After multiple articles about Jane Austen movie adaptations over the past year, you might have figured out I'm a big fan of the Regency writer. Her delightful mix of social satire and comical romance is pretty irresistible as are many of the films that have been made out of the author's works. Since the Oscar nominations are upon us, it feels appropriate to consider these two personal obsessions together, awards love and Austenian fandom. As it stands, many are predicting Autumn de Wilde's Emma. to score a couple of nods in the Moulin Rouge! categories of Production and Costume Design. If that happens, this latest entry in the Jane Austen cinematic universe will join a select group of movies…
While IMDb lists over 80 productions directly credited to Austen's novels, a great many of them were TV movies and miniseries, so they weren't eligible for the Oscars. From the ones that were, we can see how the 90s were Austen's time to thrive on the big screen, with 1995's Sense & Sensibility being the first, and only, Jane Austen adaptation nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. For this list, the criteria were expanded to include looser adaptations, some of which might have even been categorized as original screenplays. Whit Stillman's Metropolitan and Sharon Maguire's Bridget Jones' Diary are contemporary-set stories with modern dialogue but they're also overt re-workings of Mansfield Park and Pride & Prejudice respectively.
With no further ado, here's the list of all nominations and wins of Jane Austen movies at the Academy Awards:
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (1940)
- Best Production Design Black-and-White, Cedric Gibbons & Paul Groesse *WINNER*
METROPOLITAN (1990)
- Best Original Screenplay, Whit Stillman
SENSE & SENSIBILITY (1995)
- Best Picture, Lindsay Doran
- Best Actress, Emma Thompson
- Best Supporting Actress, Kate Winslet
- Best Adapted Screenplay, Emma Thompson *WINNER*
- Best Cinematography, Michael Coulter
- Best Costume Design, Jenny Beavan & John Bright
- Best Original Dramatic Score, Patrick Doyle
EMMA (1996)
- Best Costume Design, Ruth Myers
- Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, Rachel Portman *WINNER*
BRIDGET JONES' DIARY (2001)
- Best Actress, Renée Zellweger
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005)
- Best Actress, Keira Knightley
- Best Production Design, Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer
- Best Costume Design, Jacqueline Durran
- Best Original Score, Dario Marianelli
Three categories show up with three nominations each: Best Actress, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score. The Emma. of 2020 feels like a good bet regarding the Best Costume Design race, making that category the best place for Jane Austen adaptations to show up. In a perfect world, it would be the frontrunner for the victory but its lack of buzz in other, more above the line, categories may prove to be too strong an obstacle. We'll see.
As for movies that should be here but were ignored by AMPAS, three examples rise to the top. They are 1995's Persuasion and Clueless, as well as 2016's Love and Friendship. I count that last one among the best Austen-to-screen adaptations. Even British television's most faithful versions of the author's writing tend to miss her biting tonalities while Love & Friendship excels at representing them. I'd have nominated it for Best Adapted Screenplay, at the very least. What about you? Which of these films deserved more Oscar love? Or, perchance, less?
Emma. is streaming on HBO Max. You can also buy it from most services.