2023 Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay Contenders
As the great Martin Scorsese has said, Cinema is life. 2022 continues to be a great year for film, especially when highlighting Best Adapted Screenplay nominees. The 2023 Oscars will be interesting since there isn’t a clear indication of who will win as it was with some previous years.
Nevertheless, below will highlight a few possible Best Adapted Screenplay contenders, with some having a higher chance than others. We’ll discuss the logline of each from IMDB and discuss the basics of why it’ll get nominated. Even if these films aren’t nominated, they’re worth checking out!
Women Talking
Writers: Sarah Polley, Miriam Toews
Logline: Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.
Women Talking has everything going for it to get a nomination. It’s filled with a terrific cast, a great director’s first film in ten years, and subject matter that’ll evoke conversations for years to come. It’s almost a guarantee that Women Talking will get nominated.
Photo credit: ABC News
The Whale
Writer: Samuel D. Hunter
Logline: A reclusive English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.
No one has stopped talking about Brendan Fraser’s performance in The Whale. Though it’s guaranteed Fraser will get a Best Actor nomination, the script is in fair competition to achieve a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination.
Photo credit: Vanity Fair
Top Gun: Maverick
Writers: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie
Logline: After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.
Who doesn’t love Top Gun? The classic 1980s flick was brought back to life thanks to a solid performance from Tom Cruise and a good script. The film's success alone should catapult it to get a few nominations.
Photo credit: FilmLore
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Writer/Director: Rian Johnson
Logline: Famed Southern detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece for his latest case.
Knives Out success in 2019 arguably relaunched the Whodunit genre to the mainstream. With recent films like Death on the Nile and See How They Run, will the latest installment in the genre live up to the hype? The script will play a large factor in deciding so.
Photo credit: People
Living
Writers: Kazuo Ishiguro, Akira Kurosawa
Logline: An English-language adaptation of the script of "Ikiru" (1952), set in London in the 1950s. A veteran civil servant receives a medical diagnosis that inspires him to move to the south coast and cram some fun into his remaining days.
Some may feel strange that a masterpiece like Ikiru is getting adapted, but what hasn’t been adapted yet? At the very least, Living appears to be a great adaptation of its source material while being unique enough to stand independently.
