The 2025 finalists for the USC Libraries Scripter Awards have been announced by the USC Libraries. The annual event is held in honor of the writers of the year’s most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations, as well as the authors of the works on which they are based.
For example, on the film side, recent Golden Globes Best Screenplay winner Peter Straughan is nominated alongside Robert Harris, the author of “Conclave.” The finalist can also be the same person on both ends, with “Baby Reindeer” creator/star Richard Gadd being nominated for adapting his play of the same name into the Emmy-winning hit Netflix series.
The award has become a trusty predictor for what film will win the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, with “American Fiction” filmmaker Cord Jefferson being the most recent example. Other past winners include “Women Talking,” “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all went on to win the Academy Award.
Last year’s TV winner Will Smith, showrunner of the Apple TV+ spy series “Slow Horses,” based on the novel “Spook Street” by Mick Herron, also went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series last fall, for the same Season 3 episode “Negotiating with Tigers.”
The 2025 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists from a field of 42 film and 66 episodic series adaptations. Howard Rodman, USC professor and Vice President/Secretary of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, chairs the 2025 committee.
The USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in the Town & Gown ballroom at the University of Southern California.
See the full list of both the film and TV finalists below.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
James Mangold and Jay Cocks for “A Complete Unknown” based on the nonfiction book “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties” by Elijah Wald
Peter Straughan for “Conclave” based on the novel by Robert Harris
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes for “Nickel Boys” based on the book “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (screenplay and story) and Clarence Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield (story) for “Sing Sing” based on the “Esquire” magazine article “The Sing Sing Follies” by John H. Richardson
Screenwriter Chris Sanders and novelist Peter Brown for “The Wild Robot”
The finalist writers for episodic series are, in alphabetical order by series title:
Richard Gadd for the sixth episode of “Baby Reindeer,” based on his stage play of the same name
Steven Zaillian for “V Lucio,” the fifth episode of “Ripley,” based on “The Talented Mr. Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith
Joshua Zetumer for the episode “The People in the Dirt” from “Say Nothing,” based on the nonfiction book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe
Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks for “Anjin,” the first episode of “Shōgun,” based on the novel by James Clavell
Will Smith for the episode “Hello Goodbye,” from “Slow Horses,” based on the novel “Spook Street” by Mick Herron
