Fay Kanin, the EmmyAward-winning American screenwriter who shared an Oscar nomination for thecomedy Teacher's Pet with herlate husband Michael Kanin in 1958, has received the second Kieser Award.

Kanin will collect her honour,which is bestowed on writers whose work promotes greater human understandingand appreciation, at the annual Humanitas luncheon. The first Kieser Award wentto Bill Moyers.

The Kieser Award is namedafter Ellwood "Bud" Kieser, a priest and producer who founded the HumanitasPrize in 1974 to honour film and television writers whose work shed positivelight on the human condition.

"Fay Kanin continues to maketremendous contributions to the film and television community as a tirelessleader and role model for so many people," explained Frank Desiderio, presidentof the Humanitas Prize.

Besides being the writer of morethan 24 screenplays for film and television, Kanin served as a four-timepresident of the Motion Picture Academy, chaired the National Film PreservationBoard and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Instituteand a Trustee of the Humanitas Prize. She served as president of the ScreenBranch of The Writers Guild of America, West, who later honoured her with theValentine Davies and Morgan Cox awards.

Kanin's screenwritingcredits include the 1954 drama Rhapsody, starring Elizabeth Taylor, and the 1964 Western The Outrage, starring Paul Newman, which she adapted from Rashomon.

The finalists for this year'sHumanitas Prize for feature films and television productions will be announcedon June 17.

For the first time, theHumanitas Prize will present the David and Lynn Angell Student ComedyFellowship, which includes a $10,000 stipend to a graduate writing student.

Previous winners of theHumanitas Prize include Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me), Tim Robbins (Dead Man Walking) and Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List).