Gillian Flynn, the Lone Woman in a Sea of Men – Oscar Roundtable 2015

Rope of Silicon points us to this Oscars Roundtable discussion by writers. One has to marvel that with all of the films headed into the race — there isn’t a single woman writer or even co-writer among them. Except one. Not only did Flynn write the screenplay, she wrote the book upon which the screenplay was based. The last time any single female did that and go into the Oscar race was Lillian Hellman who wrote The Children’s Hour (a play) and then wrote the screenplay in 1941, 73 years ago. 73. Years. Ago. As co-writers, Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski did it for Fried Green Tomatoes in 1991, winning the Scripter even. 1991 was an extraordinary year for women as Silence of the Lambs won Best Picture, Prince of Tides and Beauty and the Beast were nominated. Callie Khouri won original screenplay, and four female writers were nominated in adapted.

The Hall of Shame for authors who adapted their own work. A crushingly embarrassing number for women who are dominating the world of fiction – but Hollywood? Move over honey, I’ll drive.

Winners:
John Irving won for Cider House Rules
Michael Blake won for Dances with Wolves
Alfred Uhry won for Driving Miss Daisy
Christopher Hampton won for Dangerous Liaisons
Peter Shaffer for Amadeus
Ernest Thompson for On Golden Pond
Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola for Godfather II
William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist
Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola for The Godfather
Paddy Chayefsky, Marty

Nominees:
Daniel Clowes and Tery Zwigoff for Ghost World
Scott Smith for The Simple Plan
Authur Miller for the Crucible
William Nicholson for Shadowlands
Michael Tolkin for The Player
Ron Kovic for Born on the 4th of July
Mark Medoff and Hesper Anderson for Children of a Lesser God
Horton Foote, Trip to Bountiful
Willy Russell for Educating Rita
Ronald Harwood for The Dresser
Harold Pinter for Betrayal
Bernard Slade for Same Time, Next year
Neil Simon, California Suite
Nicholas Meyer, The Seven Percent Solution
Neil Simon, The Sunshine Boys
Julian Barry, Lenny
Robert Anderson, The Nun’s Story
John Gay, Terence Rattigan, Separate Tables
Reginald Rose, 12 Angry Men
John Dighton, Roger MacDougall, Alexander Mackendrick, The Man in the White Suit
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Graham Greene, The Fallen Idol