USC Scripter Nominations: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Train Dreams,’ ‘Slow Horses,’ ‘Death by Lightning’ and More
The screenplays of Frankenstein, Hamnet, One Battle After Another, Peter Hujar’s Day and Train Dreams, as well as the source material from which they were drawn, are nominated for the USC Scripter Award for best film adaptation, and the teleplays for episodes of Dark Winds, Death by Lightning, Dept. Q, Slow Horses and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, as well as the source material from which they were drawn, are nominated for the USC Scripter Award for best TV adaptation, the USC Libraries announced on Monday.
Hamnet nominee Zhao was previously nominated for and won the best film adaptation Scripter Award for 2020’s Nomadland but ultimately lost the Oscar in the adapted screenplay category to The Father, from Florian Zeller. Train Dreams nominees Bentley and Kwedar were nominated here last year for Sing Sing. Frankenstein nominee del Toro was previously nominated for it for 2022’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which was the first-ever animated nominee, and One Battle After Another nominee Anderson was previously nominated for it for 2007’s There Will Be Blood and 2014’s Inherent Vice, the latter of which was adapted from a Pynchon novel, as is One Battle, albeit very loosely.
The nominees were selected from a field of 43 film and 64 television adaptations and the winners will be selected by a jury chaired by former USC professor and current Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vice president Howard Rodman. Other jurors include critics and journalists Justin Chang, Leonard Maltin and Scott Feinberg; authors including Janet Fitch and Jonathan Lethem; screenwriters such as Eric Roth and Tyger Williams; producers including Gail Mutrux and Jennifer Todd; and Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Winners will be announced at the 38th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards ceremony, a black-tie affair in the Town & Gown ballroom on the USC campus, on Saturday, February 22, 2026.
Here are the finalist for film and television.
FILM
Guillermo del Toro for Netflix’s Frankenstein based on the novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell for Focus’ Hamnet based on O’Farrell’s novel of the same name
Paul Thomas Anderson for Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Ira Sachs for Sideshow/Janus’ Peter Hujar’s Day based on the book of the same name by Linda Rosenkrantz
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar for Netflix’s Train Dreams based on the novella of the same name by Denis Johnson
TELEVISION
Max Hurwitz and Billy Luther for the episode “Ábidoo’niidę́ę́ (What He Had Been Told),” from AMC’s Dark Winds, based on the novels Dancehall of the Dead and The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman
Mike Makowsky for the episode “Destiny of the Republic,” from Netflix’s Death by Lightning, based on Candice Millard’s nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
Chandni Lakhani and Scott Frank for the untitled first episode of Netflix’s Dept. Q, based on the novel The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Will Smith for the episode “Scars,” from Apple’s Slow Horses, based on the novel London Rules by Mick Herron
Peter Straughan for the PBS series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, based on the novel The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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