Oscars: Who Wrote This Year's Best Picture?

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

Every year as the Academy Awards near, it's interesting to look at the origins of those movies nominated for Best Picture. Obviously, the screenwriters did something right, and sometimes their job was made easier by a good book that preceded it. So how did this year's nominees stack up?

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
This drama about an unsolved murder, expected to do very well on Oscar night, was an original screenplay written by its director Martin McDonagh, He came up with the idea after seeing similar billboards about a crime "somewhere down in the Georgia, Florida, Alabama corner".

LADY BIRD
Another film written by its director (Greta Gerwig), this light drama focuses on the stormy relationship between a high school senior and her well-meaning but demanding mother. Gerwig admits that although it's fiction from start to finish, its inspiration comes from her own experience.

THE SHAPE OF WATER
This drama involving a mute spinster and the man-like amphibian she bonds with was also written by its director (Guillermo del Toro). It has its origins in del Toro's childhood viewing of Creature from the Black Lagoon. He had pondered what would happen if, instead of abducting a girl, the creature became friendly with her.

PHANTOM THREAD
Yet another screenplay written by its director (Paul Thomas Anderson, whose There Will Be Blood, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis, was a 2007 Best Picture nominee), Anderson loosely based this 1950s story about a quirky but revered dressmaker on late fashion designer Charles James, labeled "America's First Couturier".

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Here's one that actually began as a novel by André Aciman, published in 2007. This drama centers around a teenage boy and the male graduate student he begins a summer romance with. Not for the kids.

GET OUT
TV comedian Jordan Peele (Key & Peele) wrote and directed this horror movie about a black man who encounters strange circumstances when he meets the family of his white girlfriend. Peele says comedy and horror have much in common and that the story was vaguely inspired by the classic satirical film The Stepford Wives.

DARKEST HOUR
Written by Anthony McCarten, who previously wrote The Theory of Everything (about the life of Stephen Hawking), Darkest Hour focuses on another famous figure, Winston Churchill. Through drama and humor it chronicles Churchill's first days in office against the backdrop of WWII.

DUNKIRK
Speaking of war, Dunkirk tells another tale from troubled 1940s Europe. Director Christopher Nolan was inspired to write the film after he and his future wife sailed across the English Channel and followed the path of boats in the Dunkirk evacuation. Nolan's 76-page screenplay was half the length of a typical script, as he chose to focus on visuals and music to tell the story rather than rely on dialogue.

THE POST
Still speaking of war, this historical political drama depicts the Washington Post's pursuit to publish classified documents about America's involvement in Vietnam.  It was co-written by first-timer Liz Hannah and by Josh Singer, who also wrote the 2015 fact-based nominee Spotlight.

So, there you go. Three films were based on actual events, while most of the rest were inspired by something based on real life or by reimagining an existing story. As you cheer on your favorites on Sunday, March 4th, let it serve as a reminder that truth is stranger than fiction and is always a ready source of writing inspiration worth its weight in gold.

Oscars Observations

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine


For those of us who love movies, the Academy Award nominees usually get at least a curious glance each year, if not a desire to see all of the Best Picture picks.  For writers, it's an insightful declaration of the storytelling which Hollywood deems its best. With the Oscars headed our way this Sunday, it's a fitting time to review this year's top topics of Tinseltown.

AMERICAN HUSTLE
Crime Comedy/Drama. Based somewhat on a true story.  Con men conning each other, with an all-star cast that includes Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence.  This one's doing particular well, with nominees in every major category including Best Original Screenplay.

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Drama based on a true story.  Modern-day pirates on the high seas take over Tom Hanks' ship.  One of the few nominees that didn't wait till the end of 2013 to be released. They trusted voters to remember it come Oscar time. 

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
Drama based on a true story.  A ne'er-do-well rodeo clown comes down with HIV and allies with a transsexual to sell illegal medicine to AIDS patients. Matthew McConaughey lost 47 pounds to play the emaciated antihero.  Nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

GRAVITY
Space drama.  Sandra Bullock and George Clooney head up a cast you can count on one hand in this story of astronauts whose space shuttle is destroyed. You gotta love a title with a double meaning.

HER
Cyberspace drama.  Another Best Screenplay nominee in which boy meets computer. Joaquin Phoenix (who plays a writer, by the way) develops a meaningful relationship with a personality-rich software program.  Think Siri on steroids.

NEBRASKA
Dramedy starring Bruce Dern as an unstable septuagenarian who thinks he's won a million dollars in a publishing sweepstakes, and Will Forte as his son who takes him on a road trip to collect either the money or the truth.  Also a Best Screenplay nominee, Nebraska was shot in black and white to convey an "iconic, archetypal look".

PHILOMENA
Drama based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, the true story of a woman (Judi Dench) who searches for the son taken from her 50 years earlier.  A journalist (Steve Coogan, who co-wrote the screenplay) helps her navigate the many obstacles in this cross-continent road trip.

12 YEARS A SLAVE
Drama based on an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northrup. The title pretty much says it all, except that Brad Pitt's in it.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Dramedy based on the memoirs of Jordan Belfort, chronicling the rise and fall of a foul-mouthed, unscrupulous stockbroker and drug addict.  And those are his good qualities.  It's the fifth film collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Some observations: The themes generally involve the lonely, lost or larceny-prone.  Three films feature a protagonist who is just the opposite of a hero.  Most of the nine nominees are based on true stories. Six movies are pure dramas with little or no light comedic moments.  Matthew McConaughey is in two of them.

In a surprising Oscar twist, none of the Best Picture nominees this year is a war movie. Argo,  Lincoln, The Hurt Locker, The King's Speech, War Horse, and Zero Dark Thirty of recent years all had a backdrop of battle. Traditionally, the Academy's been fond of anything set in Afghanistan or Nazi Germany, but maybe they've grown weary of the likes of Lone Survivor and The Book Thief.

So what have we learned?  

1) Audiences like an unlikely hero, or, just as often, an antihero.  
2) True stories seem to be on the upswing. 
3) Brad Pitt is still working.

Enjoy the Academy Awards on Sunday.  Will you be having pizza or popcorn with your Oscars?

I Love Loglines

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director

While it’s primarily a screenwriting term, the logline is of great value for every writer. This one-line description captures the concept, main character and main conflict of a story. By reducing the entire movie or novel to its most basic elements, you can quickly see what it’s about and whether you’re interested in it. Think of it as the old TV Guide one-line synopsis.

Since the Oscars were on this weekend, I found it interesting to examine the loglines of the nine Best Picture nominees:

THE ARTIST

A silent movie star struggles during Hollywood’s transition to the talkies.

THE DESCENDANTS

A land baron attempts to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.

EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE

A nine-year-old searches NYC for the lock that matches a key left behind by his father, who died on 9/11.

THE HELP

An aspiring author during the civil rights movement writes a book detailing the hardships of African-American maids.

HUGO

An orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

A struggling novelist discovers, through midnight walks in Paris, what could be his ultimate writing inspiration.

MONEYBALL

A baseball manager creates a successful baseball team on a budget by using computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

THE TREE OF LIFE

In this impressionistic work, the eldest son of a Midwestern family tries to reconcile with his father while seeking the meaning of life.

WAR HORSE

The extraordinary journey of a horse who inspires the lives of many during WWI.

A good logline – says screenwriter Blake Snyder in his highly entertaining and informative book Save the Cat – is rich with irony. What could be more ironic than a silent film star facing an age of talking pictures? Or a busy executive forced to reconnect emotionally with his family? A white girl writing about racial strife, a sports manager turning a team around with technology, and a frustrated novelist for whom a world of inspiration opens up, all overflow with contrast.

Conflict is essential to keep readers/viewers engaged. As Elizabeth S. Craig reminded us earlier this month in Suite T, we have to give our main character an industrial-sized challenge. Fill your story with the right amount of tension and everyone will stick around to see how the protagonist prevails.

Though the audience themselves may not be orphans trying to solve a mystery, they readily identify with anyone facing a struggle, especially one in which the hero is out of their element.

For your next novel, short story, screenplay or stage drama, break it down into its simplest logline and evaluate its power to hook. Is it rich with irony? Do you find the premise absolutely compelling? More importantly, will your reader?

Get your logline right from the get-go and maybe someday you’ll be sitting next to George Clooney at the Oscars. (Feel free to give your acceptance speech with a foreign accent; that’s pretty popular lately.)