It was announced this morning that Beau Willimon, an alumnus of both Columbia College ('99) and the School of the Arts Playwriting program ('03) has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Willimon, along with George Clooney and Grant Heslov, wrote the script for The Ides of March, which was released in October. The film was an adaptation of Willimon's play Farragut North, a story of political scandal and transgression. The Ides of March was produced and directed by George Clooney, and starred Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei and Paul Giamatti. The film was previously nominated for Best Picture by the Producer's Guild of America, and Best Picture, Best Director (Clooney), Best Actor (Gosling) and Best Screenplay at the Golden Globe Awards.
Beau Willimon is a recipient of the Lila Acheson Wallace Juilliard Playwriting Fellowship, two-time winner of the Lincoln Center Le Comte du Nouy Award, the Seymour Brick Memorial Playwriting Prize, winner of the 2005 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, and was a 2008 Playwright-in-Residence at the Donmar Warehouse in London.
