The USC Libraries named the finalists for the 36th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the writers of the year’s most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations, as well as the writers of the works on which they are based.
The USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, March 2, 2024, in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Cord Jefferson for “American Fiction” based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett
Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese for “Killers of the Flower Moon” based on the nonfiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” by David Grann
Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer” based on the nonfiction book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Ava DuVernay for “Origin” based on the nonfiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
Screenwriter Tony McNamara and novelist Alasdair Gray for “Poor Things”
The finalist writers for episodic series are, in alphabetical order by series title:
Peter Morgan, for the episode “Sleep, Dearie Sleep,” from “The Crown,” based on his stage play “The Audience”
Scott Neustadter for the episode “Fire,” from “Daisy Jones and the Six,” based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for the episode “Long, Long Time” from “The Last of Us,” based on the video game by Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog
Will Smith for the episode “Negotiating with Tigers,” from “Slow Horses,” based on the novel “Real Tigers” by Mick Herron
Max Borenstein, Rodney Barnes and Jim Hecht for the episode “The New World,” from “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” based on the nonfiction work “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s” by Jeff Pearlman
The 2024 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists from a field of 80 film and 56 episodic series adaptations. Howard Rodman, USC professor and Vice President/Secretary of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, chairs the 2024 committee.
The studios distributing the finalist films and current publishers of the printed works are:
“American Fiction”—Amazon MGM Studios and Graywolf Press
“Killers of the Flower Moon”— Apple Original Films and Vintage Books
“Oppenheimer”—Universal Pictures and Vintage Books
“Origin”—Neon and Random House
“Poor Things”—Searchlight Pictures and Bloomsbury
The networks and streaming platforms broadcasting the finalist episodic series and current publishers of the works are:
“The Crown”—Netflix and Dramatists Play Service Inc.
“Daisy Jones and the Six”—Amazon Prime Video and Random House
“The Last of Us”—HBO | Max and Sony Computer Entertainment
“Slow Horses”—Apple TV+ and Soho Crime
“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”— HBO | Max and Avery
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.