Argo wins the USC Scripter Award

All of the adaptations in this category were great and deserving. Sadly, one was more deserving than all of the others if you were looking to reward the source material and the screenplay.  There were two, actually – Lincoln and Life of Pi and they night have actually caused the other some trouble.  Argo is continually the only film people seem able to agree upon. And think about it. If you went down south or back east or to the midwest and you had a pile of awards DVDs Argo would be the one you know they would all like.

We ask the industry to deliver daring, provocative work and we hope that work then wins awards.  The industry did deliver those movies and the more daring they were the more they got pummeled by critics, by protesters, by twitterers, by celebufans.  They were everywhere, coming from all sides — and that made it really impossible for any film that was the least bit polarizing to rise to the top. So in the end, we don’t really want divisive work at all,not for Best Picture. What we want is gently entertaining movies that don’t ask too much from us.  I hope that the box office proves what the American people want.  The awards voters can’t get there but the ticket buyers can and I suppose there’s satisfaction to be had in that.

The movies were so good this year that they divided voters into groups. But clearly the biggest group has gathered around Argo and there isn’t a whole lot anyone can do about it. The Silver Linings voters won’t switch to Lincoln. The Lincoln voters won’t switch to Silver Linings. The Life of Pi voters won’t switch to Lincoln or Silver Linings.

But congratulations to Chris Terrio for Argo, a great screenplay.  In the end, Argo will win what it can and those of us who really do love the other works can put them alongside all of the best works that never won. And there are many.  The more I follow the race the more I realize that the kinds of films I love, and many of you love, are those that could never win a consensus vote.  Vive la difference.

Next stop, WGA, which Argo will probably also win. Is it over yet?