Local screenwriters advance in prestigious contest

A screenwriting team with local connections is advancing in an international competition run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Late last month, Heidi Dugan and Stella Ruggiero, both 39, learned they were semifinalists in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting contest, which is administered by the same organization that presents the annual Oscars.

The Nicholl — widely regarded as the most prestigious script contest in the world — received 5,500 entries.

Each year, the competition awards up to five $35,000 fellowships to screenwriters. Winners are also invited to participate in awards week ceremonies and seminars; receive Academy member mentorship; and are expected to complete at least one original feature film screenplay during the fellowship year.

In the semifinal round, Dugan and Ruggiero’s script — a drama titled “Biography of the Bones” — will be judged by Academy members drawn from across the spectrum of the motion picture industry.

The finalist scripts will be judged by the Academy Nicholl Committee, and announced this month.

Although the two writers have their fingers crossed for the finals, they have reason to be excited no matter the outcome.

Earlier this year, they signed what’s called a “shopping agreement” for the same script with Los Angeles-based Citizen Skull Productions. A shopping agreement allows a producer to represent a script.

The script is also attached to director P.J. Palmer. Palmer wrote and directed the Oscar-qualifying short, “North Star.” That film starred 2023 Academy Award-nominee Colman Domingo and featured Kevin Bacon.

Starting with the Toronto International Film Festival this week, Dugan and Ruggiero’s script will make the rounds at industry events via producers and a sales agent.

Although the script is a drama, it centers around a mystery.

In the story, a down-and-out white man moves back home with his father, and finds human remains buried under the family porch. The discovery entangles him in a mystery that’s haunted a troubled black man for years.

After writing the first draft in 2020, Dugan and Ruggiero returned to the script for the next three years whenever they were in between other projects.

After taking it through dozens of drafts, and many rounds of notes from people in the film industry, Ruggiero began pitching the project on the team’s behalf.

She kept track of how many times she pitched the script — via Zoom or a cold-query — to folks in the film world: nearly 100 times.

“It really is true, what they say about how, ‘It only takes one yes,’” she said.

Although in this case, it was two yeses. After watching Palmer’s short film, Ruggiero emailed him about directing “Biography of the Bones.”

“We heard back from P.J. right away, and we were on a Zoom call with him in a few days. It was incredibly energizing to meet someone as excited about this story as us.”

In a coincidence of timing, the writers received word that Citizen Skull Productions was also interested in the project, and the shopping agreement was signed.

Both Dugan and Ruggiero are 2003 graduates of Maplewood High School.

Dugan, a Meadville-area native, studied at Cedarville University and earned an English degree.

Ruggiero majored in print journalism at the former Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and spent about 15 years working as a reporter and managing editor.

The writers work together long distance. Dugan lives in the Baltimore area with her husband and two young sons, while Ruggiero is in the Guys Mills area with her husband and 10-year-old son.

Working as a long-distance team means lots of phone calls, emails and Zoom meetings, but the pair has made it work for nearly 10 years.

“For the past decade, we’ve been writing in between motherhood and work,” Ruggiero said. “My son is older now, and in school, so I have much more time, but Heidi is still raising very young children. We call ourselves, ‘Two Moms Writing,’ because that’s what it’s always been, two writers trying to raise families and nurture that creative spark at the same time.”