Diablo Cody
"Juno" was runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Cody herself won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Satellite Awards, and the 2008 Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter (which she shared with Jason Reitman, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon).
Jim Mendiola
During Mendiola's Artpace residency in 2001, he collaborated with artist Ruben Ortiz Torres to create “Ozzy Goes to the Alamo,” which the duo claims to be “the world’s first Chicano 3-D movie.” Mendiola wrote and directed the one-hour movie "Come and Take It Day" (PBS national broadcast, 2002) starring Jacob Vargas and Jesse Borrego. Mendiola's first feature film, a rock and roll digital movie called "Speeder Kills" (2003) starring Amalia Ortiz and Xelina Flores, has screened at various film festivals across the country and was nationally broadcast on SíTV in the Spring of 2005. His script, “All the Young Dudes,” was chosen for participation in the 2004 IFP Screenwriter’s Lab and is currently in development. In addition, Mendiola is writing a screen adaptation of the Sandra Cisneros short story, "Bien Pretty."