HUMANITAS INDUSTRY 101 PODCAST

Episode 5.5: Winnie Holzman Kieser Award Acceptance Speech

In early September, Humanitas presented the 2026 Kieser Award to Winnie Holzman at the Humanitas Prize Award show and toast. This episode is the recording of Winnie's inspiring acceptance speech.

Since 1974, has honored professional film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. As a part of this effort, Humanitas created the Kieser Award, named in honor of Humanitas founder. It honors those who have dedicated their substantial talent, work, and resources to creating transformative stories that celebrate our common humanity.

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Humanitas's Industry 101 is made possible with support from our series sponsor Sony Pictures Entertainment.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

MICHELLE FRANKE

00:00:06:19 - 00:00:58:17

Welcome to Humanitas Industry 101 podcast. I'm Michele Frank, executive director of Humanitas. Since 1974, has honored professional film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way.

As a part of this effort. Humanitas created the Kieser Award, named in honor of Humanitas founder. It honors those who have dedicated their substantial talent, work, and resources to creating transformative stories that celebrate our common humanity.

In early September, Humanitas presented the 2026 Kieser Award to Winnie Holzman at the Humanitas Prize Award show and toast. The following is the recording of Winnie's inspiring acceptance speech, which we wanted to share with you. We hope you enjoy.

[MUSIC]

WINNIE HOLZMAN

00:00:58,808 - 00:07:08,094

Thank you. My goodness. I'm glad this is a safe place to cry.

Oh, hello. Marshall Herskovitz, I love you with all my heart. I love Ed, too.

And, I didn't know Claire was going to say all those things. I, I have a pilot that I wrote for her.

If there's anyone from Netflix…

[laughter]

Marshall and Ed were my film school and beating out a story with them, it was joyful and exhilarating.

It was so much fun. It was like flying.

I wish that every artist in this room, especially those wonderful fellowship winners, could have the experience I had of being mentored by Marshall and Ed.

I mean, being yourself is a dangerous proposition, but they made it safe for me. And, you know, their faith

that they had in me. You know, it lifted me up and it still does.

What a privilege to live the life of a writer where you're always a beginner, you know, forced to face fears, all your fears, discovering new insights about yourself and the world. And you get to have wonderful writer friends.

Thank you everyone at Humanitas. I was so moved by all that everyone shared.

I feel so blessed to be receiving this award named for Father Kieser, and I use the word blessed deliberately because I'm so sick of fundamentalists hogging God.

Father Kieser- Go ahead. It's okay.

[laughter]

Father Kieser understood that we storytellers are called not just to awaken to our own souls, but to create more soulfulness in this world.

I share this honor with all the extraordinary artists I've been blessed to collaborate with. You just saw one of the most amazing ones, Claire [Danes]. And a very special thanks to two very special collaborators, my daughter Savannah, and my husband of 42 years, Paul Dooley.

So I was thinking of all that I wanted to, to say to all of you. And I've narrowed it down to two subjects: failure and death.

Failure because it's, it's such a big part of our careers of being an artist, the the willingness to fail, the resilience we have to cultivate and, and death. Because I feel that we're all witnessing kind of a slow motion death.

Right now, of, of a certain kind of country, of a certain kind of democracy, a death of our illusions, those of us who still had them. But now it's like the curtain has been drawn back, if I may reference a certain beloved American film, and we are faced with our own failure, our own racism, our own brutality, our own misogyny, our own fraudulence.

And I know that all of those injustices were always part of this country. But, but there was also always a real aspiration to transcend them, to be better.

And at this moment in time, we have failed.

And the question is, who do we choose to be now? Because the good news is that all of us, as storytellers, know from experience what it's like to have a project we care about fall apart, to have our fondest dreams crushed.

And because we all have experience that we know that out of that devastation and loss can come a new idea. And often that new idea that comes when your heart has been fully broken and it seems all hope is lost.

That new energy, it comes from a deeper place, and we are able to see ourselves and each other not through a glass darkly, but with wisdom and insight and true humility. So let's lean on that, okay?

Because we know as storytellers that complete and abject failure is never the end of the story. It's never the end of the story. It's. It's, it's what leads to new life. It, it leads to new purpose. It gives us purpose. Every story of any depth that we've ever written or wanted to write or witnessed teaches us that.

So let's have faith that this is true, and let's reach out with our stories and with our actions to those who are suffering and struggling right now, because no action of compassion is too small right now, let's use this hard earned wisdom that we've gained from this deeper place.

That failure has landed us to create something new within ourselves, within our communities, and ultimately our country. Because, because with all its tragic flaws. This is still our home.

And as we all know, there's no place like home.

Thank you.

[MUSIC]

MICHELLE FRANKE

00:07:18,062 - 00:07:25,945

Thanks again for listening to the Humanitas Industry 101.

If you'd like to learn more about Humanitas and the work we do, please visit our website at Humanitas Prize dot org.

Credits:

Host/Writer-Producer: Michelle Franke

Featuring: Winnie Holzman

Audio Editor-Producer: Campbell Moore

Producer: Daniel Plagens