Top 50 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting

I'm thrilled that my screenplay Dollhouse of Death about Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies made the Top 50 List (out of 7,422 entries) for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting! What a huge honor.  What a great organization and fellowship competition. I feel so grateful!

Screenwriter Susan Marks

Writer Susan Marks with one of the Nutshell Study of Unexplained Death

Susan Marks is screenwriter, author and documentary filmmaker, repped by Jon Levin at Fourward

Susan's current projects include 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semifinalist/Top 50 screenplay, Dollhouse of Death, which was optioned by HBO.

Susan also recently wrote a modern Southern Gothic tale TV pilot, Perfect South and a retelling of the classic All About Eve in her newest screenplay, Devil's Food.

Her screenplay, Finding Poppy Pepperdine was a quarter-finalist in the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowship competition.

Her recent documentary film, Of Dolls & Murder about dollhouse crime scenes, features legendary filmmaker John Waters as narrator. Currently, Susan is in post production on a followup documentary, Murder in a Nutshell.

Susan's past projects include the book Finding Betty Crocker (Simon & Schuster 2005) and documentary film, The Betty Mystique.

Susan is a two-time recipient of the Jerome Foundation filmmaking grant,  a McKnight fellow and an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy winner.

Semifinal Round of the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting!

I'm feeling so humbled, grateful and a little surprised.  My screenplay on Frances Glessner Lee advanced to the Semifinal Round of the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting!  My script is one of 7,442 scripts total, down to 375 for the quarterfinal round and now 149 in the semifinals. UPDATE - my script made it in the top 50 screenplays. Amazing.

Sure I'm happy for me, but I'm also happy that this means more people will know about the incredible story of Frances Glessner Lee and her Nutshell Studies. 

Fingers crossed for the Final Round! 

Congratulations to everyone who QF or SF for this amazing screenplay competition!

Feel free to take a look at the lookbook for my screenplay.

One of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Frances Glessner Lee
 

If you are curious to know a bit more about my writing and indie filmmaking, please read on!
                                        

Susan Marks is screenwriter, author and documentary filmmaker.


Her recent documentary film, Of Dolls & Murder, about dollhouse crime scenes, features legendary filmmaker John Waters as narrator. Her followup documentary, Murder in a Nutshell focuses on the enigmatic Frances Glessner the Lee - the creator of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

Susan's current projects include 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist screenplay, Dollhouse of Death about Frances Glessner Lee.  She also recently wrote a modern Southern Gothic tale in a new TV pilot, Perfect South.

Her screenplay, Finding Poppy Pepperdine was a quarter-finalist in the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowship competition. 

Susan's past projects include the book Finding Betty Crocker (Simon & Schuster 2005) and documentary film, The Betty Mystique.

Susan also wrote the book In the Mood for Munsingwear and made the documentary, Inside the Speakeasy Dollhouse.

Susan is a two-time recipient of the Jerome Foundation filmmaking grant,  a McKnight fellow and an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy winner.

Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story

I'm more than a little thrilled to announce that we are finished with our independent documentary film Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story - a follow up to our other documentary film on the Nutshell Studies - Of Dolls & Murder. 

True, you never know when you are done-done with a film.  But for now, we are done. Unless of course we get some more funding. That would change everything! There is so much more that we could do to make this documentary film amazing. 

Although, I must say, Frances Glessner Lee's story is pretty amazing already.

Inside the not so glamorous world of post production on Murder in a Nutshell

Over the years, it just got less and less glamorous! But we never tired of the story. Not once.

Editor John Kurtis Dehn works hard while I take photos

Robin Barnes from Kitchen - one of Frances G. Lee's Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

Filmmakers John Kurtis Dehn and Susan Marks from inside a Nutshell

Why did she bake a cake before killing herself?

Show Up Every Day

Just for fun Laurel from the Yoga Garden and I experimented with our iphones to create this video of her being awesome.

The iphone wound up being pretty instrumental to my new documentary on the Nutshell Studies. I was able to get angles in the dollhouses previously unseen by traditional cameras.

Anyway, please enjoy a little yoga inspiration from the guru who doesn't want to be known as a guru - Laurel Van Matre of the Yoga Garden in NE Minneapolis.

Frances Glessner Lee screenplay quarterfinals in Nicholl!

Great news!  My screenplay on Frances Glessner Lee advanced to the Quarterfinal Round of the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting!  7,442 scripts were entered and only 375 entries made it to this round.

Fingers crossed for the final round! 

(UPDATE: My script did make it to the Semifinals!!! It made it into the top 50 was sold to HBO and Guillermo del Toro)

 Here's a bit more about my writing and indie filmmaking:

Writer Susan Marks with one of the Nutshell Study of Unexplained Death

Susan Marks is screenwriter, author and documentary filmmaker.

Her recent documentary film, Of Dolls & Murder, about dollhouse crime scenes, features legendary filmmaker John Waters as narrator. Her screenplay, Finding Poppy Pepperdine was a quarter-finalist in the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowship competition. 

Susan's current projects include 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinal screenplay, Dollhouse of Death about Frances Glessner Lee.  Susan made a documentary film, Murder in a Nutshell - also about Frances.

Susan also recently wrote a modern Southern Gothic tale in a new TV pilot, Perfect South.

Susan's past projects include the book Finding Betty Crocker (Simon & Schuster 2005) and documentary film, The Betty Mystique. Susan also wrote the book In the Mood for Munsingwear and made the documentary, Inside the Speakeasy Dollhouse.

Susan is a two-time recipient of the Jerome Foundation filmmaking grant,  a McKnight fellow and an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy winner.

Frances Glessner Lee documentary update

We're  back in the audio suite again - recording with our new scratch narrator for our documentary film on Frances Glessner Lee - Murder in a Nutshell.

It's always fun to hear my words come alive with a professional narrator. We feel so lucky to be telling Frances' story. And of course, the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are endlessly fascinating.