Mardik Martin(1934-2019)

Mardik Martin is in the elite group of screenwriters on WGA's list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written. He immigrated to the United States from Iraq to attend 'New York University'. He won the Mahler award and graduated with a Master's degree in Screenwriting in 1968, then went on to teach at NYU from 1968 to 1973. Mardik moved to Hollywood after Mean Streets (1973), which he co-wrote with Martin Scorsese, became a huge success. He worked for Chartoff-Winkler Productions in the years following, writing screenplays like Valentino (1977) and collaborating with Scorsese on multiple projects before writing the first three drafts of Raging Bull (1980). Recently Martin co-wrote the screenplay to Fatih Akin's The Cut (2014) which premiered in the Competition at the 'Venice Int. Film Festival 2014'. Mardik Martin is a professor at the prestigious 'USC School of Cinematic Arts', having mentored and taught thousands of the brightest young luminaries in the movie business.