Billy Ray will deliver the keynote address at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships In Screenwriting ceremony on Nov 8 in Los Angeles.

Ray co-wrote The Hunger Games and Shattered Glass as well as the upcoming Paul Greengrass thriller Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks scheduled for release through Sony in 2013.

The Academy annually awards up to five Nicholl fellowships of $35,000 each. This year’s recipients are: Nikole Beckwith for Stockholm, Pennsylvania; Sean Robert Daniels for Killers; James DiLapo for Devils At Play; Allan Durand for Willie Francis Must Die Again; and Michael Werwie for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile.

Fellowship recipients are expected to complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year. The Academy acquires no rights to the works of the Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way in scripts are completed.