David Weiss Talk
Hollywood screenwriter David Weiss (The Smurfs, Shrek 2, All Dogs Go to Heaven) gave the Keynote Talk at our Insight Festival New York Screenings event at the Skirball Auditorium of the New York University in March 2012.
David, who was also a member of the judging panel for our 2011 awards and will be in 2013, gave an entertaining and challenging over view of his life story – including his journey from the Jewish faith, through to the Christian faith and back to his Jewish faith again, taking in his experiences of film school and writing for Hollywood.
The Insight Lecture 2011
The first Insight Festival Lecture was delivered on 3rd December 2011 in Manchester, England by acclaimed screen writer Frank Cottrell Boyce who chose to speak under the title ‘Special Effect: The joy and pain of having a counter cultural set of beliefs.’
Speaking as a practising Roman Catholic, and from his years of work on the UK media scene, Frank gave a film maker’s insight into the highs and lows of the screen writer’s creative cycle. He explored the connections between inspiration and his ‘counter cultural set of beliefs.’
Frank’s prolific career has embraced writing for established UK soap operas ‘Brookside’ and ‘Coronation Street’ in the late 1980s. He has worked with directors including Danny Boyle, Alex Cox, Julien Temple and Michael Winterbottom, with whom he’s made seven films including 24 Hour Party People, A Cock and Bull Story and Welcome to Sarajevo. He has been called ‘one of the few truly inventive modern-day screenwriters’ and has recently been involved in writing the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in London.
