Per the press release… the WGAW Feature Access Project seeks to identify outstanding diverse writers, and make their scripts available to entertainment industry decision-makers, including producers, studio executives, agents and managers, to help raise their profile and generate potential employment opportunities. 

“There is no more troubling statistic in the film and TV industry than the underemployment of persons of color, particularly in the area of feature screenwriting. Good writers can write about anybody, not just those characters whose biographies they share. I’m proud to have been an advisor for the WGAW’s Feature Access Project, which shines light on the talents of writers whose voices should be heard – and encourages the consideration of all writers for all jobs, regardless of who they are, where they’re from, or what they look like,” said FAP Advisory Committee member Doug Atchison (Akeelah and the Bee).

In addition to all the above, each honoree will be paired with an established WGAW feature writer who will serve as a career mentor.

Photo of this year's 5 honorees is above.

This year's honorees include one writer whose name you might recognize: Dwayne Johnson-Cochran. He's the screenwriter who was penning Angela Bassett's adaptation of Percival Everett's novel Erasure, to be titled United States. It's a project we've been covering for a few years now, and it's not clear if it'll ever see the light the day. Last I checked in with Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, which was probably about a year ago, it was still in the script stage, and funding for it wasn't assured.

The 5 honorees are:

Chuck Hayward for Potluck

Dwayne Johnson-Cochran for Bibi

Vivian Lee for Eve at the Bar

Zak Shaikh for The Ignoble Rise of Lord Rex

Paula Yoo for Popular Science

And what's really cool, is that you can read all of their scripts in full! So, if you'd like to do that, click HERE and scroll down, where you'll find detailed synopses for each, as well as links to download each script.

For FAP consideration, qualified minority writers were invited to submit a current, feature-length, unproduced spec script. Entries were read and scored on a blind submission basis by a panel of judges comprised of WGAW members recruited by the FAP Advisory Committee.