2021 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (November)

Things are looking promising…

Emerald Fennell’s visceral and brilliant screenplay for Promising Young Woman made some commotion last week as another wave of critics screenings of the film hit to unsurprising raves. It enters the top 5 and bumps down fellow Focus Features film Never Rarely Sometimes Always this month.

A ton of new entries including Let Them All Talk, starring Meryl Streep from HBO Max (it will compete in film categories for awards) and the newly announced Malcolm & Marie, which is hitting Netflix in February.

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Original Screenplay for November.

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month

1. Mank (Netflix)
Jack Fincher

2. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Aaron Sorkin

3. Minari (A24)
Lee Isaac Chung

4. Soul (Pixar)
Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers

5. Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
Emerald Fennell

6. Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee

7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
Eliza Hittman

8. The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)
Radha Blank

9. Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros)
Will Berson and Shaka King (screenplay), Keith Lucas and Kenny Lucas (story by)

10. Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
Abraham Marder, Darius Marder (screenplay), Derek Cianfrance (story by)

Other Contenders (alphabetical)

Ammonite (Neon)
Francis Lee

The Assistant (Bleecker Street)
Kitty Green

I’m Your Woman (Amazon Studios)
Julia Hart, Jordan Horowitz

Kajillionaire (Focus Features)
Miranda July

Let Them All Talk (HBO Max)
Deborah Eisenberg

Malcolm & Marie (Netflix)
Sam Levinson

Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)
Channing Godfrey Peoples

The Nest (IFC Films)
Sean Durkin

On the Rocks (A24/Apple TV+)
Sofia Coppola

Palm Springs (Hulu/Neon)
Andy Siara

Supernova (Bleecker Street)
Harry Mcqueen

Wolfwalkers (Apple TV+/Cartoon Saloon)
Jericca Cleland, Will Collins, Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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