Oscars 2009: Adapted Screenplay

The Adapted Screenplay category is another one of my favorites, me being an aspiring writer and all. This one is usually full of Best Picture nominees, since Oscar loves an adaptation, and this year is no exception. This year's category is interesting, though, since its not all prestige films; in fact, unlike last year, none of these are truly traditional Oscar contenders.

There's Nick Hornby's lovely adaptation of Lynn Barbar's memoir in An Education, which provides a glimpse at life during Swinging London. There's Geoffery Fletcher's fearless adaptation of Sapphire's grim novel Push into Precious, which may have featured one of the most brutally emotional stories in cinema this year. There's Sheldon Turner's and Jason Reitman's adaptation of Walter Kim's novel Up in the Air, which became a timely examination of the current economy and a timeless story of disconnect in a globalized society. There's In The Loop, written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin and Tony Roche and adapted from the British TV series The Thick of It, which provides a sharply funny political commentary on both the American War on Terror and international relations between Britain and the United States. And then there's District 9, written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Thatchell and adapted from Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joberg, which creatively presents the South African apartheid through the sci-fi lens, with humans as the oppressors and aliens as the oppressed.

My ballot for Best Adapted Screenplay is as follows:

1. District 9, written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Thatchell
2. Up in the Air, written by Sheldon Turner and Jason Reitman
3. In the Loop, written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin and Tony Roche
4. Precious, written by Geoffery Fletcher
5. An Education, written by Nick Hornby