Robert Towne Will Be Feted At 20th Nantucket Film Fest

The Oscar-winning Chinatown scribe will receive the 2015 Screenwriters Tribute at an event on June 27 hosted by comedian David Steinberg, the Nantucket Film Festival announced Thursday. Towne will also participate in an In Their Shoes… conversation at the festival with Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s Hardball and NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show.

Towne’s other credits include The Last Detail, Shampoo and Mission: Impossible, as well as uncredited work on The Godfather and Bonnie & Clyde. “In our 20th anniversary year we could not be more thrilled to honor the incomparable Robert Towne,” Mystelle Brabbée, fest exec director, said in the announcement. “Towne’s body of work has truly changed the landscape of American cinema.”

NFF will also honor Liz Garbus and Leslye Headland. Headland (Bachelorette) will get the New Voices in Screenwriting Award. Her second feature as writer/director, Sleeping With Other People, will screen as a Spotlight Film at the festival. Academy Award-nominee Garbus (The Farm: Angola, USA; Love, Marilyn) will receive the Special Achievement in Documentary Storytelling Award, presented by A&E IndieFilms. Her most recent film, What Happened, Miss Simone?, will screen as NFF’s Centerpiece Film prior to its premiere on Netflix.

In recognition of their contributions to NFF, the Tribute, and “their support of great storytellers,” the festival will present an anniversary Visionary Award to Bob and Suzanne Wright at the ceremony. Award presenters will be announced in the coming weeks.

Festival sponsor EPIX will  present a special panel, “Women Behind the Words: Stories from Hollywood’s Front Lines.” Moderated by NPR’s Ophira Eisenberg, the panel will feature a discussion between USC Professor Stacy L. Smith, A+E Networks President and CEO Nancy Dubuc, with additional panelists to be announced.

The 20th Annual Nantucket Film Festival will take place June 24-29th. See nantucketfilmfestival.org for information.