Cal State LA To Honor Local Screenwriters, Production Designers and More At EAGLE-CON 2020

Eagle-Con 2020 will explore issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, identity, and representation in science fiction and fantasy across media.

Cal State LA will honor prolific author and screenwriter Steven Barnes, graphic novelist and screenwriter Brandon Easton, and production designer Rick Carter during Eagle-Con, an event that celebrates science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and superheroes.

The theme of this year's Eagle-Con is "Life: Artificial, Natural, and Undiscovered." The event will be held March 5-7 on the campus of Cal State LA.

The three-day convention will explore issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, identity, and representation in science fiction and fantasy across media. The event is supported by the Art Directors Guild.

Steven Barnes will be presented the 2020 Eagle-Con Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award on March 5 at 1:45 p.m. in the University-Student Union, Los Angeles Room. The award is given in recognition of impactful contributions to the world of science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction, with the spirit and conviction demonstrated by multi-award winning author and Cal State LA alumna Octavia E. Butler.

Barnes is a New York Times bestselling, award-winning novelist and screenwriter who is the creator of the Lifewriting writing course, which he has taught nationwide. He recently won an NAACP Image Award as co-author of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series with actor Blair Underwood and his wife, Tananarive Due. He is the author of novels Lion's Blood, The Descent of Anansi, and Twelve Days, and the screenwriter of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Andromeda, Stargate SG-1, and The Outer Limits.

The 2020 Eagle-Con Prism Award will be presented to Brandon Easton on March 6 at 11 a.m. in the University-Student Union, Los Angeles Room. The award is given annually for outstanding contributions to diversity in science fiction and fantasy across media.

A professional writer, screenwriter and educator, Easton is currently on the writing team of the Star Trek: Year Five graphic novel series from IDW Publishing. His original graphic novel Shadowlaw won the 2013 Glyph Award for Best Writer. He wrote on season two of Marvel's Agent Carter and was commissioned to adapt the Japanese horror franchise Vampire Hunter D into a TV series. He has been announced as a writer on a variety of graphic novels, including Judge Dredd: False Witness, Marvel Action: Spider-Man, Transformers: Galaxies as well as the upcoming Netflix TV series Transformers - War for Cybertron: Siege.

As part of the event's culminating program, Rick Carter will receive the 2020 Eagle-Con Imaginator Award on March 7 at 3 p.m. in the University-Student Union, Los Angeles Room. The award celebrates the standout achievement of people in the art departments of entertainment industry.

Carter is a production designer who won an Academy Award in 2013 for his design of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. In 2010, he won the Oscar for his otherworldly production design on James Cameron's top-grossing mega-hit Avatar. Carter received his first Oscar nomination for his work on Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump and for Steven Spielberg's historic epic War Horse. He is also the production designer for Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Star Wars: The Last Skywalker.

Eagle-Con will also feature a student film festival, build-a-borg workshop, art exhibition and marketplace, panel discussions, and professional development seminars. For the complete schedule, go to the Eagle-Con website.