Jesse Eisenberg talking about his film “A Real Pain,” for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. (Jaidy Pearson / Daily Nexus)

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival held its annual Writers Panel, bringing in Academy Award-nominated writers to discuss their work to a crowd of film enthusiasts.

The Feb. 8 event took place at Arlington Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara. Moderated by Anne Thompson, Editor-at-Large of IndieWire, the panel featured some of the Academy Awards-nominated writers of the year: Clint Bentley (“Sing Sing”), Jesse Eisenberg (“A Real Pain”), Joslyn Barnes (“Nickel Boys”), Mona Fastvold (“The Brutalist”), Peter Straughan (“Conclave”) and Tim Fehlbaum (“September 5”). 

“Conclave,” “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” are nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. “A Real Pain,” “The Brutalist” and “September 5” are nominated for Best Original Screenplay. 

Thompson began the panel with affection, introducing each writer with a brief background on their respective movies, and then asking each panelist for a brief rundown of how they became a screenwriter.

“My favorite panel, the smartest people in the room, the best movies of the year, all Oscar-nominated,” Thompson said. 

Barnes, a producer by day, mentioned how co-president of Plan B Entertainment Dede Gardner invited RaMell Ross, the director of the “Nickel Boys,” to chat. RaMell invited Barnes to co-write, which ultimately ended up happening. 

Bentley reflected on his early years as a writer. After graduating college, Bentley was based in Austin and getting acclimated with the art of making films. There, he met his writing partner for “Sing Sing,” Greg Kwedar. Kwedar had the idea for a film “Transpecos”, which Bentley collaborated on. 

“It was really through just trying to figure out how to write a screenplay for that to get made,” Bentley said. 

Eisenberg wrote his first screenplay at 16, which was about Woody Allen. “The script got, like, sent to people and ultimately he threatened to sue me,” Eisenberg said to a laughing audience. 

Fastvold credited her mother, a novelist, with her inclination for consistently writing. She expressed that it took her some time to “find [her] voice as a filmmaker and as a writer” due to growing up as a child actor. After writing her first film with her partner, Brady Corbet, she found the art much easier. 

“From there on, I found an easy path to tell stories through films,” Fastvold said. 

Fehlbaum originated from directing and working as a director of photography. He also directed “September 5,” in addition to writing it. He collaborated on the screenplay with Moritz Binder, his friend from film school. 

“I never enjoyed the writing process too much, before I was working with my, as you said, buddy from film school,” Fehlbaum said. 

As Binder was in the audience of the panel, Fehlbaum asked him to stand up to receive acknowledgement from the audience.

Straughan started off in theater writing in Newcastle, writing black comedy plays. He was able to get an agent from one of those plays, who inquired if he would be interested in writing films. He relayed the rest of the story with humor. 

For “Conclave,” Peter Straughan is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the upcoming Academy Awards. (Jaidy Pearson / Daily Nexus)

“I said ‘no, I just want to work in theater.’ And then they explained to me what you get paid for working in film. And I changed my mind. And I haven’t written a play since then, so yeah,” Straughan said, with the audience’s chuckles filling the room. 

After each writer discussed their origins, Thompson then asked each panelist specific questions related to their backgrounds. 

Barnes met Ross, the director of “Nickel Boys,” at Sundance Film Festival, in a producer roundtable pitch session.

“It became evident, like, everyone else in the room told him what he should do, and I just felt like he was doing something so extraordinary that no one should interfere with that,” Barnes said.

Thompson followed up on the “radical” point of view structure of the film. 

“It’s kind of treated as an extension of consciousness, the way that the camera moves,” Barnes responded. 

When asked about the brutally violent subject matter, Barnes notes that one of the team’s first decisions for the film was that they didn’t want to have any on-screen violence. 

“RaMell really wanted to find an interesting way of dealing with Black visuality and this aspect of violence. We thought we could respect the experience of people who survived the Dozier School of Boys, which is what ‘Nickel Boys’ is loosely based on, by allowing the audience to — like, relying on the audience’s own imaginative capacity,” Barnes said. 

Bentley then touched on his and Kwedar’s experience writing “Sing Sing,” which took six years from when Kwedar found the initial article about Rehabilitation Through the Arts, the program referenced in “Sing Sing.” Bentley and Kwedar volunteered as teachers within the program at Green Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in New York. They would write post-volunteering and show it to people, but something felt missing. After they made “Jockey,” another movie in 2021, Bentley felt they learned how to “let life into a script.” From there, they opened up the writing process through a new structure.

“By letting go of any control as a writer, we could get closer to the truth of what we were trying to get across,” Bentley said. 

When asked about the last scene, where Colman Domingo’s character leaves the prison after 25 years, Bentley touched on how the film was based on the real-life experience of John “Divine G” Whitfield.

“It wasn’t about this, as much like, this triumphant moment on stage. It was about what they were doing in the day-to-day in that program with each other, and where they were finding healing in the space that they were,” Bentley said. 

  Eisenberg delved into the character of Benji Kaplan, the cousin of the main character David, on “A Real Pain,” explaining how the character initially drew from a play he wrote entitled “The Spoils.” 

“I had been thinking about this kind of person for a very long time,” Eisenberg said. “I’m fascinated by these people, I feel envious of these people, these people who seem totally comfortable in their own skin, these people who seem charming, these people who show up late to every room but for some reason the people in the room are like ‘hey, he’s here, everything can start.’” 

For “The Brutalist,” Fastvold expressed how both her and Corbet had architects in their families, and she was interested in exploring “a story between an investor and an artist.” She was also excited to showcase the marriage between László and Erzsébet Toth. When asked about if the long delay in getting the movie made was helpful, she explained how she was grateful for the cast and crew they ended up with. 

“In the end, I can’t imagine the film any other way, so it feels special and beautiful that we ended up with this particular group of people,” Fastvold said.

Mona Fastvold is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “The Brutalist.” (Jaidy Pearson / Daily Nexus)

Fehlbaum highlighted how “September 5” originally aimed to tell the story of the terrorist attack and hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics from various different perspectives. However, he noted, things became a lot clearer when they decided to tell the story through the perspective of the media. He expressed that as a director, he enjoyed the challenge of telling a story where everything occurs in one place. 

“I’m so glad that we got the plug pulled on that previous approach because I think that’s the best thing that could have happened,” Fehlbaum said. 

Straughan, when asked about point of view in “Conclave,” touched on the character that was experiencing doubt about his faith. He pointed to a line in the film, “Certainty is the enemy of unity,” as being important. 

“The character who is struggling with doubt, with doubt about his faith, and in the end can embrace doubt and be uncertain, and move forward anyway,” Straughan said, underscoring a message of the film. 

When asked if there was always an explosion in the Sistine Chapel, Straughan said that there was always “one” explosion. 

“I added an extra explosion. That’s Hollywood for you,” Straughan joked.

Thompson then asked the panelists about their writing process. Straughan mainly writes in the morning, opting to edit in the afternoons. He offered advice — for anything that he plans to work on the following day, he tries to make sure it’s slightly started. Fehlbaum credited his film school buddy with help throughout the writing process, as well as a third co-writer who reviewed the script for the authenticity of the English dialogue. 

Fastvold likes to write by hand in the morning and enjoys discussing the work and conducting research. Then, both Fastvold and Corbet try to write five pages a day, at minimum. Eisenberg writes in email drafts, per the auto save feature. He wasn’t sure about what form it would take, but it ended up being an apt length for a film. 

“I just don’t want to feel like it’s a movie until I feel like it’s my personal exorcism first,” Eisenberg said. 

Bentley tries to write every day, whether it be in poetry, prose or a screenplay. He alternates writing with Kwedar as they move along the screenplay. On the hardest part of the film to write, Barnes referenced the ending, but highlighted how Ross’ direction helped the process.

“It recuperated a sense of hope inside of a film that is, it can be difficult, but the hope is in the love. And I feel like, in these times that we’re living in right now, how important it is to actually create a society where hatred cannot take root. And for us, that’s about love,” Barnes said.

Eisenberg highlighted how the scene in a concentration camp in “A Real Pain” was particularly difficult to write. 

“There’s certain locations, maybe a concentration camp is the only one, maybe ‘Sing Sing’ is another one, where it’s just, like, you have to treat it with a certain amount of reverence or it becomes exploitation,” Eisenberg said.

Straughan remembered having a tough time writing Cardinal Benitez’s speech, as it was meant to change the subsequent plot and opinions of all the characters. He found that it helped to change the speech to Spanish, as it flowed better and felt more truthful. 

On what they’re doing next, Straughan mentioned he’s doing a film with director Thomas Vinterberg, Fehlbaum would like to do something historical, Fastvold shot a musical this past summer about the Shakers, Eisenberg is working on another musical currently titled “Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Project,” Bentley finished a film adaptation of the novella “Train Dreams” and Barnes is filming an adaptation of the novel “Cities of Salt.” 

The panel ended on a thoughtful note from Barnes on the importance of cinema in a global context. The attendees responded with enthusiastic applause. 

“Just seeing you all here makes me happy because I feel like it’s so important for us to physically come together, to see each other. I feel like we have to find each other,” Barnes said.