Anthony McCarten has been on quite the non-fiction roll having written the scripts for the Stephen Hawkings piece
The Theory of Everything, the Churchill piece
Darkest Hour, the Queen biopic
Bohemian Rhapsody, and now
The Two Popes. Those previous three script produced the material for three of the last five Best Actor winners. This time paired with director Fernando Meirelles (
City of God, The Constant Gardner) his script has produced another Best Actor nomination. The dramatization of the quick reign of Pope Benedict leading into Pope Francis won't win for Adapted Screenplay, but these are the kinds of projects awards shows crave. It is the only of the five Oscar nominees not to get the corresponding Adapted Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood took its spot for those awards.
Todd Phillips paired his Best Director nom with Adapted Screenplay here. It is his second nomination in this category having netted his first and only other as one of the credited co-writers of
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. No, really. It lost to William Monahan's adaptation of
The Departed for Scorsese.
Joker's co-writer
Scott Silver has one previous Oscar nomination as well, in the Original category for co-writing David O. Russell's
The Fighter (it lost to Best Picture winner
The King's Speech).
Joker is the second comic book property to get a nod here in recent years following Wolverine's send off
Logan. I don't know how much of
Joker's tone and style was on the page, but those elements would be unlikely to be rewarded here.
Taika Waititi is becoming a force in the industry. A delightfully warped and hysterical voice from New Zealand who has somehow inserted himself into international cinema as a player. The writer/director/actor/producer established his brand with the charming Kiwi exports
Eagle vs. Shark, Boy, What We Do in the Shadows, and
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople before being given the reigns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's God of Thunder with
Thor: Ragnarok which is the weirdest and funniest of all those superhero entries. Next up he gets to bring Natalie Portman back into the fray for
Thor: Love & Thunder but in between he was able to finance his long gestating
Jojo Rabbit. Predictably the satire ruffled some feathers here and there, but just as predictably Waititi's trademark humor and heart carried the day resulting in six Oscar nominations including Best Picture.
I would be tickled if Taika Waititi were to actually win, and the resulting acceptance speech would surely be historically awesome, but it will likely have to wait for another project down the line.
This is
Steven Zaillian's fifth Oscar nomination for his writing: one in the Original category for co-writing Scorsese's
Gangs of New York and three previous Adapteds for Penny Marshall's
Awakenings, Spielberg's
Schindler's List, and Bennett Miller's
Moneyball. He won the Oscar for
Schindler's List. Adapting Frank Sheeran's version of events through Charles Brandt's tome
"I Heard You Paint Houses": The Inside Story of The Mafia, The Teamsters, and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa for Scorsese's long awaited return to the world of gangsters has him on the short list to win his second Academy Award.
It seems as though if Zaillian doesn't win his second
Greta Gerwig may well earn her first. This is her third nomination after nods for her Original Screenplay and Direction of
Lady Bird two years ago. Her version of the oft-adapted Louisa May Alcott novel is a fresh take on the material, retaining her sensibility and Alcott's classic characters. That coupled with a belated recognition for
Lady Bird, which didn't win for any of its five nominations, and as encouragement for the emerging filmmaker may give her the edge here.