How do the Academy Awards honor writers?
The 2008 Academy Awards ceremony (the 80th annual) is scheduled for February 24 on ABC. Hopes for the traditional big glitz ceremony waver in face of the writers' strike, but the Academy will award its 24 Oscars nonetheless. Among those will be 3 specifically for writers: best adapted screenplay, best original screenplay, and best original song. Each of these awards has 5 nominees.
Of the 5 films up for Best Picture, the top dog prize, 3 are adapted screenplays and all 5 are up for the writing awards.
Does the Best Picture always win a Best Screenplay award?
No, in the last 20 years only 13 Best Picture winners also won for their scripts. Of those 13, adapted screenplays (from novels, stage plays, short stories primarily) won 9 times. This gives the authors of the adapted work boasting rights, if not an outright award. Who doesn't want to see "Made into the Academy Award-Winning Picture" splashed across his/her book jacket or advertisement?
What about songwriters?
There is an award for best original song. This year the movie "Enchanted" nearly swept the category with 3 out of the 5 nominations. The writing team of Alan Menken (music) and Stephen Schwartz (lyrics) have been nominated 18 and 8 times respectively, while it is the first nomination for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Falling Slowly - Once) and for Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas (Raise it Up - August Rush). Unfortunately, none of these movies are up for best picture.
The Oscars website has a complete list of nominees plus ton of photos, trivia and a live countdown to the big show. Enjoy!
1 comments:
I found a quote I'd like to share,
"I don't teach writing. I teach patience. Toughness. Stubbornness. The willingness to fail. I teach the life. The odd thing is most of the things that stop an inexperienced writer are so far from the truth as to be nearly the point. When you feel global doubt about your talent, that IS your talent. People who have no talent don't have any doubt." Richard Bausch.
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