Screenplay instructor gets Oscar nomination

David Magee was nominated for an Academy Award.

A Hollywood screenwriter who is teaching a class at Emerson this semester has been nominated for an Academy Award.

David Magee’s film Life of Pi was nominated for Best Picture when nominations were announced January 10. Also nominated in the category were the films Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, Les Miserables and others. The Oscars will be presented February 24 on ABC.

“I’m honored that the Academy included me in this year’s nominees,” Magee said. “2012 has (been) one of the strongest years for films in recent memory. I couldn’t be happier to be part of this incredible list of writers and screenplays.”

Magee will teach the Advanced Screenwriting Workshop this semester during his time as Semel Chair of Screenwriting at Emerson.

Rated PG, Life of Pi is an adventure about a young man who survives a disaster at sea and forms an unexpected connection with a Bengal tiger, according to IMDB.

“Everyone on the creative team for Pi contributed to making this screenplay possible,” Magee said. “I owe the greatest debt to (Director) Ang Lee, not just for inviting me along this journey, but for the creative insight that he provided into every scene and line of dialogue I wrote, and for his gentle insistence that I never settle for ‘good enough.’”