It’s Oscar Day! Time for a final blitz of the major awards. We’ll kick off the discussion with the awards for Original and Adapted Screenplay.
And the nominees are . . .
Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL-E
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Lowdown:
The screenplay awards are closest to my heart, being that I am, you know, kind of a writer. I’ve never been a believer in auteur theory–the notion that movies are primarily the director’s vision. If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage, folks.
Perhaps because of this, I find that very often, the screenplay awards go to the movies I personally would vote for Best Picture, if I could. (This doesn’t always happen, mind you. To this day, I’m mystified that Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant script for The American President never even got nominated. Go figure.)
This year, if I had a Best Picture vote, I would select Milk over Slumdog Millionaire–barely. Nothing against Slumdog–I just felt that Milk was better done overall. (Actually, if I had my druthers, The Dark Knight would be among the nominees–but that’s an argument for another day.) Anyway, as it happens, Milk and Slumdog have both garnered screenplay nominations, and both won awards from the Writers’ Guild in their respective categories. Slumdog is a virtual lock for Best Picture, and will very likely sweep up the Adapted Screenplay Oscar on the way to its coronation.
Milk faces a strong challenge in its category from WALL-E, some say, but . . . ew. Animation.
Stay tuned for more Oscarology!
