Go Into The Story Interview: Vanar Jaddou

My interview with the 2020 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Vanar Jaddou wrote the original screenplay “Goodbye, Iraq” which won a 2020 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Vanar about his creative background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to him.

Here are links to the entire 6-part which has run this week.

Part 1: “All the great movies I had already seen prior, I went back and read all those scripts.”

Part 2: “As anybody who’s writing historical fiction knows, there needs to be that collaboration between fact and art.”

Part 3: “Ultimately, I wanted it to be as dramatic as possible. I went to the extreme. I went to the very end of the line.”

Part 4: “Everyone’s process is different. For me, you need to put pressure on the protagonist and all the other characters any chance you can get.”

Part 5: “There needs to be one central conflict that’s the engine that’s pushing everything forward the whole time.”

Part 6: “I’ve seen people say, ‘I wrote a script in four weeks.’ I’m thinking, ‘Don’t be delusional.’”

After our formal interview, Vanar shared this with me:

“I have to tell you something. I submitted Goodbye, Iraq to the Nicholl in 2019. It only made the quarterfinals. I was disappointed. So I read some of the interviews on your blog that you did with Nicholl winners and actually reached out to some of them. A couple agreed to read my script and provide feedback and suggestions. I incorporated those changes into the script, resubmitted to the Nichol this year… and won. Honestly, I do not think I would have won had it not been for those interviews on your blog.”

Vanar is repped by Bellevue and APA.

Instagram: @vanarjaddou

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with Black List writers, go here.