In a couple of days, Rob will have the 7th Annual Awards Daily Simulated Ballot ready to go. Each year we get a master list of all the eligible films and then need to divide the titles into Adapted and Original for the screenplay categories. I did a preliminary sorting last night and I think it’s largely alright — but mistakes always happen. I’d like to ask any of you readers with a sharp eye and free time to give these two lists a look, to see if there’s any movie that I’ve got in the wrong stack. We would really appreciate your help setting us straight before Rob builds the code for the ballot menus. Thanks!
Adapted
22 Jump Street
3 Days To Kill
300: Rise Of An Empire
A Haunted House 2
A Most Wanted Man
A Walk Among The Tombstones
About Last Night
Addicted
Age Of Uprising: The Legend Of Michael Kohlhaas
Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
American Sniper
Annie
Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?
Big Hero 6
Blood Ties
Brick Mansions
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
Deliver Us From Evil
Devil’s Knot
Divergent
Dolphin Tale 2
Dracula Untold
Dumb And Dumber To
Edge Of Tomorrow
Endless Love
Exodus: Gods And Kings
Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Giovanni’s Island
Godzilla
Gone Girl
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Heaven Is For Real
Hector And The Search For Happiness
Hercules
Horrible Bosses 2
How To Train Your Dragon 2
I, Frankenstein
If I Stay
In Secret
Inherent Vice
Into The Woods
Jack And The Cuckoo-Clock Heart
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Jersey Boys
Joe
Kill The Messenger
Legends Of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
Life Itself
Life Of Crime
Low Down
Maleficent
Men, Women & Children
Miss Julie
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Muppets Most Wanted
My Old Lady
Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb
No God, No Master
Noah
Obvious Child
Oculus
Paddington
Palo Alto
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Penguins Of Madagascar
Planes: Fire & Rescue
Pompeii
Return To Nuke ‘Em High Volume 1
Rio 2
Robocop
Rosewater
Snowpiercer
Step Up All In
Still Alice
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Best Of Me
The Blue Room
The Double
The Drop
The Equalizer
The Expendables 3
The Fault In Our Stars
The Gambler
The Giver
The Green Prince
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
The Homesman
The Humbling
The Hundred-Foot Journey
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
The Imitation Game
The Legend Of Hercules
The Maze Runner
The Monuments Men
The November Man
The Purge: Anarchy
The Quiet Ones
The Raid 2
The Railway Man
The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya
The Two Faces Of January
Think Like A Man Too
This Is Where I Leave You
Tracks
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
Unbroken
Under The Skin
Vampire Academy
Veronica Mars
Virunga
We Are The Best!
Wetlands
When The Game Stands Tall
Winter’s Tale
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Yves Saint Laurent
===
Original
#Stuck
100 Days
A Five Star Life
A Million Ways To Die In The West
A Most Violent Year
A Small Section Of The World
Abuse Of Weakness
American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace Lee Boggs
Anita
Annabelle
Antarctica: A Year On Ice
Archaeology Of A Woman
Are You Here
As Above/So Below
At Middleton
Audrey
Awakened
Bad Words
Barefoot
Bears
Begin Again
Belle
Better Living Through Chemistry
Beyond The Lights
Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain
Bicycling With Molière
Big Eyes
Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
Black Or White
Blended
Blue Ruin
Born To Fly: Elizabeth Streb Vs. Gravity
Boyhood
Bridge And Tunnel
Brush With Danger
By The Gun
Cake
Calvary
Cesar Chavez
Cheatin’
Chef
Christmas Ride
Citizenfour
Closed Curtain
Conducta
Copenhagen
Dear White People
Devil’s Due
Dhag
Difret
Dom Hemingway
Draft Day
Earth To Echo
Elsa & Fred
Fading Gigolo
Fed Up
Finding Vivian Maier
Force Majeure
Fort Bliss
Foxcatcher
Frank
Freezer
Fury
Garnet’s Gold
Get On Up
Girl On A Bicycle
Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
God Help The Girl
God’s Pocket
Goodbye World
Greencard Warriors
Happy Valley
Henry & Me
Horns
Hot Guys With Guns
Human Capital
I Origins
Ida
In Fear
In The Blood
Interstellar
Into The Storm
Ivory Tower
Jal
Jimi: All Is By My Side
Jodorowsky’s Dune
John Wick
Kapus Kondyachi Goshta (Unending Story)
Keep On Keepin’ On
Kochadaiiyaan
Kurmanjan Datka Queen Of The Mountains
Land Ho!
Le Week-End
Let’s Be Cops
Leviathan
Life Inside Out
Life Of An Actress The Musical
Lilting
Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed
Locke
Love Is Strange
Lucy
Magic In The Moonlight
Merchants Of Doubt
Million Dollar Arm
Minugurulu
Minuscule – Valley Of The Lost Ants
Mommy
Moms’ Night Out
Mr. Turner
Murder 101
Need For Speed
Neighbors
Night Moves
Nightcrawler
No Good Deed
Non-Stop
Occupy The Farm
On The Other Side Of The Tracks
Only Lovers Left Alive
Ouija
Pride
Reach Me
Red Army
Refuge
Ride Along
Rob The Mob
Rocks In My Pockets
Rudderless
Sabotage
Selma
Sex Tape
Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks
Small Time
Song Of The Sea
Special
St. Vincent
Stalingrad
Stranger By The Lake
Supermensch: The Legend Of Shep Gordon
Surkhaab
Sweeping Forward
Tammy
Tasting Menu
That Awkward Moment
The Amazing Catfish
The Better Angels
The Book Of Life
The Boxtrolls
The Case Against 8
The Circle
The Devil’s Hand
The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Them
The Empty Hours
The Face Of Love
The Frontier
The German Doctor
The Good Lie
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Great Flood
The Great Invisible
The Guest
The Hero Of Color City
The Hornet’s Nest
The Immigrant
The Interview
The Judge
The Last Of Robin Hood
The Lego Movie
The Liberator
The Lunchbox
The Nut Job
The One I Love
The One I Wrote For You
The Other Woman
The Pirate Fairy
The Playback Singer
The Possession Of Michael King
The Remaining
The Rover
The Salt Of The Earth
The Signal
The Skeleton Twins
The Song
The Theory Of Everything
The Trip To Italy
The Way He Looks
Third Person
Top Five
Transcendence
Tusk
Two Days, One Night
Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club
Under The Electric Sky
Visitors
Walking With The Enemy
Watchers Of The Sky
We Are The Giant
Whiplash
Wish I Was Here
Words And Pictures
Work Weather Wife
Youngistaan
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HUMAN CAPITAL should be considered “adapted”, its source being the 2004 Stephen Amidon novel. The setting was changed from US to Italy, but still, it’s an adaptation
Why isn’t Whiplash considered adapted, since Chazell made a short with the same story?
Short answer: The short was an excerpt lifted from Chazell’s full-length screenplay. The full-length screenplay had already been written, and to generate interest Chazell filmed one scene from it, like a sample.
I see that Whiplash is targeting Original SP on its FYC ads.
Why isn’t Whiplash considered adapted, since Chazell made a short with the same story? This was what put Sling Blade into the adapted category years ago.
Original, then, seems like a 7-way race:
Locked:
Birdman
Boyhood
Grand Budapest Hotel
Really, really likely:
Selma (due to its Best Picture lock status)
Whiplash (seems kind of safe)
And two possible spoilers:
Foxcatcher (if hits hard and gets a BP nom)
The Lego Movie (it already got one precursor)
Nightcrawler might be a dark horse, though…
Out of them… I doubt anyone else stands a real chance.
On Adapted, the quintet seems pretty locked:
Gone Girl
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Wild
Out of them… what? Snowpiercer might be the best bet, if they actually saw it. I wouldn’t rule out Guardians of the Galaxy, either.
Need for Speed is indeed the film based on the video game. It’s also eligible! The Babadook is not eligible. Such is life.
If it’s too late to do it this year, then the eligibility requirements for this poll need changed next year. Leave the Academy’s favourite films to the Academy. Let us do our own job.
Virunga and Need for Speed have both been switched in my list.
Is “Need for Speed” the one with Aaron Paul? If so, then it’s based on the video game series of the same name.
One more to switch (for what it’s worth): Virunga is original.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
AMERICAN SNIPER
GONE GIRL
THE IMITATION GAME
INHERENT VICE
UNBROKEN
Best Original Screenplay
BIRDMAN
BOYHOOD
FOXCATCHER
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Predicted frontrunners:
Best Adapted Screenplay: Gone Girl / The imitation Game (Potential Spoiler)
Best Original Screenplay: Boyhood / Birdman (Potential Spoiler)
Ryan,
Of course, my previous comment was meant for both of you since I understand this is collective work. The Academy being so convoluted and secretive, this is obviously the kind of mean and time-wasting task that is yet absolutely necessary, since readers are now eagerly anticipating this simulation every season… Challenges arise to teach us stuff and give us smth to occupy our minds with, though there might be more plesant things to occupy our minds with.
As usual, very thoughtful and professional work. Cheers!
See how much more interesting it is to untangle all the things I get wrong instead of me being boringly right all the time?
Rob Y,
That clears up a lot of confusion and makes a lot of sense, thx! As usual, very thoughtful and professional work. Cheers!
Just checked “The LEGO Movie”‘s website, and they are FYCing Original.
Boxtrolls: Adapted
Exodus: (like Noah) Original
Paddington: Adapted
The Way He Looks: Adapted
The Tale of Princess Kagyura: Original
After discussing with Ryan, and from what I have gleaned from the history of the Academy—not to imply that they are consistent, heaven forbid—myth and folklore based stories would be original while those (even characters) attributable to named creators would be adapted. That is unless evidence (e.g., FYC Ads) indicates otherwise.
THE WAY HE LOOKS is actually an adapted screenplay, as Daniel Ribeiro shot it first as a short (using the same cast, for the most part).
Rob, I understand your intentions entirely. It’s completely understandable that you wouldn’t want to do too much extra work, especially when it’s not likely to affect the results of voting very much.
What would be great, though, would be to make an AD-specific list of eligible titles. We could have our own rules for eligible titles, perhaps just films released in the US in the previous calendar year. The above lists don’t include a great deal of my favourite films of 2014, such as Norte the End of History, The Babadook, Goodbye to Language 3D, Maps to the Stars, Manakamana, Nymphomaniac and The Missing Picture. All of those films received theatrical releases in American cinemas beginning some time in 2014.
Still working on the other suggestions.
I have switched from Original to Adapted:
Theory of Everything
The Trip to Italy
Abuse of Weakness
Annabelle
Cake
Elsa and Fred
I have switched from Adapted to Original:
Noah
For what they’re worth, Goldderby has Exodus: Gods and Kings in the Original Screenplay field and Wikipedia has it introduced as a “biblically-inspired” movie and IMDB credits the writers of it as “written by,” and lacks an “author” attribution that most adaptation entries include.
Paddy,
This has been an exercise in understanding the nomination process from selecting from a list of eligible films through assembling the nominees. In previous years, this has been mistakingly used as a ballot to enter predictions. This would naturally fail with this structure. Getting in the mind of an Academy member also has its issues. The instructions I suggest is in the context of the Academy awarded you a nomination ballot and asked you to fill it out.
The first year we did this (for 2008) there was an issue with films not on the list. I would add them in but then some people voted already and got upset. There was a bit of chaos, so I made the executive decision to limit it to the eligible films. Also, as I code the form, having a blank write-in space is a lot of work. The biggest amount of work I do for this process is to assemble all the misspellings of actor/actress names and assign it to one person. That work—resulting from reader write-in inputs—makes up about 75% of the time I spend on this project. I cannot imagine the amount of extra work needed to complete the project and not having a fixed list of eligible films.
I think the movie that really needs to clarify if it is ellegible in Original or Adapted, is “The Lego Movie”. It has chances to be nominated on both cathegories and solid arguments to label it either way (I’d put it in Adapted, as I consider it an adaptation of remix of several sources, specifically Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in his work “The Republic”). If people is unclear about this, its support might divide in both cathegories and result in an embarrassing snub (it’s one of the finest and most brilliant and daring screenplays in ages). I certainly hope it gets nominated even thought I know it has no chance of winning, in either cathegory. But in my book it would join the exclusive group of excellent screenplays that got the nom but lost their deserved win, as In the Loop, Borat, Trainspotting, Babe…
^This! I’m voting for the Boxtrolls too!
The Boxtrolls is an adaptation (of a novel Here Be Monsters!)
Can’t you just send an e-mail to the Academy and ask for a list? Or will one of us have to join the writers’ branch to get insider info?
I’m not sure about Paddington being adapted: the character pre-existed but the story is apparently original. Same goes for Maleficent and Kaguya. The former is a radically different retelling. I don’t know much abt Kaguya’s sources but since it’s a very old tale there could’ve been significant original additions or changes.
And yes, I intend to vote for those! Go ahead and judge me!
This may sound crazy, but I’d love to see 22 Jump Street get a nomination. I have a feeling that Lord and Miller might get in for The LEGO Movie, but I prefer the hard-R of 22 Jump Street. It’s louder, less restrained, and seems like the truest reflection of their sensibilities. It will probably never happen, but I like seeing directors and writers who are willing to push the boundaries (even if at the end of the day, it’s Charlie Kaufman for dummies). It’s still refreshing to see artists trying…
I also think Le Weekend and Love is Strange would be worthy candidates.
knee play! thank you!
Can we have a vote this year, apart from this one, that’s entirely open to any and all films that we might wish to vote for? A great many of my favourite films from 2014 aren’t eligible for the Oscars. This simulated vote is great and I always enjoy it, but I don’t understand why we have to adhere to the Academy’s eligibility rules. There’s nothing at stake here, no negative implications if we decide we’d rather nominate The Babadook than Blended.
It’s this adherence to the Academy’s regulations that has resulted in confusion before, with some people unsure of whether this is a predictions poll, or a poll where we’re encouraged to think like we expect Academy members to think, or a simple favourites poll.
If it’s the last of those options, then it makes no sense to follow another group’s rules. They’re meaningless to me.
CAKE is adaptation. Was adapted from Patrick Tobin’s short story.
ANNABELLE may be considered an adaptation since the titular character was introduced in THE CONJURING, much like how BEFORE MIDNIGHT was classified as adaptation.
‘Elsa and Fred’ (remake of ‘Elsa y Fred’) and ‘Theory of Everything’ are adaptations.
And I don’t think Noah/Exodus count as adaptations even though they’re creative takes on pre-existing works of fiction. (Paramount also has Noah listed as Original in their FYC stuff.)