Ruben Santiago-Hudson is in the running for a special honor…

Nominations have been announced for the 33rd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, with the 64-year-old half-Puerto Rican actor, playwright and director earning a nod.

The Scripter Award honors the writers of the year’s most accomplished film and episodic television series adaptations and the works on which they are based.

Santiago-Hudson is nominated in the film category for penning Netflix’s highly acclaimed film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is based on the play by August Wilson.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, March 13 online, with the annual in-person awards ceremony not possible because of the pandemic.

The 2021 Scripter selection committee culled a field of 87 film and 65 episodic series adaptations.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

FILM

Bad Education (HBO Films)
Mike Makowsky
Based on the New York magazine article “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker

First Cow (A24)
Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt
Based on the novel The Half-Life by Jon Raymond

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Based on the play by August Wilson

Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
Chloé Zhao
Based on the nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

One Night in Miami (Amazon)
Kemp Powers
Based on the play by Powers

EPISODIC SERIES

The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)
Mark Richard and Ethan Hawke for the episode “Meet the Lord,” based on the novel by James McBride

Normal People (Hulu)
Sally Rooney and Alice Birch for the fifth episode, based on the novel by Rooney

The Plot Against America (HBO)
Ed Burns and David Simon for the sixth episode, based on the novel by Philip Roth

The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
Scott Frank for the episode “Openings,” based on the novel by Walter Tevis

Unorthodox (Netflix)
Anna Winger for the first episode, based on the autobiography “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” by Deborah Feldman