The prestigious USC Scripter award, presented to a screenplay along with its original source material, was given to 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley and the memoir of the same name, written by Solomon Northup in the 1800's. It was expected to win this, as the historical nature of the source material tends to outweigh other works, such as literary adaptations. The other nominees were Captain Phillips, The Spectacular Now, What Maisie Knew, and Philomena. This is not a guild award, so it has no bearing on the Oscars, but 12 Years is expected to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar, and this honor continues to support that expectation.
Meanwhile, the Art Directors Guild gave out its awards for production design last night as well:
- Period Film: The Great Gatsby
- Fantasy Film: Gravity
- Contemporary Film: Her
All three of those movies are Oscar nominees, but the ADG is not a great predictor of the Oscar for Production Design, so the winner there is anybody's guess. It tends to go to the movie with the most overall nominations, so even though Gatsby's sets are the most elaborate, right now I'm leaning toward Gravity or 12 Years a Slave in that category.
