out of Breath” was chosen for the Nicholl Fellowship from 5,224 eligible scripts, and winners are expected to write new full-length scripts in the year following the award. The two celebrated at a dinner that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held for the winners of the Nicholl Fellowship Thursday night.
Despite the acclaim, Kristensen and Marshall said it’s still too early to predict the future of “Out of Breath.”
“It’s in the process of being sent to various production companies and producers,” Kristensen said. Marshall added that “Out of Breath” has also been submitted to other festivals and competitions.
Prior to entering the M.F.A. program, Kristensen worked as a journalist, and Marshall worked in investment at Goldman Sachs. Completing the program took five years for both students, which included a year off to raise financing for films for their theses.
Both of these films—Kristensen’s Lunar Landing and Marshall’s Quality Time—have been entered in the Sundance Film Festival. While some might find the prospect of entering Sundance daunting, Kristensen said they had no trouble diving right in. “It was only $40 to enter, so we went for it.”
Currently, Kristensen has independently completed an action script, and is a producer on the reality show Jail, which he described as an Albuquerque-based “spin-off of Cops.” Marshall has written a first draft of a script, which he described as “a dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional family on Christmas Eve.”
While they are not currently working together, Marshall and Kristensen may team up again sometime soon. “We’re talking to some producers about potential projects that they want us to write together,” Kristensen said.