Sam Shepard to accept Distinguished Screenwriter Award

2008 Distinguished Screenwriter Awardee, Sam Shepard

“Sam Shepard has changed the landscape of American film and stage with his work as a playwright, screenwriter and actor. His work represents the spirit of the Distinguished Screenwriter Award and we are thrilled to honor him.”

- Barbara Morgan, AFF co-founder and executive director

About Sam Shepard:

Originally from Illinois, Shepard moved to New York City’s East Village in the 1960s where he became involved in writing for Off Off Broadway. Shepard’s playwriting credits include Angel City, Curse of the Starving Class, Killer’s Head, The Mad Dog Blues, Cowboy Mouth, The Rock Garden, True West and The God of Hell. In the late 1960s Shepard wrote his first screenplays, Me and My Brother (1968) and Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970); in 1979 he received the ultimate writing honor when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his three-act play Buried Child. Shepard later wrote and directed the Pulitzer-nominated and Obie-winning play Fool For Love, which Shepard also adapted for Robert Altman to direct in the 1983 screen version starring Shepard himself along with actress Kim Basinger. He wrote the screenplay and collaborated with Wim Wenders on the highly acclaimed 1984 film Paris, TX and also wrote and directed the features Far North and Silent Tongue.

Film lovers recognize Shepard for his memorable screen acting performances. He began his acting career in 1978 in Bob Dylan’s Renaldo and Clara and went on to impress critics in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven. A number of strong appearances followed including Resurrection, Raggedy Man, Frances, opposite Jessica Lange, and most notably his role as Chuck Yeager in Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff, which earned him an Academy Award^® nomination. Shepard also wrote and stared in Don’t Come Knocking. Other acting credits include Baby Boom, Steel Magnolias, Voyager, The Pelican Brief, Snow Falling on Cedars, Hamlet, All the Pretty Horses, The Pledge, Black Hawk Down, The Notebook, Stealth, Bandidas, The Return and Walker Payne. Shepard’s television films and miniseries include Larry McMurtry’s “Streets of Laredo,” “Lily Dale,” “Purgatory,” “Dash and Lilly,” which brought him both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his performance as writer Dashiell Hammett; “One Kill,” “Wild Geese,” and “Ruffian.”

Shepard’s latest acting credits include the films: Felon and Jim Sheridan’s Brothers. His one man play “Kicking A Dead Horse,” which originally opened at the Abbey in Ireland last year, just opened on July 14^th at The Public in New York.