Vancouver screenwriter Patty Jones (pictured) has been selected as one of five recipients of the 2013 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.

Jones, along with three other individual writers and one writing team will be able to work on their feature-length screenplays for a year with the assistance of the fellowship, which provides the writers with a $35,000 cash prize.

The five winners were selected from a shortlist of ten scripts, whittled from the more than 7,000 scripts that were submitted from around the world.

The Vancouver writer and film critic’s script  Joe Banks  was the only Canadian script that made it to the finals. 

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 359 scripts were submitted from Canada.

To apply for the fellowship screenwriters must not have earned more than $25,000 for writing a fictional work for film or television. The scripts must be originals in English. Adaptations and translations are not eligible, and only individual writers or a team of two can apply.

The Academy has stipulated that it will not acquire rights to the finished screenplays.

For the first time, the event will also feature a live read of selected scenes from the fellows’ winning scripts by an actor who is a member of the Academy.

The awards will be presented on Nov. 7  at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.