Last week, the USC Libraries announced the finalists for the 38th-annual Scripter Awards, honoring the year’s most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen. Several entertainment news outlets covered the announcement.
IndieWire's Marcus Jones highlighted what sets the Scripter Awards apart from any other adapted screenplay prize:
One unique element to the Scripter Awards is that, in their focus on honoring the written word as a source of inspiration for screen storytellers, only works adapted from books or book series, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, plays, or magazine articles are eligible. The rules have changed this year for video game adaptations like “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” to no longer be eligible. Characters originating in previously published works are also not considered eligible source material, so films like “Wake Up Dead Man” and “Bugonia” were not in the running for the film award.
The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg—who is also a member of the Scripter Selection Committee—characterized the inclusion of Peter Hujar's Day, written by Ira Sachs and based on the book by Linda Rosenkrantz, as a "surprise":
This year’s most unexpected nominee is surely "Peter Hujar’s Day," which has had a much lower profile than the other nominees. Apart from nominations for five Spirit Awards, including best feature, it had received no other recognition this awards season. But Sachs is a highly respected writer, and his adaptation beat out the likes of "Die My Love," "Hedda," "The Life of Chuck," "The Long Walk," "Mickey 17," "Nuremberg," "Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere" and "Wicked: For Good."
Feinberg also noted that many of this year's finalists are no strangers to the Scripter Awards:
Hamnet nominee Zhao was previously nominated for — and won — the best film adaptation Scripter Award for 2020’s "Nomadland." "Train Dreams" nominees Bentley and Kwedar were nominated for it at the most recent Scripter Awards, for "Sing Sing." "Frankenstein" nominee del Toro was previously nominated for it for 2022’s "Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio," which was the first-ever animated nominee. And "One Battle After Another" nominee Anderson was previously nominated for it for 2007’s "There Will Be Blood" and 2014’s "Inherent Vice," the latter of which, like "One Battle," was adapted from a Pynchon novel...
"Slow Horses" — and specifically, its writer Smith — has received Scripter nominations in each of the past three years, winning in the first two of those. (No other TV program has won more than once.) "Dept. Q" nominee Frank won this award for 2020’s "The Queen’s Gambit," and was also nominated for the film adaptation Scripter Award for 1995’s "Get Shorty" and 2017’s "Logan." And "Death by Lightning" nominee Makowsky was previously nominated for the film adaptation Scripter Award for 2020’s "Bad Education."
Several journalists also highlighted the Scripter Award's role as a bellwether for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, including Variety's Clayton Davis:
Since [2009], only two Scripter-winning (and Scripter-eligible) have lost the Academy Award: “Up in the Air” (2009), which lost to “Precious,” and “Little Women” (2019), which lost to “Jojo Rabbit.” Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” (2018) is the only Oscar winner in that span that failed to earn a Scripter nomination (that was eligible). That year also marked the Scripters’ weakest Oscar overlap — only one of their five nominees, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, earned an Oscar nod. It lost the Scripter to Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” which was not nominated for an Oscar.
More recently, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter” (2021) won the Scripter but lost the Oscar to “CODA,” which was ineligible for the Scripter. The last time both winners were eligible but diverged was in 2005, when “Capote” won the Scripter and “Brokeback Mountain” took home the Oscar.
Awards Radar, AwardsWatch, Deadline, and The Wrap also carried the announcement.