by Nathaniel R
It's a big night for awards -- they just keep on coming. One of the traditions we like most is the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, now in their 33rd year. They're cool because the purpose is very specific and focused. They award screenplays based on previously published material AND that material at the same time. This double honor makes sense since some adaptations are doing heavy lifting and others are kind of doing minor tweaks to the material and it can be difficult to ascertain what was actually done. Their nominees for the year are after the jump...
FILM NOMINATIONS
- Bad Education (HBO Films) Screenplay by Mike Makowsky based on the New York magazine article “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker
- First Cow (A24) Screenplay by Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt based on the novel The Half-Life by Jon Raymond
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) Screenplay by Ruben Santiago-Hudson based on the play by August Wilson
- Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) Screenplay by Chloé Zhao based on the nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
- One Night in Miami (Amazon) Screenplay by Kemp Powers based on his own play.
It's kind of a bummer that Bad Education was already an Emmy contender because it only had vague success at the Emmys and now it's getting vague success in film awards but had the release/awards effort been really targeted as either a film or a tv show perhaps it would have busted through to more acclaim?
Meanwhile, Kemp Powers is the only nominee who is honored for honing his own original material. This obviously can't be your Oscar lineup but we think The Father is the missing nominee.
EPISODIC SERIES
- The Good Lord Bird (Showtime) Screenplay by Mark Richard and Ethan Hawke for the episode “Meet the Lord,” based on the novel by James McBride
- Normal People (Hulu) Screenplay by Sally Rooney and Alice Birch for the fifth episode, based on the novel by Rooney
- The Plot Against America (HBO) Screenplay by Ed Burns and David Simon for the sixth episode, based on the novel by Philip Roth
- The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) Screenplay by Scott Frank for the episode “Openings,” based on the novel by Walter Tevis
- Unorthodox (Netflix) Screenplay by Anna Winger for the first episode, based on the autobiography "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots" by Deborah Feldman