The UNLV department of film is excited to announce that Thomas "Tex" Gresham, a graduate student in the MFA program, has won the prestigious and highly competitive Humanitas Prize.
There are two categories, comedy and drama; Gresham's script, Fix Daddy — about a father/son road trip involving a man-child and his broken TV — is in the comedy category, which is the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Fellowship. As the winner, he receives $20,000.
"It is an absolute honor to win the Humanitas David and Lynn Angell Comedy College fellowship," said Gresham. "Fix Daddy is a screenplay that challenged me to write something sincere and moving while still injecting my brand of humor. I put my whole vulnerable heart into the project. To have it recognized by such a prestigious award strengthens my drive as a writer and my resolve to challenge myself with every project."
"It's also nice to have people say you're funny. I'm very excited to see what comes next and what doors this opens," he continued. "Oh, and the money's cool, too."
"When Tom applied to the program, it was easy to see he was a writer who was already comfortable with his 'voice' as an artist. That is something that is difficult to teach, but a joy to help grow and see it mature," said Sean Clark, graduate coordinator in the film department and professor of screenwriting. "I hand out the criteria for the Humanitas Award every year, but it is a unique award in that if the material is too 'soft' it doesn't work — they like an edge to it — and Tom's voice has that edge. The award is about the story and the storyteller and we were lucky to have Tom apply to our program. This is a wonderful step for him in his career and I can't wait to see what he writes next."
Humanitas is a non-profit organization that honors and empowers film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way that brings the global community closer.
A signature Humanitas story challenges us to use our freedom to grow and develop by confronting us with our individual responsibility, examining the consequences of our choices, and entertaining us with fully realized characters and elegantly crafted stories. The overarching goal of Humanitas is to promote peace and love in the human family — one story at a time.
