The Paw Print

By Elena Whitford

 

Hi movie fans of Payton! I’m Elena, and this is the first of four articles where I will be commenting on this year’s Academy Award nominees. Today, here’s my breakdown of the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay categories. (My predictions for the winner of each category are in bold, and my ideal winners are underlined.)

Adapted Screenplay nominees:

• “American Fiction”
• “Barbie”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”
• “The Zone of Interest”

Original Screenplay Nominees:

• “Anatomy of a Fall”
• “The Holdovers”
• “Maestro”
• “May December”
• “Past Lives”

Clearly, both screenplay categories contain some strong contenders — all of them except “May December” were nominated for Best Picture as well. 

However, there’s a notable difference between the types of movies nominated for each award. The Adapted Screenplay category contains some of the year’s biggest blockbusters, including both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” as well as the acclaimed “American Fiction” and “Poor Things.” On the other hand, the Original Screenplay nominees are mainly smaller-budget films focusing on fewer characters. (The highest-budget films in each category, namely “Barbie” and “Maestro,” had a budget difference of $60 million.)

This could be a sign that audiences prefer more familiar stories. Going back to the numbers, the worldwide earnings of all five Adapted Screenplay nominees add to around $2.5 billion, while earnings from the Original Screenplay nominees are difficult to determine (as two of them were primarily released on Netflix) but estimates fall at under a billion dollars in total.

Four out of five of this year’s Adapted Screenplay nominees were based on books — perhaps film writers are increasingly looking for inspiration in other art forms. It’s also safer financially for movies to be made based on an already existing story, rather than for studios to take the risk and create something new.

Moving on to the awards themselves, I don’t envy the Academy voters. The stories and genres are so different among all the nominees that they’re hard to compare. How does one decide between the understated psychological horror of “The Zone of Interest” and the sparkling, fun commentary on American womanhood in “Barbie”? Or between the clever way languages are used in “Anatomy of a Fall” and the silence-driven emotional intensity in “Past Lives”? 

In short, both screenplay categories contain five strong films entirely worthy of their nominations. Really, the only change I would make is switching “Barbie” from Adapted to Original Screenplay. “Barbie” was placed in the Adapted category because Mattel invented the toy line long before the movie, but that’s where the similarity ends — Greta Gerwig came up with plot, dialogue, and supporting characters herself. By that same logic, “Maestro” should also be under Adapted Screenplay because the writers based it on real events. 

In any case, the bottom line is that 2023 was a wonderful year for screenplays, and I can’t wait to see which film wins. Readers, what are your thoughts? Who should win, and what do you think the Academy will decide?

Tune in next week for my thoughts on the Best Actor and Best Actress nominations!