San Fernando Valley : Woman’s First Script Wins Writing Award

It’s “Nell” meets “Dances With Wolves.” Or maybe not.

However you describe it, the point is that 25-year-old Chrysanthy Balis’ first screenplay, “The Wheat Field,” landed in the laps of director Steven Spielberg and actor Michael Douglas. And they liked it.

They liked Balis’ story, that of a timid frontier woman who meets a girl raised by wolves, so much that they recently gave her first place in the Diane Thomas Screenwriting Awards, held annually as part of UCLA Extension’s continuing education writing program.

“I’m a little numb still,” said Balis, of Studio City, who works as an assistant to an actress. “People keep telling me, ‘You don’t know what this means.’ ” People also tell her she needs an agent.

About 80 scripts were submitted for consideration in the contest.

The award is named after former writing program participant Diane Thomas, whose career was just budding (“Romancing the Stone”) when she was killed in a car accident.

Douglas, who starred in “Romancing the Stone,” and Spielberg have served as judges since the contest began nine years ago.

Balis got the idea for her script after reading a book about women who had supposedly been raised by wolves. Coincidentally, her employer, actress Mary McDonnell, starred in Kevin Costner’s hit movie “Dances With Wolves.”