Press release

Michaela Coel awarded the prestigious Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship in partnership with BFI and FILM4

  • 2016 Fellow Sally Wainwright embarks on project to unveil Anne Lister's 26 year journal
  • 2013 Fellow Clio Barnard's Dark River script transformed by Fellowship
  • Fellowship worth £30,000 and includes curated journey into a world of scientific discovery
  • Award explores intersection between screenwriting and science 

Award-winning screenwriter, playwright, actress and poet Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum) receives the 2017 Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship, in partnership with BFI and Film4. The Fellowship carries an award of £30,000 together with a year-long tailored experience including unparalleled access to some of the most exciting scientific and humanities research in the world. 

Selected from over 100 names nominated by the film and television industries, the award is made in recognition of Coel’s remarkable screenwriting talent and distinctive approach to exploring the human condition.

Michaela Coel said: ‘This Fellowship couldn’t have come at a better time. Whilst retaining my individual identity as a writer, my next project will take me on a journey of discovery about brain chemistry, cognitive error, and memory, by the end of which I will undoubtedly have learned to create stories in ways that are currently foreign to me. Here at Wellcome I’ll be able to talk to experts about the diagnosis of personality disorders, cognitive patterns, how they’re formed and myriad other things.  I’m very grateful to have been chosen for this year, and can’t wait to get going.’

Now in its fifth year, the Fellowship is celebrated as a major annual award, which explores the intersection between screenwriting and science. The legacy of the programme is witnessed by the impact upon the work of previous Fellows particularly Sally Wainwright and Clio Barnard.

Last year’s Fellowship was awarded to TV screenwriter Sally Wainwright. During the year she has completed the scripts for the eight-part BBC and HBO drama Gentleman Jack about 19th century Yorkshire landowner and prolific diarist Anne Lister, who had a passion for science and medicine. Closely based on an eighteen month period of Lister’s diaries, painstakingly transcribed by Wainwright’s colleague Anna Choma, Wainwright’s plan is to continue the process of transcribing, digitising and publishing the full 26 year, 4.2million word, 6,600 page journal, one sixth of which was written in secret code. 

Sally Wainwright said: ‘It’s a wonderful opportunity that Wellcome has given me. The connections once established last longer than the year itself. The Fellowship is forever.’ Wainwright continued, ‘With the rest of my Fellowship I would like to begin the process – in conjunction with Calderdale Museums and Shibden Hall – of getting the whole of the Anne Lister journals digitalised and transcribed, so that they can go on line, reach and inspire the much wider audience that this vast and unique document surely deserves’.

During her Fellowship, Clio Barnard developed her new film Dark River and met with psychologists and psychiatrists working on traumatic memory, transforming the final script. Talking about the influence of the Fellowship Clio Barnard said: ‘The Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship opened up a new world of scientific understanding, resources and expertise for me. This had a transformative effect on the script for Dark River and on my understanding of trauma, memory and perception. The impact and influence doesn’t stop here; I will continue to mine the resources of the Wellcome Collection and scientists for future projects, which is great privilege and honour’.

Highly anticipated, Dark River received its World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival and European Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2017, and receives it UK theatrical release on 23 February 2018, distributed by Arrow Films. It is backed by Film4, Screen Yorkshire, the BFI and Wellcome, produced by Moonspun Films/Left Bank Pictures and was developed by Film4, the BFI and Wellcome. 

Simon Chaplin, Wellcome’s Director of Culture and Society, said: ‘We’re delighted that Michaela Coel has accepted this year’s Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship – this is the start of an exciting new journey which will allow her to dive deeper into the world of science and explore what it really means to be human. Coel joins Sally Wainwright, Carol Morley, Jonathan Glazer and Clio Barnard, who have each found unique ways to approach the challenges and joys of the Fellowship. This award has developed in ever more surprising and imaginative ways over the years and it is a delight to be able to see the legacies of it in the work that has been produced by these dynamic writers.’

The intention of the Fellowship is to give a screenwriter time and space to explore without the constraints of a specific project. In doing this, the partners hope to make the Fellowship’s influence profound and long-lived, and hopefully inspire films for years to come. The Fellowship is the start of a long-term relationship with Wellcome, with all fellows enjoying continued access and support.

The Fellowship, awarded by the Fellowship Panel, is chaired by Kate Leys with Lizzie Francke (Senior Development and Production Executive, BFI), Eva Yates (as part of her previous role as Creative Executive, Film4), Meroë Candy (Film and Drama Executive, Wellcome) and Iain Dodgeon (Broadcast, Games and Film Manager, Wellcome). 
Lizzie Francke, BFI Senior Production and Development Executive said: “This partnership with Wellcome has enabled us to celebrate some fantastic screenwriters in the last five years, not only supporting them with some serious creative playtime, but also giving them the fantastic head space and brain food that the ever enriching Wellcome Collection's resources provide. With this year's fellow Michaela, we have another brilliant talent – a raucously funny and fearless original voice that has so sensationally connected with audiences across performance, screen and even twitter. I really look forward to seeing what will come out of her relationship with Wellcome, having no doubt her vital and inventive sensibility will shape something for audiences to laugh and cry with as much as giving us fresh thoughts to chew on.....”

Sue Bruce Smith Film 4 Head of Commercial & Brand Strategy said: “We feel immensely privileged to be part of this Wellcome Fellowship and the mindset it encourages in us all to be endlessly curious and create an open space for debate.  Michaela is clearly a brilliant and fearless talent as evidenced both in her writing and performing, and we have no doubt that she will relish the opportunity this Fellowship will give her to dive deep into the human psyche and deliver us more unique pearls.”

Details of Fellowship 
•    A £30,000 bursary for one year

Plus Fellows can elect to take-up some or all of the following:
•    Access and introductions to leaders in the fields of science and medical history
•    Behind-the-scenes access to Henry Wellcome’s library, archive and collection of curios
•    Visits to research institutions and programmes which carry out work in areas such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis and mental health conditions
•    A personal MRI brain scan and genome analysis for insight into neuroscience and genetics
•    Direct access to contemporary science research trials
•    A new interdisciplinary space to work alongside scientists, scholars and creative practitioners – The Hub at Wellcome Collection.
 

Michaela Coel biography

Michaela Coel is an award-winning actress, playwright, screenwriter and poet.  As one of the UK’s most promising and versatile new talents, Michaela has won multiple awards for writing and starring in the hit comedy-series CHEWING GUM.  

CHEWING GUM is based on Michaela's sensational play, CHEWING GUM DREAMS, which ran at the Bush Theatre in 2012 and then at the National Theatre in 2014.  Michaela has received monumental praise for her stellar performance as the central character ‘Tracey Gordon’; a restricted, religious virgin, who desperately wants to lose her virginity. The E4 sitcom follows Tracey and her friends, navigating their way through their twenties and trying to discover the meaning of life on her estate in Tower Hamlets, East London. 

In 2016, Michaela received two Royal Television Society Awards for ‘Best Comedy Performance’ and ‘Breakthrough Performance’, a BAFTA Television Craft Award for ‘Breakthrough Talent’, the ‘Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme’ award at the Television BAFTAs and a Broadcast Digital Award for ‘Best Scripted Programme’.  The sitcom was also nominated for A BAFTA TV ‘Best Scripted Comedy’ award.  The highly anticipated second series aired earlier this year to rave reviews from around the world. 

Earlier this year she filmed an episode of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian drama series BLACK MIRROR, returning to the series for the second time. In 2016 Michaela made her first appearance on the show, in an episode directed by Joe Wright. Her other television credits include E4 comedy-drama THE ALIENS alongside Michael Socha, Ashley Walters and Michael Smiley, the BBC espionage drama LONDON SPY, starring alongside Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent, the award-winning, raw and gripping C4 drama TOP BOY and LAW AND ORDER: UK. She is currently filming a contemporary drama for BBC and Netflix.

Michaela recently filmed the lead role in a feature adaptation of the hit stage musical BEEN SO LONG, directed by Tinge Krishnan. This love story set in London also stars Arinze Kene, George Mackay and Joe Dempsie. 

Michaela’s theatre credits include acting roles in HOME directed by Nadia Fall, MEDEA and BLURRED LINES, directed by Carrie Cracknell, all at the National Theatre, and THREE BIRDS at the Bush Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange, directed by Sarah Frankcom.  Michaela attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated in 2012.

About Wellcome

Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate.

As part of our strategy for engaging audiences with science and health research, Wellcome runs initiatives which connect writers and filmmakers with science and health research to inspire future stories for screen and radio. This includes the Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship programme in the UK and India, NFTS Sky Atlantic Bridges to Industry for Drama programme, BBC Radio 4 Experimental Stories programme, and Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Screenwriter-in-Residence in partnership with Beltane Network.

Recent films and television developed and produced by Wellcome include Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, Dylan Howitt’s Out of Thin Air, Fergus O’Brien’s Against the Law, Rachel Tunnard’s Adult Life Skills, James Wood’s Quacks, Bryn Higgin’s Electricity  and Peter Strickland and Nick Fenton’s Biophilia Live.

About the BFI

The BFI Film Fund supports world-class UK filmmaking from talent and film development, through to production and audience development across exhibition, distribution and international sales. With over £50 million of National Lottery funding to invest each year, the BFI is the UK's largest public investor in film.

Highly anticipated films backed by the BFI include Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here which won Best Screenplay for Ramsay and Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete which had its World Premiere in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival; Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Saul Dibb’s Journey’s End, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Mary Shelley, Michael Pearce’s Beast and Daniel Kokotajlo’s Apostasy all of which World Premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival; Deborah Haywood’s Pin Cushion which opened the Critics’ Week at Venice; Paddy Considine’s Journeyman; Sky Neal and Kate McLarnon’s Even When I Fall; Nick Park’s Early Man; Mercedes Grower’s Brakes; Steve McLean’s Postcards from London and Matthew Jones’ The Man from Mo’ Wax.

In prep and production are Tom Harper’s Country Music; Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir; Annabel Jankel’s Tell it to the Bees; Claire Denis’s High Life; Mike Leigh’s Peterloo; Idris Elba’s Yardie; Tim Travers Hawkins’s XY Chelsea; Brian Welsh’s Beats; Wash Westmoreland’s Colette; Tinge Krishnan’s Been So Long; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War; Jim Hosking’s An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

Successful releases include Ken Loach’s 2016 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and BAFTA winner I, Daniel Blake; Andrea Arnold’s 2016 Cannes Jury Prize award-winning and BAFTA-nominated American Honey; Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2017 Oscar®-winning The Lobster; Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch which premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2017; Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country, winner of the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic at Sundance 2017 and the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; Andy Serkis’s Breathe, which opened the BFI London Film Festival; Peter Mackie Burns’s Daphne which won the Best Performance in a British Feature Film for Emily Beecham at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; Lucy Cohen’s Kingdom of Us which won the Grierson Award for the Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival; and Sophie Fiennes’s Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami.

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive by:
•    Connecting audiences to the widest choice of British and World cinema 
•    Preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations 
•    Championing emerging and world class film makers in the UK - investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work 
•    Promoting British film and talent to the world  
•    Growing the next generation of film makers and audiences
bfi.org.uk / @bfi

About Film4

Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, both new and established.

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years and David Mackenzie’s Starred Up.
Film4’s recent releases include Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch, Danny Boyle’s T2 Trainspotting, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, Todd Haynes’ Carol and Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette. Forthcoming releases include festival award winners Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here and Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, as well as Clio Barnard’s Dark River, John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman and Toby MacDonald’s Old Boys. Films in production include Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Bart Layton’s American Animals, Tinge Krishnan’s Been So Long, Iain Morris’s The Festival, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Steve McQueen’s Widows, Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family, Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience, Garth Davis’s Mary Magdalene, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Asif Kapadia’s Maradona.

For further information please visit www.film4productions.com.