Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer awarded Wellcome Trust and BFI Screenwriting Fellowship

Under the Skin (2013)

Jonathan Glazer, the British writer and director of Sexy Beast (2000) and Under the Skin (2013) has been named the 2014 Wellcome Trust & BFI Screenwriting Fellow, in association with Film4.

Glazer’s Fellowship, worth £30,000 and with tailored access to some of the world’s most exciting research, will run for one year from January-December 2015. The current Fellow, Clio Barnard will complete her Fellowship at the end of this year.

“Being awarded the Screenwriting fellowship is a unique opportunity,” Glazer said. “I’m looking forward to being exposed to new influences and ideas and where they might lead me. “My method of working has always been fluid and receptive, so to be gifted such incredible access will be invaluable.”

Jonathan Glazer on location for Under the Skin (2013)

This major screenwriting initiative is designed to nurture enquiring minds and unique voices and to bring the worlds of film and science closer together. Jonathan Glazer was selected by members of the Fellowship Panel, which includes script and story editor Kate Leys; Director of Strategy at the Wellcome Trust, Clare Matterson; Senior Development and Production Executive at the BFI Film Fund, Lizzie Francke; and Senior Development Editor at Film4, Eva Yates.

Lizzie Francke, Senior Development and Production Executive at the BFI, said: “Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin was the most compelling and extraordinary cinematic vision of last year – a 2014 odyssey that explored the space between male and female. The Wellcome Trust Fellowship allows him to get under another skin – exploring biomedical science – and we expect that it will have the same audacious and mind-blowing results.”

L to R: Rose Garnett (Film4), Eva Yates (Film4), Ben Roberts (BFI), Jonathan Glazer, Clare Matterson (Wellcome Trust), Kate Leys, Clio Barnard, Lizzie Franke (BFI)
Credit: Thomas Farnetti, Wellcome Images

The aim of the Fellowship is to allow a writer of exceptional talent the time and space to delve into biomedical science and humanities research. Glazer’s year-long experience will be curated by the Wellcome Trust’s Film and Drama Development Manager Meroë Candy and will give him access to the Wellcome Trust’s global network of research centres, as well as the Wellcome Library, the research centre The Hub and exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection.