Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Bookish Oscars: Many Nominees, Theatrical Ending



At last night's Academy Awards ceremony, five of the nine best picture nominees were book-related, and there were plenty of other bookish category nominations as well. But gold statues turned out to be a rare commodity for book-to-film adaptation fans. There were, however, still reasons for readers to celebrate in the face of the La La Land juggernaut and the theatrical--two winning movies were adapted from plays--surprise twist ending. Among the Oscar winners:


Moonlight, based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney: best picture, supporting actor (Mahershala Ali), adapted screenplay (Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney)
Fences, adapted from August Wilson's play: supporting actress (Viola Davis)
Arrival, based on Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life": sound editing
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, based on the book by J.K. Rowling: costume design
The Jungle Book, based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling: visual effects

Many book-related movies earned Oscar nominations, but left empty-handed. These included Lion, adapted from Saroo Brierley's memoir A Long Way Home; Hidden Figures, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly; Elle, based on the novel Oh... by Philippe Djian; Florence Foster Jenkins, inspired by Jasper Rees's biography; Nocturnal Animals, inspired by the novel Tony & Susan by Austin Wright; Silence, based on the novel by Shûsaku Endô; My Life as a Zucchini (Ma vie de Courgette), based on the novel Autobiographie d'une Courgette by Gilles Paris; I Am Not Your Negro, inspired by James Baldwin's uncompleted manuscript Remember This House; and Life, Animated, based on the book by Ron Suskind.


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