At the Tribeca Film Festival last week Google announced that its CS Education in Media Program is partnering with the website The Black List for a fellowship competition to support the image of computer science and computer scientists in media (H/T STEMDaily). The Black List is a screenwriting site known for hosting the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.
The fellowship could award up to $15,000 for as many as three scripts (one film script and two episodic television pilots). The writers would use the money to support their work on new materials for six months. At the end of that period the writer(s) would present that work to Google along with a summary of how the grant helped advance that work and/or affected their career.
The submitted work would change the perception of computer science and/or computer scientists in popular culture. Projects that feature underrepresented groups in computer science would certainly qualify. The Black List will review the scripts submitted and select 10 for further consideration by Google. Those finalists will include a short biography with their work. Google would then choose as many as three recipients, but may decide not to award any if they don’t believe the 10 are of sufficient merit.
The competition period ends on July 15th. Contestants would need to post their submission on The Black List, and meet several other eligibility requirements (such as the work is original and the writer is able to enter a contract). Any script on The Black List that has a paid evaluation by 11:59 p.m. on June 15th is eligible for consideration, but authors will have to opt in to the competition. While the site does not explicitly state this, it would seem that an evaluation – and paying the fee – must happen in order to compete.
Pasco Phronesis 