This year, I have also been tasked with focusing on the race for Best Original Screenplay, a breeding ground for true artistic originality.
We live in a world in which intellectual property is more valuable than an original idea. Yet, more original films are made year after year. More ideas are dreamed up and worlds are conquered by someone, or someones, staring at a blank page than those stories taken from previously published materials. Granted, most of these films are not meant to be anything more than entertainment, but a select few will transcend beyond the actors saying the words or the technical wizardry on screen. They’ll hit us in a place beyond merely being something to watch, but something that makes us feel seen, feel heard, and feel like we’re not alone.
An original screenplay is often more personal, more experimental, and more enticing as it unfolds before us in unexpected ways. As a category it runs the gamut, through genres, through history, and through things not human at all. The category fosters a more egalitarian approach to film; inviting international features, genre features, animated features, small features, epic features, comedic features, and those historical lives whose stories transcend one mere master text.
Best Original Screenplay is one of my favorite categories because of its nature to surprise not only in missing out on a few (Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy’s Before Sunrise), but in plucking some wonderful films and keeping them on the record (Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man, Nancy Oliver’s Lars and the Real Girl, Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler). With a category like this there are bound to be omissions and there are bound to be controversial choices (Green Book anyone?), but the vast pool of potential is an exciting speculative journey.
The possibilities are broad and so will be our search. It will take us from the indie darlings of the early festivals, to the summer sleepers, to the serious fall festivals, to the glut of the winter holidays, and all that streaming has to offer in between. This column will be a little free wheeling and might speak more toward subjective taste until the field becomes clearer. Hopefully it will be a place to relieve all that superhero fatigue and see something magical that may not have been on your radar.
