A Lighter Look At Oscar Writing

The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are scheduled to be presented on March 12, 2023. Let’s discuss them a little, as they pertain to writing, and give you some fun facts!

The average Oscar viewer is arguably most interested in the 'Big 6' awards—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.

However, as a writer, and in a magazine devoted to writing, I think it’s appropriate to focus on the Oscars for writing. Since the Oirst Awards for movies released in 1927-28, there have been many changes. Initially, there was just one per Award ceremony for 'Writing'. At points in the Academy’s history, there was one for 'Best Story', or for those who didn’t actually write the screenplay. (This was discontinued after 1956.)

The modern Awards are for Best Original Screenplay, for those the writer(s) who create wholly on their own, and for Best Adapted Screenplay, which is based on a previous work, usually a short story, novel, or play. Now, let’s talk about some Oscar writing fun facts.

Frances Marion was the Oirst woman to win an Adapted Screenplay Oscar way back in 1930, as she shared the credit for “The Big House”. Ms. Marion was also one of the more proliOic scribes. She totaled 300 screenplays, of which, 130 were Oilmed, which is extremely impressive, given Hollywood’s history of sexism.

Larry McMurtry holds a weird screenwriting distinction. To date, he’s the only person who both adapted another person’s work which won for 2005's “Brokeback Mountain”, co-written with Diana Ossana,

By: Paul Stansfield

based on Annie Proulx’s book, and has also had someone else win the Oscar for adapting his own book. James L. Brooks won in 1983 for adapting McMurtry’s 1975 novel, “Terms of Endearment”.

Emma Thompson is the only person to both win an Oscar for acting—Best Actress for 1992’s “Howard’s End”*—and for Adapted Screenplay for 1995’s “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen. Several others were close, though. Among them:

Billy Bob Thorton, who won for adapting 1996’s “Slingblade” while being nominated for Best Actor for the same movie, and was nominated again for Best Supporting Actor for 1998’s “A Simple Plan”.

Sir Alec Guinness won Best Actor for 1957’s “Bridge on the River Kwai” and was nominated for adapting 1958’s “The Horse’s Mouth”.

Ruth Gordon—the old lady from “Harold and Maude” and the two "Any Which Way" Clint Eastwood movies —won Best Supporting Actress for 1968’s “Rosemary’s Baby” and was nominated, with her husband, three times for Best Original Screenplay for 1947’s “A Double Life”, 1949’s “Adam’s Rib”, and 1952’s “Pat and Mike”.

John Huston was nominated seven times for Adapted and Original Screenplays—winning for 1949’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”—and nominated once for Best Supporting Actor for 1964’s “The Cardinal”.

He also was nominated Oive times for Best Director, and won once, for “Sierra Madre".

It’s not uncommon for Oscar nominees to adapt their own plays or musicals for the screen, but it’s much rarer for authors to adapt their own novels, and of those, most of them work with someone else, usually the director, to Oinish the screenplay. To date, only four people have adapted their own books, by themselves, and won the Academy Award:

William Peter Blatty, for 1973’s “The Exorcist”, novel written in 1971.

Michael Blake, for 1990’s “Dances With Wolves”, novel written in 1988.

John Irving, for 1999’s “The Cider House Rules” from his 1985 novel.

Emma Donahue, who’s 2010 novel “Room” won in 2015.

James Kennaway, for 1960’s “Tunes of Glory”; Michael Tolkien, for 1992’s “The Player”; and Scott Smith, for 1998’s “A Simple Plan” were nominated.

You could also make a case for Nicholas Meyer for 1976’s nominated “The Seven-Per Cent Solution”, but he was using Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters.

Finally, Pierre Boulle was credited with the win for adapting 1957’s “Bridge on the River Kwai” from his own novel, but Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman actually wrote the screenplay, Boulle was just the front during the Red Scare days.

Back in the very early days of the Awards, there were different rules for numbers of nominees. In 1928-1929, there were 11 writing based nominees, of which, four were written by one man, Elliot J. Clawson (“The Cop”, “The Leatherneck”, “Sal of Singapore”, and “Skyscraper”) Even with all these chances, though, he didn’t win.

Only two comic books (aka graphic novels) have been nominated for an Oscar; 2001’s “Ghost World” by Daniel Clowes, screenplay by Clowes and Terry Zwigoff; and 2017’s “Logan” by Mark Miller and Steve McNiven, screenplay by Scott Frank, James Mangold, and Michael Green.

Woody Allen holds the record for most writing nominations, and it’s not even close. He’s been nominated 16 times, all for original screenplays. He also holds the record for most wins of Best Original Screenplay, with three. Additionally, he was nominated as Director seven times (one win), and for Best Actor once, didn’t win. He qualiOies as an *almost* for #3 on this list.

Paddy Chayefesky and Billy Wilder also won three writing Oscars total, some were Best Adapted Screenplay and some were Best Original Screenplay.

2020’s “Borat Subsequent MovieOilm” holds the record for most writers for a nominated screenplay. It took eight writers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, and Lee Kern.

Mario Puzo actually got two adapted screenplay Oscars (with Francis Ford Coppola) for one book, since “The Godfather” novel was used for 1972’s movie and partially for 1974’s “Godfather 2”, which also required some new material. Finally, and this may be my favorite bit of writing trivia, a non-existent person once received a nomination. In 2002’s “Adaptation”, a meta-tale of Charlie Kaufman adapting a book into a screenplay, one of the main characters is Charlie’s twin brother, Donald. The screenplay is credited to both, only Charlie actually exists.

* At the risk of being juvenile, this had to also be one of the easiest, if not the easiest movie titles to turn into its porn parody name, with absolutely no changes necessary.

12,2023