OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2020)
The Nominees Were...
Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, Lee Kern, & Nina Pedrad, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller, The Father
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami
Ramin Rahrani, The White Tiger
My Thoughts: Unlike Original Screenplay, the Adapted Screenplay race wasn't reliant upon Best Picture nominees to fill out the roster, mostly because there weren't enough to do so. Only two of the films nominated for the top prize in 2020 were nominated for Best Picture, which obviously meant that Oscar needed to get scrappy. While they were able to nominate at least one film that was clearly in the Best Picture conversation, two of the movies cited weren't really in that ballpark at all, which should be refreshing...except they're not all that impressive of nominees on their own.
One of those options was Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a picture with an absurdly large list of writers (I'm still confused how that was able to fly past Academy rules as they're usually pretty strict about such things). 14 years earlier, Borat was nominated for original, so it's not entirely unexpected that it got a second writing nod, though you have to assume this happened in large part due to the lack of competition. I struggle with how to cite this for a writing award, though. The most memorable moments are clearly unscripted (Cohen's horrifying, cringe-tastic interaction with a holocaust survivor, Bakalova's interview with a lecherous Rudy Giuliani), and the parts that aren't feel tagged-on. It's also clear that Bakalova had to improvise repeatedly in the film-nine nominees & her name not being one of them is an eyebrow raise.
The White Tiger was the other nominated film that wasn't in the Best Picture conversation, and honestly this is a fun throwback to when a movie would only be nominated for writing (we haven't had a lot of that in the expanded fields, but we'll be getting into the 1990's over the next year for OVP Ballots, and as a result you'll see this phenomenon more frequently). The movie's biggest problem is in its story structure, though. It relies too heavily on narration, which can be the death knell in a thriller (you telegraph too much), and while the gonzo amount of twists in the final third of the film surely is where it won its nomination, that was the least successful part-taking wild swings with the story that are rarely successful. Acting & direction, not writing, is where I think White Tiger's best attributes are.
One Night in Miami is hard to judge on its screenplay. The film itself should work better than it does, and that's because the acting is uneven. We'll get to him in our next article, so I don't want to telegraph too much, but I think Leslie Odom, Jr., is actively not good in this movie, to the point where he doesn't have any handle on this character & hurts the film. It's hard to tell, though, if it's just Odom as I honestly think Sam Cooke is poorly written. There's too many wild swings with his character, a man who had a rough life (and, it's worth remembering, would have a tough life in the years that followed this fictitious event), but whom we never get a handle on in the way we do the other characters. The actual adaptation itself onto the big screen is successful (this is a stage translation that feels organic onscreen), but I think the plot itself doesn't know what to do with one of its main characters.
Our two Best Picture nominees couldn't be more different in their approach to their screenplays. The Father is all talk (in a good way), and even more so than Miami it makes its transition to the big screen something to clamor about. Honestly-it doesn't have any of the initial "stage origin" strings attached-if you told me this was an original without context, I'd believe you. The way that the story flows, always feeling like you're learning about these characters but also being lost in something of a dream...it's masterful writing, particularly the way that Hopkins' titular character shows what he was like before dementia took ahold in moments of clarity. That we never get a respite (or know precisely what is real & what is imagined) is truly incredible.
Nomadland is a weird nominee for writing partially because that's not really what it's about-you're meant to marvel in the directing & cinematography & McDormand's lead performance. The writing is behind-the-scenes...bereft of major stars outside of the two Oscar nominees, you're inclined to assume it's largely improvised. But it's not, and the moments in the script where we reveal more about Fern are truly something. Think of the way that she gives that speech about how she's not homeless, or the late-in-the-script moment where Bob Wells talks about his dead son & why he's chosen this nomadic lifestyle. It's exposition...but it's done so organically you don't even realize it. It feels like something this character would say, explaining it as much to themselves as the world around them. Zhao is a genius, and that comes through not just in her camera, but in her keyboard.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine their writing categories so there is no adapted or original distinction, and given how this year's biggest movies were originals, it's not surprising that the nominees here were Nomadland & The Father (both losing to The Trial of the Chicago 7). For the BAFTA's, The Father won over Nomadland, The Dig, The Mauritanian, & The White Tiger, while with the WGA Borat pulled off an unlikely victory atop Ma Rainey, News of the World, One Night in Miami, & The White Tiger (a reminder that the WGA's eligibility rules are bizarre so I wouldn't count the Nomadland & The Father snubs as actual "snubs"). In terms of sixth place, I would guess given it was in the conversation somewhat that it'd be News of the World, but honestly you could go a lot of directions here as News clearly wasn't a big Oscar pleaser.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Similar to Oscar, I struggled to come up with a great list of nominees here, but I think the first name I'd like to have seen was Emma, which was a smart, cheeky interpretation of Jane Austen's work (which at this point, if you can make it fresh you deserve kudos). I'd also have included Shirley, which was a unique, sometimes bizarre look into the world of legendary short story writer Shirley Jackson that you could probably feel the heat off of it was so raw.
Oscar's Choice: It was a race between the two Best Picture nominees, and The Father (which broke well with Oscar late-in-the-game) bested Nomadland.
My Choice: I'm going to go with a similar reaction. Both of those movies are heads-and-tails above the other three, but The Father's immersive qualities are just a bit more technically impressive when it comes to writing than Nomadland's less showy work. Following them are White Tiger, One Night in Miami, and Borat 2.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Does everyone get onboard with The Father here, or does someone want to swing for the fences with a different choice? How do you think Oscar should handle sequels that are clearly not adapted from a source material (I still feel weird that we suddenly in the mid-aughts decided they were all adapted)? And was News of the World really sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
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