Los Angeles, Sep 19 (IANS): The Academy has awarded five screenwriters with the 2018 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting competition.

The winners are Allison Buckmelter and Nicolas Buckmelter ("American Refugee"), Joey Clarke, Jr. ("Miles"), Grace Sherman ("Numbers and Words"), and Wenonah Wilms ("Horsehead Girls"), reports hollywoodreporter.com.

The fellows will each receive a $35,000 prize, the first instalment of which will be distributed at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards Presentation and live read on November 8 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

For the sixth consecutive year, an ensemble of actors will read selected scenes from the winning scripts.

A total of 6,895 scripts were submitted for this year's competition. Nine individual screenwriters and one writing team were selected as finalists.

Their scripts were then read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, who ultimately voted the winners.

Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year.

The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee is chaired by Academy Writers Branch Governor Robin Swicord.