Michener Center Fellow Lara Palmqvist has been awarded the 2023 Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award from Humanitas for her feature screenplay, The Garden. The award is one of the annual Humanitas Prizes honoring film and television, which “seek[s] to recognize work that explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way.”

In addition to nine Humanitas Prizes awarded to leading industry professionals such as Craig Mazin, Tyler Perry, and Guillermo del Toro, who all received awards in 2023, Humanitas reserves two prizes annually for student writers in the genres of comedy and drama. The prize includes a monetary award as well as career resources and mentorship opportunities.

“Our judges praised the strong character work, visuals, and thematic writing on display in The Garden, and view [Lara] as a screenwriter to watch in the coming years,” wrote Daniel Plagens, Humanitas Prizes Program Manager.

“We look forward to seeing how her writing craft and her writing career will grow and develop over time; it will surely include a future writing for the screen.”

 

 

The Humanitas Prizes were celebrated on November 2, 2023, at the historic Avalon Theater in Hollywood. All photos courtesy of Humanitas.