USC Scripter Preview

The USC Scripter Awards will be live webcast tonight, Friday, according to their website, so make sure to tune in for all of the fun. It essentially comes down to True Grit vs. The Social Network vs. Winter’s Bone for the Scripter.

Last year, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner won the Scripter. The year before it was Slumdog Millionaire, and the year before that it was the easiest one to call in their history: No Country for Old Men. Capote took the one before that. You can see more Scripter history here, going all the way back to 1988.

This year’s nominees:

• Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for 127 Hours, adapted from mountain climber Aron Ralston’s autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place
• Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer, adapted from journalist Robert Harris’ novel The Ghost
• Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network, adapted from Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal
• Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit, based upon Charles Portis’ classic Western novel
• Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini and Daniel Woodrell for Winter’s Bone adapted from Woodrall’s rural noir novel.

What a truly exceptional bunch. I have a feeling Winter’s Bone and True Grit might cancel each other out. But any and all of these could win and I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m no longer looking at this like Aaron Sorkin can’t lose – my new mantra is: if David Fincher can lose the DGA, anything’s possible. I’m counting on history to validate the greatness of that script. Awards voters? Who can say. They are caught up in the moment. The Oscars, like politics, are perception. I guess I will go ahead and predict my favorite sinking ship to win this, Aaron Sorkin. To me, it’s the best writing of the year by a mile. But True Grit, Winter’s Bone — great, too.