The Big Short wins USC Scripter; Show Me a Hero Wins Inaugural TV Award

Erik Anderson February 21, 2016

To absolutely no one’s surprise, The Big Short won the 28th USC Scripter award on Saturday, marching its way to its inevitable WGA and Oscar wins for Adapted Screenplay. It bested three of the four nominees it’s up against at the Oscars, with The End of the Tour replaced by Carol there. Last year, The Imitation Game won here and then at the Oscars. This year, the 28th USC Scripter selection committee chose the finalists from a field of 73 film and 18 television adaptations.

For the first time ever the USC Scripter also gave out an award for Television, which went to the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero.

Here is the full list of nominees and winners of the 2016 USC Scripter Awards:

MOTION PICTURE

The Big Short – WINNER
Screenwriters Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, adapted from Michael Lewis’s nonfiction work The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Brooklyn
Novelist Colm Toibin and screenwriter Nick Hornby

The End of the Tour
Screenwriter Donald Margulies, adapted from David Lipsky’s memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace

The Martian
Novelist Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard

Room
Emma Donoghue for the novel and screenplay

TELEVISION

Show Me a Hero – WINNER
Screenwriters William F. Zorzi and David Simon, based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Belkin

Game of Thrones
Screenwriters David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for the episode “Hardhome,” adapted from the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

The Leftovers
Damon Lindelof and Jacqueline Hoyt for the episode “Axis Mundi” from “The Leftovers,” based on the novel by Tom Perrotta

The Man in the High Castle
Frank Spotnitz for the episode “The New World,” based on the novel by Philip K. Dick

Masters of Sex
Michelle Ashford for the episode “Full Ten Count,” based on the biography by Thomas Maier, Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love

Honoring the author and screenwriter of the years best adaptation of the printed word into film and television

Since 1988, the USC Libraries Scripter Award has honored each year’s best adaptation of the printed word to film. Scripter celebrates writers and writing, collaboration, and the profound results of transforming one artistic medium into another. It stands as an emblem of libraries’ ability to inspire creative and scholarly achievement. In 2016 the USC Libraries inaugurate a new Scripter award, for television adaptation. Nearly 80 shows are eligible, almost as many as feature films, and the Scripter Selection Committee will recognize the vitality of this genre at the awards show.

The USC Libraries actively support the discovery, creation, and preservation of knowledge. We inspire students, collaborate with faculty, and engage researchers from around the world, cultivating an appreciation of the knowledge of the past and its role in informing the scholarship of the future. In so doing, we contribute to the continued success of the University of Southern California. The proceeds from Scripter support the USC Libraries’ services, collections, and programs that inspire and inform the achievements of the university’s faculty, students, and staff.

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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.