37th Annual Scripter Awards

Winners Update: Last night the Scripter Awards winners were announced and novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Petr Straughan won the award for Conclave.

In accepting the award, Straughan said “Adaptation is a really strange process, you’re very much the servant of two masters. In a way it’s an act of betrayal of one master for the other.” He joked that “You start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,” crediting author Robert Harris for being “so kind, so generous, so open throughout.”

Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. “If ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,” she said, “you have only to go to a library. There you will find shelf upon shelf of books where authors have poured their knowledge, their stories, their creativity on page after page...if a library is not the very best of what society has to offer, I don't know what is.”

Earlier in the evening, Howard Rodman accepted the Ex Libris Award, which honors exceptional commitment to the USC Libraries. Rodman has been the chair of the Scripter Selection Committee for the past twelve years. Presenting him with the award was celebrated novelist Walter Mosley who credited Rodman for being an influence on thousands of writers, producers, editors, directors, and “a gardener of revelation for those of us who didn’t know where we were going or even when we had arrived.”

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January 23, 2025
Yesterday the USC Libraries announced the finalist for the current edition of the awards that honor the writers of the year's most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations, as well as the writers of works on which they are based.

Among the finalists there are some Oscar hopefuls, especially frontrunners in the adaptation category, Conclave and A Complete Unknown. As we know Conclave won the Golden Globe for adapted screenplay but was not eligible for the WGA awards with also The Wild Robot and Sing Sing not being eligible. The category is really complicated due to rules in each writing award but usually the Scripter winner goes to win the Oscar for adapted screenplay.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is The Wild Robot as is only the second animated movie nominated after Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, which won the Academy Award.

The Scripter Awards have strict eligibility rules that often result in significant exclusions; this is most notable is Wicked. But musicals are never recognized which would make Emilia Perez ineligible but also movie is in Spanish and to be considered film has to be in English. The last is the reason why I'm Still Here was also omitted.

The USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in the Town & Gown ballroom at the University of Southern California.

The Finalist Writers

Film Adaptation

James Mangold and Jay Cocks for A Complete Unknown
Based on the nonfiction book “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties” by Elijah Wald

*Peter Straughan for Conclave
Based on the novel by Robert Harris - WINNER

RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes for Nickel Boys
Based on the book “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead

Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (screenplay and story) and Clarence Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield (story) for Sing Sing
Based on the Esquire magazine article “The Sing Sing Follies” by John H. Richardson

Screenwriter Chris Sanders and novelist Peter Brown for The Wild Robot

To check the nominations for episodic series go to official site here, eventually an article will be published with the finalists. In the meantime check the press release here.   To check the winners press release go here.