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In an effort to keep myself more engaged with this year’s Oscar season, which has largely found me watching movies from my couch with Oscar at my side, I’ve decided to mount a little project in gathering my thoughts on the nominees in each of the 23 categories before the ceremony. There are 26 days left until the Oscars come to us live from Union Station, so every day-ish I will try to post a little write-up on one particular category. Reader, wish me luck.

Kicking this thing off, let’s start with a category that regularly brings some unique Oscar play to the table, 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆. The writers’ branch has often seen fit over the years to nominate uniquely structured and written films that end up with no home in any other category (I still fondly remember In Bruges and Happy-Go-Lucky finding their moments to shine in this category my first year of Oscarwatching, almost as if as a consolation prize for their Golden Globe-winning lead actors missing out). Lately, though, this category has tended to align more and more with the Best Picture slate, particularly in the era of the expanded field. Indeed, 7 of the last 10 Best Picture winners were nominated Original Screenplays (with 6 of them winning that category). So suffice it to say that this category these days carries a lot of weight, and this year certainly is no exception, with all five films being nominated for Best Picture.

The nominees are:

• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Minari
• Promising Young Woman
• Sound of Metal
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

In order of my own preference:

5) The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Sorkinfully written, with a million lines a minute that for the most part manage not to trip over each other. Where this screenplay shows its cracks is in the whiplash with which one goes from whimsical story-building montage to thematically heavy set pieces. Kudos to managing so many different narratives at once, though demerits for practically sidelining 2 of the titular 7

4) Promising Young Woman – A compelling story and narrative arc that is unfortunately disproportionately weighed down by the final act (no spoilers here). I think it still works, but it’s fundamentally a different script. From a structural perspective, that the story builds to its logical endpoint makes the journey all the more compelling to follow. Bonus points for incorporating Paris Hilton’s “Stars are Blind”.

3) Judas and the Black Messiah – This is a script that lets its stars, Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, really show off their chops (and get acting nominations as a result!). A solidly structured story that lets its moments breathe while still giving you the fly-on-the-wall feel of watching something historic unfold.

2) Minari – foreign-language screenplays one might suspect would be harder to parse but the well-written script of this film speaks for itself on the big screen. That it plays like you are watching a real-life family assimilate into a foreign land is a testament to both the writing and the acting going hand-in-hand beautifully. S/o to “I’m not pretty, I’m good looking!”

1) Sound of Metal – really a coup-de-grace, I feel, in story composition and script-writing. Anytime half of a film is silent for whatever reason you run the risk of coming off gimmicky, but the portions of the film without dialogue spoken out loud emanate a screenplay speaking proudly for itself. S/o to the beautifully integrated ASL work.

Will win: The Trial of the Chicago 7
Could win: Promising Young Woman
Should have been here: Palm Springs