The USC Libraries 30th Annual Scripter Awards had trouble deciding which adapted screenplays deserved nominations this year, so they super-sized their awards with seven nominees instead of the usual five.
Because of a three-way tie, the field includes “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Logan,” “The Lost City of Z,” “Molly’s Game,” “Mudbound” and “Wonder Woman.”
In the television category, in which a two-way tie also expanded the field, the six nominees were “Alias Grace,” “Big Little Lies,” “Genius,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and “Mindhunter.”
The Scripter Awards honor both the writers of the adapted screenplay and the authors of the original works on which the films or television shows are based.
The film nominees:
Author Andreì Aciman and screenwriter James Ivory for “Call Me By Your Name”
Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber for “The Disaster Artist,” and authors Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell for their nonfiction book “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside ‘The Room,’ the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”
Screenwriters Scott Frank, Michael Green, and James Mangold, and authors Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita, Sr., for “Logan”
Screenwriter James Gray and author David Grann for “The Lost City of Z”
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and author Molly Bloom for “Molly’s Game”
Screenwriters Dee Rees and Virgil Williams and author Hillary Jordan for “Mudbound”
Screenwriter Allan Heinberg and author William Moulton Marston for “Wonder Woman”
The television nominees:
Screenwriter Sarah Polley and author Margaret Atwood for “Alias Grace”
David E. Kelley, for the episode “You Get What You Need” from “Big Little Lies,” and author Liane Moriarty
Noah Pink and Ken Biller for the episode “Einstein: Chapter One” from “Genius,” and author Walter Isaacson for his book “Einstein: His Life and Word”
Bruce Miller for the episode “Offred” from “The Handmaid’s Tale” and author Margaret Atwood
Peter Landesman, George C. Wolfe, and Alexander Woo for the television film “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” and author Rebecca Skloot
Joe Penhall and Jennifer Haley for “Episode 10” of “Mindhunter” and authors John Douglas and Mark Olshaker for their nonfiction book “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit”
The nominees were chosen from a field of 91 film adaptations and 28 television adaptations by a selection committee composed of authors, screenwriters, critics, producers and academics, and chaired by USC professor and former WGA, West president Howard Rodman.
The Scripter Awards ceremony will take place on February 10 in the Edward L. Doheny Library on the USC campus.