These look like a pretty good bet for Oscar, too. The Scripter honors source material as well as the screenplay. It’s the only awards show that awards both. They generally vote for the movie they like best as opposed to how well respected the source material is. All five of these are worthy for the win. I suspect that Moonlight will take it and will sweep the season but it’s pretty great to see that three of these revolve around the African American experience – and that is a first.
The finalist writers for film are, in alphabetical order by film title:
- Scriptcreenwriter Eric Heisserer for “Arrival,” adapted from the novella “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang
- August Wilson for the play and screenplay of “Fences”
- Screenwriters Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi for “Hidden Figures,” based on the nonfiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly
- Luke Davies for the screenplay for “Lion,” adapted from the nonfiction book “A Long Way Home” by Saroo Brierley
- Barry Jenkins for “Moonlight,” adapted from “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” by Tarell Alvin McCraney
The finalist writers for television episodes are, in alphabetical order by series title:
- Screenwriters David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, for the episode “The Winds of Winter” from “Game of Thrones,” adapted from the fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin
- Frank Spotnitz, Erik Oleson, and Joe Kawasaki for the episode “Fallout” from “The Man in the High Castle,” based on the novel by Philip K. Dick
- David Farr for the miniseries “The Night Manager,” based on the espionage novel by John le Carré
- Tara Herrmann and Jenji Kohan for the episode “Toast Can’t Never Be Bread Again” from “Orange is the New Black,” adapted from the memoir by Piper Kerman, “Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison”
- Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski for the episode “Manna From Heaven” from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” based on the nonfiction book “The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” by Jeffrey Toobin
