womenscreenwriters:If a Woman Wins an Oscar for Screenwriting This Year: It’s Gonna Be Liz Hannah32
womenscreenwriters:If a Woman Wins an Oscar for Screenwriting This Year: It’s Gonna Be Liz Hannah32 year-old newcomer Liz Hannah has been making headlines for breaking onto the scene with her first feature The Post, which happens to be directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, and is a strong (if not the strongest) contender to win Best Picture. While several women may be nominated for the Academy Award’s two screenwriting categories - Greta Gerwig (Ladybird) and Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water) are almost sure bets while Dee Rees (Mudbound) is a strong possibility - The Post is Best Screenplay material in every possible aspect, not to mention Hannah’s co-writer Josh Singer won Best Original Screenplay for Spotlight 2 years ago. When looking at recent winning screenplays, a definite pattern appears; films that win are based on fairly recent true stories with contemporary relevance, celebrated actors, notable directors, fast-paced dialogue and editing, and sleek cinematography and production design to focus all attention to plot and actors. The best examples of this sub-genre include Spotlight, The Big Short, The Social Network, The King’s Speech, and Argo - and all of these films have won within the last 7 years. Hannah’s likelihood to succeed in this category is largely because her script has been produced fit the mold of an Oscar darling; it’s incredibly timely relevance (aided by Spielberg’s rush to production) only helps Hannah’s chances. Already nominated for a Golden Globe, Hannah has received 5 other nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Detroit Film Critics Society, Houston Film Critics Society, among others. While women are more likely to be nominated for screenwriting awards this year, the bar for nominating women has been set incredibly low. Last year only one of the 12 writers nominated was a woman (Allison Schroeder for Hidden Figures), the year before four of the 20 writers nominated were women. Not yet having seen The Post, I can’t make any remarks as to the merits of the script, but I am excited to see a woman who is extremely well positioned this year to at least be nominated for screenwriting, even more for one who has such a strong chance at winning. Good luck, Liz Hannah, and good luck to the many other accomplished women screenwriters this year, may you also receive the recognition you deserve. -- source link
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