Paddy Chayefsky is the only person in history to have won three Oscars for solo screenwriting efforts, yet today his name goes largely unrecognized. Chayefsky’s oeuvre explores the lives of thunderously dramatic, socially alienated characters—characters who are “mad as hell,” to borrow the words immortalized in his masterpiece Network. The anger and loneliness at the heart of his screenplays were channeled from his life: his experiences as the child of Russian-Jewish immigrants, and the injuries he suffered in WWII. While many of his peers wrote invisibly, merely advancing stories from set piece to set piece, Chayefsky penned bold polemics that were the centerpieces of their films. Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words features an all-star lineup of writers (Aaron Sorkin, Merrill Markoe), actors (Bryan Cranston, Larry David), and directors (Mel Brooks, Judd Apatow), each revealing the mark that Chayefsky’s writing made on them. Those admirers often tear up while quoting his scripts, and their reverence makes it abundantly clear that Chayefsky’s impressive collection of words is well worth revisiting. —David Cohn
World Premiere
Sponsored by Sheri Cohen and Charles Green