Screenwriting scholarships 10.07.2023

Marta Sokołowska - playwright and writer. Winner of the Kraków Miasto Literatury UNESCO award, the "First book in prose" publishing project and the "Drama!" competition organised by Dwutygodnik and the IMKA Theatre, finalist of the Aurora Competition for the Drama Award of the City of Bydgoszcz, two-time finalist of the competition devoted to Polish contemporary drama "Metafory Rzeczywistości". Author of the screenplay and director of the documentary film 'zeno-san'. Her work has been presented in many prestigious theatres and institutions, and her texts have been translated into many languages.

During her residency, Marta Sokolowska will work on the project 'Anekumena', for which the starting point is the concept of 'new complexity' - a strand of contemporary music characterised by complex musical structures and advanced performance techniques. Her dramatic text will bring together Barbara Buczek, Hans-Joachim Hespos and Klaus K. Hübler, pioneers of the 'new complexity' in Poland and Germany, who are confronted with the task of rethinking the concept of annekumena - an area that exists across and in spite of all borders.

Natalie Baudy - studied theatre and musicology in Mainz, Paris and Berlin and drama at the August Everding Theatre Academy in Munich. Since August 2018 she has been living in Berlin as a freelance writer and playwright. She is a winner of the Chemnitz Theatre Prize for Young Drama 2019 and the Audience Award of the Young Talent Competition 2022 at the Theater Drachengasse in Vienna with David Moser. Scholarship holder of the Hans Gratzer Programme at the Schauspielhaus Wien and the Drama Lab at the Wiener Wortstätten theatre. She regularly collaborates with director David Moser. Most recently, she wrote the text for "Absence", a project by director Blanca Rádóczy, which premiered at the Kosmostheater Vienna in March 2023. Her work is interested in pop culture aesthetics, digital phenomena and feminist perspectives.

During her scholarship in Krakow, Natalie Baudy will be developing her theatrical performance project 'Chorgeister', which deals with the relationship between the individual and the community and group dynamics. For the work, she will draw on the results of her anthropological research on the phenomenon of esprit de corps and solidarity in the police institution.

Magda Fertacz - playwright, film and television scriptwriter. She was, among others, a finalist of the International Stuckemarkt Competition, as well as a laureate and double finalist of the Gdynia Drama Award and a laureate of the All-Polish Competition for the Performing of Polish Contemporary Art. She is the author of more than 20 plays, including some for children. Magda Fertacz's texts are successfully performed on Polish and foreign stages. Recent premieres have taken place, among others, in Katowice, Warsaw, Krakow, Moscow, Los Angeles, New York, Israel, Boston at Harvard University, Bergen.

During her residency at Villa Decius, Magda Fertacz will be working on the performance 'She was always there' - a surreal version of a family drama, which is a careful study of the condition of Polish society after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Martin Heckmanns is a writer and playwright. He studied literature, philosophy and history in Bielefeld and Berlin. Since then, he has written more than 20 plays that have been performed on German and foreign stages (including Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Japan, Cuba and the USA). He has received a number of awards and scholarships, and his children's book was nominated for the German Youth Book Award. He lives in Berlin and Enger.

During his residency at Villa Decius, Martin Heckmanns will be working on the project 'A distant friend, a secret connection. A tragedy in five days" - a polyphonic drama set in a railway station, in which there are no protagonists, only chance encounters and collisions of different worlds and identities.

Magdalena Wleklik - graduate of Screenwriting at the Faculty of Directing and Television Production at the Faculty of Cinematography at the Łódź Film School. Currently, she is a doctoral student at this university. Author of film, television and radio scripts. Playwright. Winner of screenwriting and playwriting competitions, among others: Script Wars Main Prize, Audioteka Main Prize and Prize in the competition Imagine Sobie for the script of the film "Królowa garów" (in production), Buława Hetmańska at the 42nd Zamojski Lecie Teatralne for the drama "Władcy", Award of the Polish Radio Theatre Horyzonty Wolności for the script of the radio play "Agent of Freedom". Director of short films and radio plays. Co-founder and editor of the Library of Film Scenarios on the filmpolski.pl portal. Academic lecturer. Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Screenwriters' Association of Polish Filmmakers.

During her stay in Krakow, Magdalena Wleklik will work on a screenplay for Miłosz based on the book "Miłosz in Krakow" by Agnieszka Kosińska, Czesław Miłosz's secretary.

Claus Martin - short film director and producer. He studied directing with Götz Friedrich at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. He works as a freelance director on productions in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden. From 2001 to 2004 he was artistic director of the Oper an der Leine, where he staged many contemporary operas. His practical experience as a director is the basis for his own writing, following in the tradition of actor-authors such as Shakespeare, Molière and Nestroy. To date, 13 of his full-length plays have been published. In addition to his theatre work, he regularly writes scripts for television, including the satirical 'heute show' (ZDF), the scientific children's programme 'Woozle Goozle' (RTL) and the comedy show 'Schloss Goldbach' (SAT1). His short film 'Mission Accomplished' received numerous international awards.

During his stay at Villa Decius Claus Martin will be working on a comedy about a love story that unfolds across borders, cultures and religions - set in the contemporary context of the war in Ukraine and Polish-German relations.