“The Imitation Game” scripter Graham Moore and author Andrew Hodges won the USC Libraries Scripter Award, the only honor that salutes writers of both the screenplay and the source material.
Accepting the award, Moore thanked Hodges, who wrote the book “Alan Turing: The Enigma” but was at Oxford, and unable to attend. He also paid honor to his fellow filmmakers, with a special tribute to Alan Turing.
The evening, an annual fundraiser for the Cinematic Arts Library, offers only one competitive category. The winner is not much of an Oscar bellwether, since it has rarely matched the Academy winners for adapted script and/or best film since the awards began in 1988. But that’s not their goal. Instead, the main purpose of the evening is to spotlight writers.
It may be the only event during awards season when one can hear a guest exclaim with genuine enthusiasm, “Wow, the gift bag is full of books! How great is that?”
Also at the dinner, held at USC’s Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library, were Cheryl Strayed (who wrote the book “Wild”; scripter Nick Hornsby was in England) and Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything” screenwriter, with book scribe Jane Hawking also in the U.K.)
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Walter Mosley was given the Scripter Literary Achievement Award, offering a pointed and witty speech paying tribute to librarians, who stood up for individual liberties post-9/11 by refusing to provide the government with names of individuals who had checked out books that might be considered dangerous or subversive.
Howard Rodman, USC prof and VP of the Writers Guild of America, West, introduced Mosley and pointed out the importance of his crime novels, including the Easy Rawlins series.
Rodman also saluted the nominated writers who were present, and deadpanned that Thomas Pynchon was also in attendance. Pynchon was nominated for “Inherent Vice,” as was scripter Paul Thomas Anderson. Also nommed was Gillian Flynn, for adapting her own “Gone Girl.”
Among those in attendance were USC’s Elizabeth Daley and Catherine Quinlan.
