The writers behind the Oscar-nominated adapted screenplay of Focus Features‘ Conclave and an episode of the FX and Hulu series Say Nothing on Saturday night at the 37th annual USC Scripter Awards.
The winners were revealed tonight during a black-tie ceremony in the Town & Gown ballroom at USC. The awards, bestowed annually by the USC Libraries, honor the writers of the year’s most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations as well as the writers of the works on which they are based.
Conclave, adapted by Peter Straughan based on the novel by Robert Harris, previously won the Golden Globe Screenplay trophy. The film has a total of eight Oscar nominations, including for star Ralph Fiennes and for Best Picture.
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A political potboiler set within the Vatican, Conclave follows Cardinal Lomeli (Fiennes), the Dean of the College of Cardinals, as he oversees a secretive papal election following the sudden death of the Pope. As 118 cardinals from around the world gather to choose the next leader of the Catholic Church, tensions rise, alliances form and break, and hidden secrets emerge.
The Scripters, won on the film side last year by eventual Oscar Adapted Screenplay winner Cord Jefferson‘s script for American Fiction based on Percival Everett’s novel, this year featured movie works that ran the gamut of original IP, with nominees’ source material spanning a magazine article (Sing Sing), a children’s book (The Wild Robot), a nonfiction book (A Complete Unknown) and a pair of novels (Conclave and Nickel Boys).
Nickel Boys and Anora took the WGA prizes this year; both are also up for Oscars.
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Say Nothing, a limited series, stars Lola Petticrew, Hazel Doupe, Anthony Boyle, Josh Finan and Maxine Peake in a gripping story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Creator Joshua Zetumer penned the winning episode, “The People in the Dirt,” based on the book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Say Nothing topped a Scripters category that featured the scribes and authors behind Baby Reindeer, Ripley, Say Nothing, Shōgun and two-time defending champ Slow Horses.
The 2025 Scripter selection committee, chaired by Howard Rodman, reviewed 42 film and 66 episodic series adaptations in making its selections this year.