Traditionally, the USC Scripter Awards take place on USC’s campus with an elegant dinner and tributes to each of the 10 nominees in the film and TV categories. This year, was markedly different with a pre-taped ceremony. via zoom. The Scripter has long been seen as a bellwether for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar and that’s good news for “Nomadland.”
READ MORE: “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “One Night in Miami…” lead 2021 WGA Awards nominations.
Given to both the original author and the screenwriter, Chloe Zhao and “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-Five Century” novelist Jessica Bruder won the Scripter over stiff competition from the teams behind “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “First Cow,” “Bad Education” and Kemp Powers, who adapted his own play “One Night in Miami.”
On the television side, Scott Frank and author Walter Tevis won for “The Queen’s Gambit” over the teams behind “The Good Lord Bird,” “Normal People,” “The Plot Against America” and “Unorthodox.”
A complete list of year’s nominees and winners are as follows:
Film nominations
Mike Makowsky for “Bad Education” based on the New York magazine article “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker
Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt for “First Cow” based on the novel “The Half-Life” by Jon Raymond
Screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson and playwright August Wilson for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland” based on the nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder – ***WINNER***
Screenwriter and playwright Kemp Powers for “One Night in Miami”
TV nominations
“The Good Lord Bird”—Showtime and Riverhead Books
“Normal People”—Hulu and Random House
“The Plot Against America”—HBO and Vintage International
“The Queen’s Gambit”—Netflix and Vintage Contemporaries – ***WINNER***
“Unorthodox”— Netflix and Simon & Schuster