Thirty one years after his death, esteemed author James Baldwin has been nominated for his first Hollywood award. Baldwin is now a nominee for the 31st Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, an honor that recognizes both the author of an original work (in his case, Baldwin’s 1974 novel “If Beale Street Could Talk”) and the writer of its film or television adaptation (Barry Jenkins, the “Beale Street” writer-director).
“If Beale Street Could Talk” is one of five films nominated for this year’s Scripter Award, along with “Black Panther,” “Leave No Trace,” “The Death of Stalin” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
In addition to Baldwin and Jenkins for “Beale Street,” the nominated writers are screenwriters Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole and original character creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for “Black Panther”; screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty and author Lee Israel for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”; screenwriters Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin and David Schneider and graphic novelists Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin for “The Death of Stalin”; and screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini and novelist Peter Rock for “Leave No Trace.”