Best Adapted Screenplay: Ranking Every Nominee of the 97th Academy Awards
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Best Adapted Screenplay feels like a whole different ballgame to scrutinize compared to the Best Original Screenplay category. While the latter has me analyzing a writer’s capabilities of crafting a story, characters, dialogue, and purpose, the scribes in the Best Adapted Screenplay are tasked with taking source materials and making the most out of them (or reinventing them). I still have to judge the writing on top of the art of adaptation, which can make things difficult. Usually, I find this category stuffed with all different kinds of source materials, from literature and non-fiction texts, to plays, series, and so many other different avenues. This year, all five nominees — for the most part — stem from books, which does make things feel a little stale but at least easier to rank, given the fact that it feels like all five nominees were trying to fulfill the same task (bring this text to the big screen). Which screenwriters handled their resources in the best way possible while creating their version of the story at hand?
Here are your nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay ranked from worst to best.
Biggest Snub: Queer-Screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes
I feel like a few different potential nominees could have wound up here (even the latest Nosferatu has a great case for it). I’ll elect Luca Guadagnino’s Queer as the biggest potential snub here, mainly because it previously felt impossible and asinine to try an adapt any William S. Burroughs novel for the big screen (David Cronenberg got inventive to make his version of Naked Lunch function in a way that is completely different to the novel, for instance). Queer is the kind of film that I somewhat dismissed upon my first watch but am completely enthralled by upon revisiting, and part of that comes from the nuances in Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay: an examination of a man who thought he had nothing and actually had everything he ever needed in his hands. Queer feels unique to the screen while also feeling like a faithful depiction of how Burroughs writes which felt impossible (especially the surreal moments throughout the third and final act).
5. Emilia Pérez-Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In Collaboration With Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
In ways, I think Emilia Pérez has a lot going for it, from the nuances of each character and the cultivating tension and chaos throughout the film. Having said that, despite how the film reads to me, I have to consider this both a screenplay and an adaptation. Even as a bare bones screenplay, the stereotyping was fairly strong from the jump (one of the issues I found with a film I was otherwise enthralled by). However — and not as a result of this film, I promise — I have began learning Spanish back in November, and the very basic Spanish I know has me reevaluating some of the dialogue I am able to understand (I have many Spanish friends who swear that enough of the dialogue is clunky that I believe them). The goofy lyrics in some of the song numbers (which also doesn’t apply to this category but rather Best Original Song, but I’ll still bring it up here as it’s somewhat on topic) is something I attribute to the satirical side of the film, and I think most of the intentionally silly lyrics are fine (outside of the infamous examples, which are shared so frequently online that it cannot be ignored).
As an adaptation, we have the adjustment from a French-based storyline to one that takes place in Mexico, and upon some reevaluation (this tends to happen when I go through each and every element of each Oscar nominee each year), I do think that the intentions for moving the setting are problematic, given what’s been said in the media by Jacques Audiard. I do think there is something profound in the themes of the film, particularly each character’s quest to become the best versions of themselves (even if they fail greatly), but if I’m judging which films adapted their sources the best, there is far too much toxicity, poor intention, and examples of questionable execution associated with this film and its screenplay that — despite me liking the film (although I’m beginning to question how much I do lately, considering how I feel no real reason to defend it anymore) — I have to rank it last here. For fuck sake, I never have any of these blurbs reach two paragraphs or more when I do this project, and here I am stuck in the Emilia Pérez miasma again. That’s how complicated this film and its legacy have become. As someone who saw it play at TIFF and witnessed the longest standing ovation of my lifetime to seeing Emilia Pérez become the most detested film in recent memory has not been pleasant, and a major reason why is the reflection on what choices were made and what has been said about them lately (I’ll get into the remarks of a certain star in two days).
4. A Complete Unknown-Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Sorry about that. Let’s get back to business. A Complete Unknown’s screenplay is fine. In ways, it feels a little underwritten when it comes to character arcs and realizations; I feel like how these famous figures in folk music history are written as people is quite right, but I wish there was more to them as well. On one hand, focusing just on Bob Dylan’s rise to stardom and the subsequent conquest to become electric is beneficial, and it prevents A Complete Unknown from going off the rails and tackling too much. On the other hand, the film feels a little too dialed back as a result, and Dylan — as well as other famous faces like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger — are people you want to get to know fully (I do know that a major theme of the film is that Dylan doesn’t open up, but we as an audience still need to connect with them enough). I do appreciate that A Complete Unknown didn’t go the fully-conventional path of traditional biopics, but I also feel like a Dylan film deserves to be even more textured (like his songwriting) than what we get.
3. Conclave-Screenplay by Peter Straughan
Conclave is quite well written. Its dialogue is fierce and pulpy, allowing for highly engaging conversations and sequences about politics, soul searching, and paradoxes. It makes the most of its limited setting (we are basically confined to the smaller corridors and meeting rooms within the Vatican City), has each character feel realized enough to stand out, and the majority of its developments feel organic. The two polarizing twists at the end of the film are what can affect this nomination depending on who you are. I think the very last twist involving the dilemma of trying to understand what God would want versus what we perceive God to want (contradictory, I know, but that’s part of the complexity) ties up the whole film’s quest to find a new pope really well; is there any concrete way to find the next person to represent God? Then again, the other twist (one that deals with an ongoing, growing concern surrounding the Vatican, let’s say, without spoiling) is one that feels a little less necessary, somewhat forced, and clunkier, which docks Conclave some points from me. Still a solid screenplay, all things considered.
2. Sing Sing-Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John “Divine G” Whitfield
This is a bit of a hodge-podge of an adaptation, given that it stems from a non-fiction novel, the actual play that was produced and performed at the Sing Sing facility, and real life elements (having inmates play themselves, for instance). The end result is a massive dose of honesty and rawness. Sing Sing may deceptively pretend to be a basic narrative about the troubled gestation of a community-run play and the life lessons that come with it, but it is so much more than that. It is a reflection of how society condemns those who have made mistakes, a depiction of the quest to become better people, and how much of one’s self gets projected via art (sure, acting means that you pretend to be someone else, but how much an actor places of themselves in their performances is often understated). I think Sing Sing is an experiment that works incredibly well, and I am happy to see it being nominated here (realistically, it should have been up for Best Picture and some other categories as well, but I digress).
1. Nickel Boys-Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
Of course I’m going to place the best film of 2024 — Nickel Boys — here. I don’t even know where to start with how this film was adapted, from the brilliant first-person perspective usage (this is more than just direction and cinematography; the written cues for whose perspective we see when are crucial), to the incredibly deep historical, sociopolitical context. Characters — including those we don’t really “see” but, rather, feel — are as fully realized as can be. The nonlinear time jumping is effective in creating juxtapositions that are important to understanding the impact of systemic racism on lives, societies, and futures. The dialogue is humanistic yet poignant. Colson Whitehead’s writing is understood and translated to the best version it could ever be in Nickel Boys: an impeccably written film. I really don’t have much to say for this one despite me ranking it first. I think the motion picture speaks for itself in this case. I adore it.
Who I Want To Win: I’m going to ride the Nickel Boys train. Please. Let it win something. Don’t let it be the one Best Picture nominee to go home empty handed when it is a miraculous film. That would be blasphemous.
Who I Think Will Win: I think this award is between two films, and whoever wins may have a very big night ahead of them. If Conclave, my projected, current frontrunner, wins this award but only this award, then something else is obviously going to win Best Picture. If Conclave wins this award and Best Film Editing (and, say, one or two other awards, but even just these two alone will do), don’t be shocked if it winds up winning Best Picture as well. Then there’s A Complete Unknown. Considering that there’s a high possibility that Timothée Chalamet wins Best Actor for this film, if you see A Complete Unknown winning this award at all, which it is currently second in the running to win behind Conclave, then the Bob Dylan biopic is coming in for the Best Picture win from behind, and expect it to win more than just Best Adapted Screenplay. In short, whoever wins this award has the potential to change the entire game. Especially after all of the negative press Emilia Pérez has gotten, I doubt that film will win here; however, if it somehow still has, you can be certain that AMPAS and Hollywood is still in love with this film when many other cinephiles aren’t, and there’s a chance that will perform the Best Picture upset. Just to recap, there’s a chance Conclave wins this award and nothing else. If Conclave picks up this award and anything else, expect it to win Best Picture with higher odds. Any of the other two films winning this (A Complete Unknown and Emilia Pérez, but more the latter) is an almost guarantee of the Best Picture trophy being handed to them later in the Academy Awards ceremony.
The Academy Awards Project will continue tomorrow with another category: Best Actor. We’re going to rank every single nominee in every single category, Monday through Friday. You don’t want to miss it!
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.