by Scott Gilbert | October 28, 2011 14:26 | Edited October 28, 2011 14:26

Young Australian writer/director receives the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, earning $30,000 for his script ‘Guns and Saris’.

For a guy who has just won $30,000, Chris Bessounian is pretty humble about his entry into Hollywood. “I had a sister – and a couch – in LA, so I decided to go there,” he says. The writer-director – along with filmmaking partner Tianna Langham – is one of the seven winners of the 26th annual Don and Gee Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship. He’s also the first Australian to win the prestigious competition.

The fellowship, which is presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is presented to up-and-coming screenwriters who have not sold or optioned a screenplay or teleplay for more than $5000. Bessounian and Langham’s entry Guns and Saris was selected from a record 6,730 scripts submitted to the competition – and buzz is now starting to build around the pair’s unconventional screenplay.

“We are getting a great deal more interest in (Guns and Saris) since the Nicholl announcement,” Bessounian says. “Hopefully you’ll get to see it in the next two years or so.” The Nicholl Fellowship is a tremendous boon to the young Aussie’s career in Hollywood – 1992 recipient Susannah Grant earned an Oscar nomination for Erin Brockovich, and 1998 fellow Mike Rich worked on the much-loved Secretariat.Guns and Saris – and its tale of sub-continental feminine uprising – represents for the pair a foot in the film industry door.

“Tianna had read an article about a female militia of untouchable women in rural India, who had taken up arms to protect themselves and each other from upper-caste violence. I was intrigued… and was moved by the plight of these people as I researched and learned as much as I could about them,” Bessounian recounts.

“I’m fascinated by subjects that immerse me in a world I wouldn’t normally be exposed to… I’ve always been drawn to the underdog, one who struggles against immense obstacles to better themselves and the world around them.”

Bessounian and Langham have collaborated before – on 2009’s Detached, and the short films The Kolaborator and An Urgent Announcement from the GCPFRC. “We work well together,” Bessounian affirms. “We have a unique balance in our writing, she’s strong in areas which I’m not and vice versa. There’s also the female/male dynamic, which I believe makes for a balanced telling of a story.”

But success wasn’t immediate for the pair. “Detached was an extremely low budget film which Tianna and I financed and threw together after pulling every favour we could. We used available locations, available cast and donated equipment.”

Guns and Saris, then, heralds Bessounian and co.’s Hollywood arrival. And while US success beckons, the young filmmaker would relish the opportunity to create cinema on his home turf.

“I would love to write and shoot something in Oz,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m always on the lookout for a uniquely Australian story to sink my teeth into; I just haven’t found it yet.”

Far from having a fixation with State-side filmmaking, Bessounian’s US residency is more a relationship of convenience than desire. When asked if he feels that his writing sensibility is more attuned to a US audience, the young Aussie replies adamantly, even defiantly.

“On the contrary,” he says. “(Future project) Butcher of Bosnia and Guns and Saris are very difficult films to make in the US. Neither has an American role in it. I think my sensibility is more international than strictly U.S. – or Australian, for that matter.

“Obviously, Hollywood is a big draw – there’s a huge amount of business going on here on a daily basis,” he confirms

“But I’m drawn to international stories with universal appeal that resonate with me. I don’t want to write about something I know. I’d rather write about something that educates and informs me.”