Trouble with Whiplash in the Writing Categories

Pete Hammond reports that there will be a disconnect between Whiplash’s category confusion. The Academy has decided the film’s script should be adapted since a short film existed before the feature film. The film was taken from Damien Chazzelle’s original screenplay as a feature. The short is the adaptation. The Writers Guild has deemed it original. Hammond got this desperate email from the screenwriter of Flight:

“I just tried to vote for Whiplash for a Screenplay Oscar nom and I couldn’t find it as a selection on my ‘help list’—I searched and searched—I finally switched to the ADAPTED CATEGORY and I found it there. The Academy has made a HUGE mistake!!! They are gonna have to ask the writers’ branch members to re-vote….and it makes this whole voting process off kilter. HELP!!!…Unless Whiplash is NOT an original–am I crazy? Haven’t I read 100 articles about Damien wherein he tells the story of his life being the inspiration for the flick?”

The question then becomes whether voters will vote for something else in original and then see Whiplash in adapted and NOT vote for it there because it isn’t in original. Yeah, I don’t get it. I think Whiplash’s chances of a nomination are WAY higher in adapted. Here’s why.

Here are the original frontrunners:
Original Screenplay
Wes Anderson, Grand Budapest Hotel (LOCKED)
Alejandro Inarritu et al, Birdman (LOCKED)
Richard Linklater, Boyhood (LOCKED)
E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher
Paul Webb, Selma (NOT WGA eligible)
JC Chandor, A Most Violent Year
Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner (NOT WGA eligible)
Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, Interstellar
Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie)
Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias, Love is Strange
Gina Pryce Bythwood, Beyond, the Lights
Dear White People, Justin Simien (NOT WGA eligible)

Compare that to Adapted:

Adapted Screenplay

Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (LOCKED, hopefully)
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game (LOCKED)
Paul Thoman Anderson, Inherent Vice+*
Anthony McCarten, The Thoery of Everything* (NOT WGA eligible)
Nick Hornby, Wild*

You can see that adapted is much more wide open than original, and with Selma out of the original for the WGA Damien Chazelle and Whiplash should have no problem getting in, no matter what category it’s in.