First Impressions: Oscar's Best Screenplay Nominees Say "Hello"
Friday, January 15, 2016 at 4:00PM Manuel here. Getting a new batch of Oscar nominations is always overwhelming but since right now it’s all about first impressions, I figured we’d check in with the recently minted Oscar nominated scripts and see how they quite literally introduce themselves.
As most of these screenplays are cannily available online as FYCs (links here take you to the script), find below the very first line uttered in each nominated screenplay of 2015.
Think of it as a way of saying "Hello!" to these ten contenders...
Best Adapted Screenplay
Perhaps it's the inclusion of Nagy's beautiful adaptation but I kind of love this category, give or take the McKay script. Also, the doodle on The Martian's script is courtesy of Ridley Scott who sent that page out into space!
MODERN TRADER (V.O.)
In the late seventies banking was not a job you went into to make large sums of money. It was a good stable profession like selling insurance or accounting.
— The Big Short, Adam McKay, Charles Randolph
EILIS (mouthing)
Go back to bed.
— Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
eight more opening quotes after the jump...
JACK
Not much going on for a Friday.
— Carol, Phyllis Nagy
TEDDY
At around 4:30 a.m., central standard time, our satellites detected a storm approaching the Ares 2 mission site on Mars.
— The Martian, Drew Goddard
JACK (V.O.)
You cried all day and left TV on till you were a zombie. But then I zoomed down from heaven through Skylight into Room — and I was kicking you from the inside, boom boom, and then I shot out onto Rug with my eyes wide open, and you cutted the cord and said “Hello Jack.”
— Room, Emma Donoghue
Best Original Screenplay
Funny story, last time Tom McCarthy was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category he shared his nomination with Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, for Pixar's Up. Another handsome list; together these ten films make up quite the lineup, don't they?
ABEL
Excuse me.
— Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
CALEB
How long was I out?
— Ex Machina, Alex Garland
JOY (V.O.)
Do you ever look at someone and wonder, “What is going on inside their head?”
— Inside Out, Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve
YOUNG COP
How’s that going?
— Spotlight, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
TONE
Who is it?
— Straight Outta Compton, Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus
Isn't it beautiful that, regardless of how they open visually, so many of them begin with a question? By far my favorite is Jack’s intro to Room which just so perfectly sets the tone for the piece. Can we dream of a scenario wherein Donoghue sweeps in and takes the gold?
Reader Comments (10)
Yes, very solid lineups this year, although I was so pulling for "The End of the Tour" and "Mistress America" ("While We're Young" would have been snazzy, too).
Love that "Brooklyn", "Room", and "Carol" all got in for best adapted screenplay, unlike last year when Gillian Flynn didn't get nominated for "Gone Girl".
I also happen to admire the adaptation of Michael Lewis's "The Big Short", it's a very complex subject and they deserve credit for making it work.
I like "Spotlight" the most out of the original screenplays.
I love this. possibly because i've always had such a thing for introductions in films and this is like the whole film introducing itself.
This is indeed a nice lineup. All of the nominees I've seen have marvelous screenplays. My biggest Oscar pet peeve, though (bigger than category fraud or age/sex/racism), is when a true-story script is deemed "original" just because there wasn't some random book or article to base it off of.
Guest -- i have the same issue. I almost think it would be better to have the categories divvied up by true story/adapted or original.... the only grey area than would be films that are original but are riffing on true stories or past works (like Blue Jasmine -- which fused the Madoff scandal with Streetcar Named Desire.
Is there any possibility that Inside Out surprises with a Screenplay win?
Guest and Nat: I'd argue for three categories to push it down to no grey areas. Original, Expanding (sequels, original riffs (like Blue Jasmine) and most superhero adaptations if we're being honest) and Adapted/True Story.
Also: Stricter rules about the disclosure of the percentage of material on screen that's improvised and the introduction of special awards for exceptionally done improv in movies where 50% or more is, in some fashion, improvised. (Note: I think this should have been instituted after the first or second nomination for Mike Leigh. Because, though his process is phenomenal, it's not really a writing process, it's an improvisational acting process.)
Its a great list, wld have been perfect if Sorkin was nom for his Golden Globe winning script
The Sorkin snub was odd. I thought it was one of the best scripts of the year. I could've done without The Martian.