So it’s Oscar time again, and the screenplays that have garnered nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards (2020) are indeed a diverse group.
We’d all like to believe that they are the best screenplays entered – no strings attached. BUT if you’ve been around the block once or twice you will know that there are many agendas at work, and that the stakes are high, and that life is not necessarily fair, and… well the list goes on.
So the best we can do is read the nominated screenplays and select our favourite and hope that we are proved right, or at best that our worst nominated screenplay doesn’t win.
All ten of the nominated screenplays are available in the Scribe Writers Room Screenplay archive, so if you’d like to read them before the ceremony on the 25th of April you’d best start right away.
The nominees are;
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Judas and the Black Messiah – Will Berson & Shaka King
The story of Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal
Minari – Lee Isaac Chung
A Korean family moves to Arkansas to start a farm in the 1980s
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell
A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who cross her path
Critics’ Choice Awards Winner – Best Original Screenplay
Writers Guild Award – Best Original Screenplay
Sound of Metal – Darius Marder & Abraham Marder
A heavy-metal drummer’s life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin
The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois
Sorkin won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2010 for “The Social Network”
Golden Globes Winner – Best Screenplay Motion Picture
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern
Borat returns from Kazakhstan to America and this time he reveals more about the American culture, the COVID-19 pandemic and the political elections
The film has already made Oscar history for having the most screenwriters nominated for a single film, a record previously held by the seven-person team of 1995’s “Toy Story” from Pixar.
Writers Guild Award – Best Adapted Screenplay
The Father – Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. As he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
After losing everything in the Great Recession, a woman embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad
Critics’ Choice Awards Winner – Best Adapted Screenplay
One Night in Miami… – Kemp Powers
A fictional account of one incredible night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the Civil Rights Movement and cultural upheaval of the 60s
The White Tiger – Ramin Bahrani
An ambitious Indian driver uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty and rise to the top. An epic journey based on the New York Times bestseller
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