Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (Roxy ’19) will be the guest speaker at Westflix Film Festival March 18 at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood. The festival is open to the public, and tickets will be sold at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.

Sorkin will be the first screenwriter to speak at the festival since it was created in 2004 by Elizabeth Yale ’04. Speakers in the past years have include Tom Hanks, Katherine Bigelow and Alejandro González Iñárritu.

“Experts in the film industry can supply students with words of inspiration for young filmmakers and reflect on their own career path and how it developed from an early interest in high school,” Upper School Visual Arts Head Cheri Gaulke said.

Sorkin won the Golden Globe award for best screenplay for “Steve Jobs” and “The Social Network” along with dozens of other nominations in the past 20 years.

“I think that most film students are excited to hear about how he transferred his love of film into a career,” said Jenna Thompson ’16, one of the five film festival directors. “Getting a guideline or blueprint of how someone else did it so successfully is something that would aid aspiring filmmakers because it seems like such an unattainable goal.”

Sorkin is also a screenwriter, producer and playwright. Some of his most renowned works include “Moneyball” and “West Wing.”

“I think [Sorkin] will provide us with really valuable insight into what writing for featured-length film is like because it is a different process when you have to condense the content for short films,” said Shannyn Schack ’16, another festival director.