Tag Archives: USC Libraries Scripter Award

Ruben Santiago-Hudson Earns USC Libraries Scripter Award Nomination for Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

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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.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson

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

Mendez Wins Scripter Award

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Tony Mendez has picked up his first-ever Hollywood award…

The 72-year-old former CIA technical operations officer, who Ben Affleck portrays in his Oscar-nominated film Argo, won the 25th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award for best literary film adaptation this weekend at a gala held at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Memorial Library. Mendez shared the award with Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio and journalist Joshuah Bearman, who wrote an article entitled “The Great Escape” for Wired.

Tony Mendez II

The Scripter Award goes to both the screenwriters and the author of the material on which the script is based. Although there are normally 5 finalists, this year featured six because of a tie in balloting.

The Scripter Award is only given for adaptations, not for original screenplays, but it still has a prime slot during the final Academy balloting period. Argo beat out the other Scripter Award nominees: Beasts of the Southern Wild – Dramatist Lucy Alibar, who wrote the play Juicy and Delicious, and screenwriter Benh Zeitlin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Alibar; Life Of Pi – Novelist Yann Martel and screenwriter David Magee; Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team Of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and screenwriter Tony Kushner; Perks Of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky, author of the novel Perks of Being a Wallflower, as well as the screenplay based upon the book; Silver Linings Playbook – Author Matthew Quick and screenwriter David O. Russell.

There were a total of 82 screenplays in the field of candidates for the USC Libraries Scripter Award, which was established in 1988 by the Friends of the USC Libraries as a way to celebrate writers and writing, honoring the year’s best adaptation of printed words into film.