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Doug Atchison

American film director and screenwriter

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ5300255
Source-derived summary

Doug Atchison is an American motion picture director and screenwriter. He received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship for the screenplay for Akeelah and the Bee, which Atchison directed as a film in 2006.

After winning the Nicholl Fellowship, former ICM agent Lou Pitt guided Atchison's screenplay into production in partnership with Lions Gate Entertainment and 2929 Entertainment. Akeelah and the Bee went on to become a critical and modest commercial success for which Atchison won the 2007 Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Feature Film/TV Movie. In 2006, Atchison entered into a three-picture deal with The Weinstein Company.

Atchison co-wrote the 2007 film Spinning into Butter starring Sarah Jessica Parker.

It was reported in 2012 that Atchison was attached to direct a movie about the hockey player Derek Sanderson.

Atchison wrote the screenplay for the 2018 feature film Brian Banks for which he won the Humanitas Prize in the Independent Feature Film Category and for which Atchison was nominated for the 2020 Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Film).

Atchison graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Doug Atchison” as american film director and screenwriter. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Doug, Atchison and American.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006, 2007, 2012, 2018—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Doug, Atchison and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Doug Atchison”, the useful work is to connect “american film director and screenwriter” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5300255. VIAF identifies the subject as 5219289. The Library of Congress control number is n2006029342. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2007, 2012 and 2018.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Doug Atchison”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Doug Atchison primary sources, Doug Atchison archive and Doug research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Doug Atchison”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Doug Atchison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.