“The Big Short” has been named the best book-to-screen adaptation of 2015 at the USC Libraries Scripter Award ceremony, which took place on the USC campus in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
The Scripter Award goes both to the film’s screenwriters and to the author of the work on which it is based, which means that “The Big Short” winners were not only Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, who also won the Writers Guild Award last weekend, but also author Michael Lewis.
For the first time, the Scripter also gave out an award for a television adaptation, which went to the HBO miniseries “Show Me a Hero.”
The other television nominees were all single episodes of series: “Game of Thrones,” “The Leftovers,” “The Man in the High Castle” and “Masters of Sex.”
The selections were made by a committee made up of screenwriters, critics, authors, producers and academics, and chaired by Writers Guild of America, West president Howard Rodman.
Over the 27 previous years of the Scripter’s existence, its winners have matched the Oscar winners for Best Adapted Screenplay only 11 times. But the Scripter has grown less idiosyncratic and more in line with the Oscars in recent years: Of the 11 matches, seven have come in the last eight years, including the last five years in a row.
As the favorite in this year’s adapted-screenplay race, “The Big Short” is expected to extend that streak.
Four of this year’s five Scripter nominees are also Oscar nominees. “The End of the Tour” is the one exception, replaced in the Oscar lineup by “Carol.”
The black-tie ceremony took place in the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, and was also a fundraiser for the USC Libraries.
The nominees and winners:
Film:
“The Big Short” *WINNER
Screenwriters: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph
Author: Michael Lewis
“Brooklyn”
Screenwriter: Nick Hornby
Author: Colm Toibin
“The End of the Tour”
Screenwriter: Donald Margulies
Author: David Lipsky
“The Martian”
Screenwriter: Drew Goddard
Author: Andy Weir
“Room”
Author and screenwriter: Emma Donoghue
Television:
“Game of Thrones”: “Hardhome”
Screenwriters: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Author: George R.R. Martin
“The Leftovers”: “Axis Mundi”
Screenwriters: Damon Lindlehof and Jacqueline Hoyt
Author: Tom Perotta
The Man in the High Castle”: “The New World”
Screenwriter: Frank Spotnitz
Author: Philip K. Dick
“Masters of Sex”: “Full Ten Count”
Screenwriter: Michelle Ashford
Author: Thomas Maier
“Show Me a Hero” *WINNER
Screenwriters: William F. Zorzi and David Simon
Author: Lisa Belkin