Acclaimed as the “guru of all screenwriters” by CNN, and “the most sought after screenwriting teacher in the world,” by the Hollywood Reporter, Syd Field is the internationally celebrated author of six books on screenwriting. His classic Screenplay, considered “the Bible” of the film industry, and The Screenwriter’s Workbook are now in their 40th printing, published in 26 languages and used in more than 400 colleges and universities across the country. His book The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver has become an integral part of the Final Draft software program. He is a faculty member at the prestigious Masters of Professional Writing program at University of Southern California and has taught at USC, UCLA, AFI, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, among others and has conducted screenwriting workshops all over the world. He has led The Art of Storytelling Workshops for: the Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, Landmark Education, and The Nike Corporation and conducted Catalyst Workshops for the scientists of JPL, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Engineers.
A screenplay consultant for 20th Century Fox, Touchstone Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Universal Studios, he has worked intimately with several prominent filmmakers such as: Judd Apatow, (40 year old Virgin, Knocked Up) Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mama Tambien,), Gary Marshall (Princess Diaries), Luis Mandoki (When a Man Loves a Woman, White Palace), Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate), Roland Joffe (The Mission, City of Joy), James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets), Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher; 3 time winner of Palm D’Or, at Cannes,), Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) and Rakeysh Mehra (Rang De Besanti) nominated for Best Foreign Film, 2206 BAFTA awards. He has just completed the screenplay Pauch Karav – 5 for Rakeysh Mehra for 2010 production, and was a script consultant on My Name is Khan, for Karan Johar, for 2010 release.
By special invitation of the Ministries of Culture, Field has taught screenwriting workshops in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Berlin, Cairo, Frankfurt, Genoa, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich, and Johannesburg, South Africa. He has conducted workshops for the Canadian Film Industry in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton, was the keynote speaker at the International Film Festivals in Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo, Norway, and Warsaw, Poland as well as being the President of the International Film Jury at the 1998 Flanders International Film Festival, Ghent, Belgium. Field was the first inductee into the prestigious Screenwriting Hall of Fame of the American Screenwriting Association in 2001 and is the recipient of the 2006 Final Draft Hall of Fame Award.
“If I were writing screenplays…I would carry Syd Field around in my back pocket wherever I went.”
Steven Bochco
Writer/Producer/Director
“Hill Street Blues, LA Law, NYPD
