Barbara Schiffman
Script Consulting & Creative Career Coaching
HYPNOPITCH.COM
Best Screenplay Awards -- The Winner Is...
It's award season for Hollywood again — and this year's screenwriting awards will determine which types of scripts are likely to get extra attention during the coming year.
Check out the Spirit Awards winners from Film Independent - especially the writers — at:
Check out the WGA awards for best writing in 2009 at:
And check out the Oscar nominees at:
I loved Slumdog Millionaire as a film — the editing, pacing, music and direction made it work.
I got to see most of the nominated films, and read scripts of some of them during the past year. Frost/Nixon was a great play to film adaptation, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a very creative and effective short story to film adaptation. Both were influenced by casting and direction, especially Benjamin Button due to the extensive special effects required.
I didn't find Doubt as engaging onscreen as Frost/Nixon however as a play to film adaptation, and that may have been due to the subject matter as well as the script. I didn't find it as engaging, maybe because I wasn't raised Catholic. But I grew up during the time Nixon was in office, so I remember how things were then and that was a stronger story for me. The issues were similar in both films — revealing the truth.
For other script nominees, I liked In Bruges and Happy-Go-Lucky's character-driven stories, and their dialogue made them both work.
Would love to hear your favorites, especially if you had a chance to read the scripts as well as see the films.
Welcome
Welcome to my new blog for writers and others who work with scripts, write scripts or books, or pitch projects to Hollywood.
I'll be adding articles about writing to this blog so you can subscribe to get notices of new postings.
Also feel free to send me your questions on screenwriting — the craft and the business — as well as the art of adapting books into scripts. I'll answer those that are relevant for all here, and appreciate your comments on the articles I post.
