New Faculty Member Barbara Nicolosi Harrington is Raising the Bar for Christian Cinema Through Regent University’s Script and Screenwriting Program

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (October 22, 2019) – Barbara Nicolosi Harrington, Ph.D., has been named associate professor and coordinator of script and screenwriting programs within the Media & Visual Arts department of the School of Communication & the Arts at Regent University. Harrington will work with both graduate and undergraduate students. Peter Fraser, Ph.D., director of the School of Communication & the Arts made the announcement.

“Dr. Harrington’s expertise will anchor and enhance our existing curriculum and help us develop the nation’s premier script and screenwriting program. We are thrilled to have her on our team,” said Fraser.

Harrington was founder and is Chair Emeritus of the globally recognized Act One program, a nonprofit educational program to train and mentor Christians for careers as Hollywood producers, screenwriters, and directors. She has had an esteemed career in the entertainment industry as a writer, producer, script analyst and production company executive. She is a member of The Writers Guild of America-West and has written screenplays for production companies in and beyond Hollywood. Her screenplay Fatima, scheduled for release in early 2020, is being directed by Marco Pontecorvo and produced by Rose Pictures.

“Dr. Harrington is one of the most prominent Christian screenwriters in the country, and she will be instrumental in training Regent students to tell redemptive stories at the highest level of excellence,” said Peggy Southerland, professional-in-residence and department chair for Performing Arts & Music within the School of Communication & the Arts.

Harrington notes that while movies produced by Christians have become more and more technically proficient, they share a common affliction with secular projects. “Storytelling, in general, is lacking in films today. Forty years of formulaic blockbusters where spectacle comes first, and the theme and story come last, has led to a loss of the depth, wisdom and shared values that great stories produce. We have to retrain the next generation in classical storytelling principles, married to state-of-the-art technical mastery. We simply must prepare our young people to create profound stories, not just nice-looking ones.”

A highly sought public speaker on art, culture, media, and spirituality, Harrington has delivered hundreds of addresses at universities, conferences, and churches all over the world. She has been a grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, a judge for the Gabriel Awards of the Catholic Academy of Communication Arts Professionals, a Blue-Ribbon Panelist for the Angelus and Windrider student film festivals, and a reader for the prestigious Humanitas Prize for screenwriting.

Prior to coming to Regent, Harrington spent six years on the founding faculty of the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, CA. She also has served as a faculty member at the Los Angeles Film Study Center and was a guest lecturer at the Catholic University of Valencia, in Spain, and the Catholic University of Milan.

“Regent understands and values its authentic vocation of reason and faith and is committed to fighting the good fight,” said Harrington. “I am privileged join a university that upholds biblical integrity as well as academic excellence, and I am passionate about developing students who understand that they are not only meant to do work that will sell, but more urgently, work that will bring to the audience gifts of insight and encouragement – work that honors God.”

Harrington won Catholic Press Awards in 2001 and 2002 for her contributions to various Catholic magazines. She is the co-author of the 2015 release by Michael Wiese Press, “Notes: Making the Most of Feedback on Your Screenplay.” She is the co-editor with Spencer Lewerenz of the Baker Books 2006 release, Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith and Culture. She is a contributor to several other books including: the 2012 Our Sunday Visitor release, Style, Sex and Substance, the 2010 Baker Books release, For the Beauty of the Church, the 2001 Augustinian Press release, Back to the Drawing Board: The Future of the Pro-Life Movement, and Loyola Press’ The Best Catholic Writing of 2005.

Additionally, Harrington has received many awards for her work in media and culture. In 2004, she was selected as the Lay Apostle of the Year by the Legatus International Association. She won the 2006 Spirit Award from the Windrider Forum at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2010, she received the Gravitas Award for Cultural Impact from the Diocese of Trenton for her work in media in the spirit of Blessed Pope John Paul the Second. In 2013 she was honored with the Vitae Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago for leadership in the Culture of Life. Most recently, she has won numerous film festival awards for the short film, In Memory, which she executive produced.

Harrington earned a doctorate in creative writing from historic Bath Spa University in Bath, UK. She has a master’s in Film and Television from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, and a B.A. from the Great Books program at Magdalen College (now Northeast Catholic College) in Warner, NH. She also studied children’s media, animation, and documentary production at UCLA.

ABOUT REGENT UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1977, Regent University has nearly 11,000 students studying on its 70-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and online around the world. The university offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from a Christian perspective in 135+ program areas including business, communication and the arts, cybersecurity and technology, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, nursing and healthcare, and psychology. Currently, Regent University is ranked among top national universities by U.S. News & World Report and is one of only 23 universities nationally to receive an “A” rating for its comprehensive liberal arts core curriculum.

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