Barbara Benedek (born 1948) is an American screenwriter best known for co-writing the 1983 film '' The Big Chill'', for which she received a Writers Guild of America Award and several award nominations.

Career

Benedek was a psychiatric researcher prior to becoming interested in screenwriting. Her first entertainment industry job was as

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

storywriter and editor for

Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions Witt/Thomas Productions is an American television and movie production company run by TV producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. The company was consistently productive between its founding in 1973 and 1999, but is still active, producing an ...

. Her first film screenplay was for the 1983 comedy-drama film '' The Big Chill''. For her work on the film she received, along with co-writer

Lawrence Kasdan Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American filmmaker. He is the co-writer of the '' Star Wars'' films ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''The Force Awakens'' (2015), and '' Solo: A Star Wars St ...

, the

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay is one of the three film writing awards given by the Writers Guild of America. Woody Allen holds the record for most wins and nominations for the award, with five wins out of twenty ...

in 1984. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay,

Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay The Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture is a Golden Globe Award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Winners and nominees 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also * Aca ...

BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Original Screenplay has been presented to its winners since 1984, when the original category (BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay) was split into two awards, the other being the B ...

, and was runner-up for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award. She went on to write screenplays for ''

Immediate Family The immediate family is a defined group of relations, used in rules or laws to determine which members of a person's family are affected by those rules. It normally includes a person's parents, siblings, spouse, and children. It can contain other ...

'' (1989) and '' Men Don't Leave'' (1990). In his two-star review of ''Men Don't Leave'', Roger Ebert speculated that Benedek's screenplay started out "a good deal more realistic and honest," but that it was subject to detrimental revisions in the filmmaking process. Benedek was an uncredited writer for the 1990 film '' Pretty Woman''. According to director

Garry Marshall Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American filmmaker and actor. He started his career in the 1960s writing for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' before he developed Neil Simon's 1965 play '' The Odd C ...

, "We had five different writers on ''Pretty Woman'' ... In all the rewrites, the part of Vivian, the prostitute, came quite easily. It was the character of the businessman, Edward Lewis, that presented the most problems. Only Barbara Benedek, the sole woman writer in the group, got the voice of Edward down by creating a Donald Trump-style executive with a vulnerable side." In 1995 Benedek wrote the screenplay for ''

Sabrina Sabrina may refer to: * Sabrina (given name), a feminine given name, including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name People * Sabrina (actress), stage name of Norma Ann Sykes (1936–2016), a British glamour model and actres ...

'', a remake of a 1954 film of the same name. It began as a fully original screenplay. Due to similarities to the 1954 film, producer

Scott Rudin Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''No Country for Old Men,'' as well as '' Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Drag ...

suggested adapting that story instead.

Filmography

*'' The Big Chill'' (1983) *''

'' (1989) *'' Men Don't Leave'' (1990) *''

'' (1995)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benedek, Barbara American women screenwriters Living people 1948 births Writers Guild of America Award winners 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women