USC Scripter nominees: ‘Leave No Trace,’ ‘Beale Street,’ ‘Death of Stalin’

The USC Scripter honors the adapted screenplays for film and television plus the authors of the source material they’re adapted from.

Today, the USC Libraries named the 31st USC Scripter five nominees in film and six in television (due to a tie and combines limited series and regular drama series). The Scripter selection committee, chaired by USC professor and former Writers Guild of America, West, president Howard Rodman, chose the finalists from a field of 90 film and 55 TV adaptations.

There were some big surprises this morning, mostly in the snubs for BlacKkKlansman and A Star Is Born. While the latter may not be that much of a surprise considering the sheer volume of names and previous screenplays this 4th version of that film contain (and it probably was ineligible in the first place), that the former is missing is definitely a shock. BlacKkKlansman is a BAFTA, BFCA and WGA nominee so this snub raises some eyebrows. The inclusion of The Death of Stalin is interesting since 2009’s In the Loop was on a similar trajectory to its surprise Oscar nomination.

Many USC Scripter winners have often gone from here to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar win. In fact, every winner since 2010 has, from The Social Network to The Big Short to last year’s Call Me By Your Name.

The winners will be announced on February 9th at the Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.

Here are the nominees.

Screenwriters Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole for Black Panther, based on the character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty and author Lee Israel for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Screenwriters Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, and David Schneider for The Death of Stalin, based on the graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin
Screenwriter Barry Jenkins and author James Baldwin for If Beale Street Could Talk
Screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini for Leave No Trace based on the novel My Abandonment by Peter Rock.
 
The finalist writers for television are, in alphabetical order by series title:

Tom Rob Smith, for the episode “The Man Who Would Be Vogue” from The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, and author Maureen Orth for the nonfiction book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History
Bruce Miller and Kira Snyder, for the episode “Holly” from The Handmaid’s Tale, and author Margaret Atwood
Dan Futterman and Ali Selim, for the episode “9/11” from The Looming Tower, and author Lawrence Wright
David Nicholls for the episode “Bad News,” from Patrick Melrose, based on the series of novels by Edward St. Aubyn
Marti Noxon for the episode “Vanish,” from Sharp Objects, and author Gillian Flynn
Russell T Davies, for A Very English Scandal, and author John Preston