USC Scripter Awards honor "Dopesick", Dune", "Passing" and more...

by Nathaniel R

The USC Scripter Awards are an annual event that is a gala fundraiser for the USC Libraries. The nominations are chosen by committee. They specifically honor the adaptations of printed works as well as the original authors. As such it's usually novels and plays that are honored. We're thrilled that Rebecca Hall's smart adaptation of Passing finally got some love. We don't know if West Side Story was ineligible but given that it's primarily canon due to its incredible musical score, it might not have felt literary enough in its original form to qualify? The nominations for film and television are after the jump...

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FYC: "Drive My Car" for Best Adapted Screenplay

by Cláudio Alves

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car, now in select theaters, is one of 2021's best films. Still, the Japanese Oscar submission is unlikely to feature much in the awards season beyond the International Film category. Or, at least, it seemed that would be the case. In a surprising turn of events, considering its fellow victors, Drive My Car won the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Film. Whether this victory signals a shift in its fortunes is unclear. Though, if there was any justice in the world, Drive My Car would be one of the season's biggest contenders.

At the very least, it deserves strong consideration for its screenplay, an adaptation of Haruki Murakami's homonymous short story. From little more than 20 pages, Hamaguchi unspooled a majestic three-hour epic…

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A Room with a View Pt 1: A Florentine Summer

Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. If you missed past installments we've gone long and deep on Rebecca (1940), West Side Story (1961),  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Cabaret (1972), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Aladdin (1992) and A League of Their Own (1992).  

 

A ROOM WITH A VIEW
(a three part retrospective)
part 1 by Cláudio Alves

Ismael Merchant and James Ivory's breakthrough hit, A Room with a View, based on the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster marked the beginning of a new era of British costume pictures. It opened in both the UK and the US in the spring of 1986 (the year we're celebrating this month at The Film Experience) on its way to becoming a beloved modern classic.

The movie won the BAFTA for Best Film and was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since it's currently streaming on both HBOMax and the Criterion Channel, it's a perfect time to revisit. Let's dive in...

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Oscar Chart Updates: Picture, Director, Screenplay, and more...

Jane Campion's new film Power of the Dog has been named the Centerpiece for the New York Film Festival. Perhaps it's wishful thinking (we've loved Campion forever) but we're betting big on it for the Oscar race. The film is set in 1920s rural Montana and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons as brothers who are at odds. The rift between them grows wider once the younger brother brings a new wife (Kirsten Dunst) home. The novel by Thomas Savage has been compared to works like East of Eden and Brokeback Mountain and if the film can live up to either of those classics' screen adaptations it will be something special.

We've been working hard on the first Oscar charts of the year.  The four acting categories and international film have yet to be posted, but the rest of the charts are now up...

• PICTURE - Will streamers like Netflix or Amazon prevail or will more traditional distributors like MGM/UA, Searchlight, Focus, A24, and SPC rise up? So many films sound exciting but we won't know which deliver on their promise until later in the year.  
• DIRECTOR - Jane Campion could become the first woman ever nominated twice in Best Director
• SCREENPLAYS  - Numerous brilliant writers have new films coming but however will they choose between Asghar Farhadi, Joel Coen, Tony Kushner, Pedro Almodóvar, Mike Mills, and Paul Thomas Anderson?
• VISUAL CATEGORIES - There's (presumably) eye candy aplenty in Dune, Last Night in Soho, House of Gucci, and Nightmare Alley
• SOUND CATEGORIES - Can it finally be Nicholas Britell's year or will he split his support with three movies (Carmen, Don't Look Up, Cruella)?
• ANIMATED FEATURE - Will Disney's musical Encanto be the frontrunner? Will Flee and Belle be the more adventurous citations?
• PREDICTION INDEX - the overview snapshot

93rd Academy Awards: A strong Adapted Screenplay race

by Eric Blume

We have our strongest list of contenders for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar that we’ve had in years…I’d argue one of the strongest ever.  These five films represent vastly different stories and emphasize different screenwriting strengths, and involve an array of intelligent decisions from the writers in delivering the best cinematic experience possible based on their source material...

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