USC Scripter Award nominees announced


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The 27th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award ceremony will be held on Jan. 31 at the Los Angeles Times Reference Room of Doheny Memorial Library.

The ceremony — a black-tie gala attended by some of the film industry’s biggest names — will honor English-language films “based on or inspired by a single book or book series, novella, short story, graphic novel, play, magazine article, or characters originating from such printed works” according to the Scripter Award criteria. The Scripter Award is given to the screenwriters of the winning films as well as the authors of the works that inspired them.

This year’s five finalists include authors and screenwriters of several 2014 blockbuster hits. Creators of Gone Girl, Inherent Vice, The Theory of Everything, Wild and The Imitation Game are competing for this year’s award.

“I especially like films when I’ve read the books,” said Kameni Ngahdeu, a senior majoring in human biology. “I saw Gone Girl and liked the story so much I could’ve read the book.”

Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, along with the other candidates, were chosen by a 55-member committee. Committee members include “Writers Guild of America members, Academy Award-winning and Award-nominated screenwriters, authors, film industry executives, faculty and selected members of the board of the Friends of the USC Libraries,” according to the 2015 Scripter Award Eligibility and Selection Rules.

The current committee chair, Howard Rodman, is a USC professor, vice-president of the Writers Guild of America, West and an artistic director of the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs.

The Scripter Award was founded in 1988 by actress Marjorie Lord Volk, real estate developer Glenn Sonnenberg and former Dean of USC Libraries Charles Ritcheson. Some of the award’s past winners include Schindler’s List (1994), The English Patient (1997), The Hours (2003) and No Country For Old Men (2008). 12 Years a Slave (2014) took the award last year.

The event annually gathers some of the most prominent figures in the film and publishing industries, as well as important figures in academia.

Tickets for the ceremony has seven sponsorship levels. Guests have the option of purchasing anything from a single ticket for $500 to a $30,000 ticket package for a table.

The event’s proceeds go to specific projects, such as the renovation of the Leavey and Doheny libraries in the past. This year’s proceeds will go to the Cinema Library.