NCSA DRAMA ALUMNUS NOMINATED FOR ACADEMY AWARD
Other Alumni Also Garner Nominations

WINSTON-SALEM – Peter Hedges, who studied acting in the School of Drama at the North Carolina School of the Arts, has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for ABOUT A BOY.

Hedges co-wrote the screenplay for the film, which stars Hugh Grant, with Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, who were also nominated. The Weitz brothers directed the film.

Based on the novel by Nick Hornby, ABOUT A BOY was nominated earlier this month for Best Adapted Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America. Last month, the film competed for a Golden Globe Award.

Hedges also wrote and directed a film called PIECES OF APRIL that was well-received at the recent Sundance Film Festival. A contender in the festival’s Dramatic Competition, the film was later sold for $3.5 million to United Artists. PIECES OF APRIL stars Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt.

Hedges, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NCSA in 1984, is well-known as a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the book and screenplay for WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (for which Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award), and the screenplay for A MAP OF THE WORLD. His most recent novel is “An Ocean in Iowa,” published by Hyperion Press. His plays include “Baby Anger” (Playwrights Horizons), “Good As New” (Manhattan Class Company) and “Imagining Brad” (Circle Repertory Theatre), all of which have been published by Dramatists Play Service. A native of Iowa, Hedges now lives in New York with his wife and two children.

The Writers Guild Awards will take place on March 8. The Academy Awards will be presented on March 23.

NCSA also has other connections to the Oscar race. NCSA School of Design & Production alumnus Tony Fanning was an art director for SPIDER-MAN, which is nominated for sound and visual effects. And NCSA School of Drama alumnus Diedrich Bader is the voice of the Saber-Toothed Tiger in ICE AGE, which is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.

These nominations top off a recent streak by NCSA alumni. School of Drama alumna Catherine Dent is a regular in the FX series “The Shield,” which took home a Golden Globe last month for Best Television Series-Drama. She was also seen in the Sci Fi Channel’s “Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken,” which was nominated for a Golden Globe. Parker Posey, who also attended the School of Drama, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in TV’s “Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay.” And School of Drama alumnus Jim Lauderdale is nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for “Lost in the Lonesome Pines/ Jim Lauderdale, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys.” The Grammys will be held Feb. 23.

Media: For more information, contact Marla Carpenter at 336-770-3337 in the public relations office at NCSA.

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