Oscar Talk: Best Original Screenplay

Best Original Screenplay -

Guillermo Del Toro, Vanessa Taylor - The Shape of Water

Martin McDonagh - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Jordan Peele - Get Out

Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon - The Big Sick

Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird

Somehow the race for Best Screenplay excites me more than the acting nominees this year. I feel as if it is because 2017 was a breakout year for original and new creators. First time filmmakers like Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele, alongside blockbuster newcomers like Patty Jenkins and Taika Waititi, got the chance to produce exciting content that lands outside the typical movie fare, allowing for different perspectives to be shared on screen for what feels like the first time. With such a rich landscape of inclusive storytelling, the original screenplays nominated for Oscars this year are a wily bunch with no definitive frontrunner. Although I adored Three Billboards and have thus far flocked towards every film Martin McDonagh has made, I would have to count out the script only to personally favor the diversification of the other nominees. If it had been any other year, McDonagh would have earned my vote in a heartbeat, but in 2017, the other options are just too difficult to overlook. Greta Gerwig created the simpler film out of the five chosen, but this works in Lady Bird's favor. The all-female perspective on what could be a very standard coming-of-age tale sets this apart, and Gerwig has a long career ahead of her if she continues to tell stories like this. Obviously, I will always root for Del Toro, and The Shape of Water could be the perfect movie for him to earn a career-Oscar for, but I am hoping that he actually gains a statue during the Best Picture race instead, leaving room for one of the other two remaining options. Get Out and The Big Sick were my top two favorite movies of 2017, so it should be no surprise I am hoping for either Jordan Peele or Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon to win this one. Of the two, The Big Sick has the stronger screenplay, as it actually stems from a true story both writers struggled through. Get Out, however, is clever in almost every way, with Peele impressively incorporating his strong comedic skills with horror and drama. No matter who the winner, though, this category has already narrowed down the choices of best writing of last year pretty satisfactorily.