Just like every year, the USC Scripter Awards nominations give us a good idea of what movies might be up for Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars and WGA Awards with the caveat that these are awarded to films and television shows based on previously printed source material, and the award goes to both the screenwriter and the original author of the work.
This year, the nominations for the 36th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards in the film category were Oppenheimer, Origin, American Fiction, Poor Things, and Killers of the Flower Moon, while the television finalists were The Crown, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Last of Us, Winning Time, and last year’s winner, Slow Horses.
Last year’s USC Scripter for film went to Sarah Polley and author Miriam Toews for Women Talking, which also went on to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
One interesting note about the film nominees is that Ava DuVernay‘s Origin was being submitted as an Original Screenplay for the Oscars.
This year’s Scripter Awards will be held at a black tie dinner at USC’s Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, March 2, 2024, which will be in the middle of the final voting for the 76th WGA Awards, which have been delayed to April 14th due to the writers strike.
Winners will be revealed March 2 during a black-tie dinner at USC’s Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library.
The 2024 Scripter selection committee, chaired by USC professor Howard Rodman, selected the finalists from a field of 80 film and 56 episodic series adaptations.
You can read the full list of nominees below:
FILM
Cord Jefferson for American Fiction
Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett
Amazon MGM Studios / Graywolf Press
Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon
Based on the nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Apple Original Films / Vintage Books
Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer
Based on the nonfiction book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Universal Pictures / Vintage Books
Ava DuVernay for Origin
Based on the nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Neon / Random House
Tony McNamara and novelist Alasdair Gray for Poor Things
Searchlight Pictures / Bloomsbury
EPISODIC SERIES
Peter Morgan, for the episode “Sleep, Dearie Sleep” from The Crown
Based on his stage play The Audience
Netflix / Dramatists Play Service Inc.
Scott Neustadter for the episode “Fire,” from Daisy Jones & The Six
Based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Prime Video / Random House
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for the episode “Long, Long Time” from The Last of Us
Based on the video game by Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog
HBO | Max / Sony Computer Entertainment
Will Smith for the episode “Negotiating with Tigers” from Slow Horses
Based on the novel Real Tigers by Mick Herron
Apple TV+ / Soho Crime
Max Borenstein, Rodney Barnes, and Jim Hecht for the episode “The New World,” from Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
Based on the nonfiction work Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff Pearlman
HBO | Max / Avery
