Filmmakers honored at USC Libraries Scripter Awards

The 27th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, a black-tie gala event, was held at Doheny Memorial Library on Saturday evening to commemorate the screenwriters and authors of the year’s best-adapted films.

Graham Moore, screenwriter of The Imitation Game, and Andrew Hodges, author of the film’s source material Alan Turing: The Enigma, won the Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay. The Scripter Award brought together various prominent figures in academia, publishing, and film.

The other four nominees for the Scripter Award included author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl; author Thomas Pynchon and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson for Inherent Vice; author Jane Hawking and screenwriter Anthony McCarten’s The Theory of Everything; and author Cheryl Strayed and screenwriter Nick Hornby for Wild.

“I’ll tell you every writer’s dream,” Moore said. “If you want to write for the screen, there’s this actor and, if you get him to deliver your lines, it turns out anything you write seems really witty, smart and brilliant, and his name is Benedict Cumberbatch.”

Moore expressed gratitude to Alan Turing, the WWII-era mathematician whose life provided the basis for The Imitation Game.

“He never got to stand on a stage and hear people applaud for his name,” Moore said. “That is a profound injustice, and all that I can do now is to spend the rest of my life endeavoring to repair it. This is for him.”

Ariel Sobel, a sophomore majoring in writing for film screen and television, acknowledged the shortcomings of the movie,  however, discussing how Turing’s character was not as accurately depicted as she had hoped.

“I think The Imitation Game was a truly great story that needed to be told. I only wish that the film had focused less on WWII,” Sobel said. “[Moore] talked about how [Turing] wasn’t recognized for his work, but the film itself doesn’t focus on that. I wish the film could’ve spoken on how Turing, a genius, was misunderstood and mistreated by society for being a homosexual.”

Students who saw the movie say that it gave them a good reference point as to how society has evolved in its acceptance of gay rights.

“I know a lot of people who have seen [The Imitation Game],” said Sucharita Yellapragada, a sophomore studying policy, planning and development. “It has a great storyline and it really highlights how our perception of homosexuality has changed over the years.”

Walter Mosley, who has authored more than 40 fiction books and is most well-known for his Easy Rawlins crime series, was awarded the Scripter Literary Achievement award.

He spoke about how libraries were challenged to halt circulation of certain books after 9/11.

“After 9/11, personal freedoms started to get limited in all sorts of different ways,” Mosley said. “There were people being arrested, questioned, and listened to. And that president, Mr. Bush, sent out a memo to the libraries saying, ‘We need to know who’s reading what. Who’s reading books about building bombs, or books about Islam, or books that may be considered anti-American.’ And librarians said, ‘F-ck you. No, we’re not gonna do that.’”

Furthermore, Mosley expressed how unregulated libraries reflect the role of American freedom.

“And that dawned on me … I realized that libraries were the last bastion in America to stand up for our freedom. Our freedom is mainly an intellectual thing,” Mosley said. “You stop and think. You say, ‘This woman is free to read, think, say, and do what she wants.’ If we make libraries stronger, we make America stronger.”

Catherine Quinlan, dean of the USC Libraries, described the awards ceremony as an ongoing tradition that has brought together a community of librarians and storytellers.

“Scripter has grown into an exceptional tradition for our libraries, our university, and for the entire Trojan family,” Quinlan said. “Throughout its 27-year history, Scripter has been a tremendously inexhaustible spirit of two vital communities: the most dedicated supporters of our libraries, and the cinematic storytellers who advance in delight in the art of adaptation. One of the most gratifying aspects of Scripter … is that it brings together those two groups in the grand space of this wonderful library.”