The screenplays of Frankenstein, Hamnet, One Battle After Another, Peter Hujar’s Day and Train Dreams, as well as the source material from which they were drawn, are nominated for the USC Scripter Award for best film adaptation, and the teleplays for episodes of Dark Winds, Death by Lightning, Dept. Q, Slow Horses and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, as well as the source material from which they were drawn, are nominated for the USC Scripter Award for best TV adaptation, the USC Libraries announced on Monday.
Winners will be announced at the 38th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards ceremony, a black-tie affair in the Town & Gown ballroom on the USC campus, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2026.
The nominees were selected — from a field of 43 film and 64 television adaptations — and the winners will be selected by a jury chaired by former USC professor and current Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vice president Howard Rodman. Other jurors include critics and journalists such as Justin Chang and Leonard Maltin (as well as, full disclosure, yours truly); authors including Janet Fitch and Jonathan Lethem; screenwriters such as Eric Roth and Tyger Williams; producers including Gail Mutrux and Jennifer Todd; and Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Here is a full list of the film adaptation finalists:
- Guillermo del Toro for Netflix’s Frankenstein based on the novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
- Chloe Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell for Focus’ Hamnet based on O’Farrell’s novel of the same name
- Paul Thomas Anderson for Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
- Ira Sachs for Sideshow/Janus’ Peter Hujar’s Day based on the book of the same name by Linda Rosenkrantz
- Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar for Netflix’s Train Dreams based on the novella of the same name by Denis Johnson
This year’s most unexpected nominee is surely Peter Hujar’s Day, which has had a much lower profile than the other nominees. Apart from nominations for five Spirit Awards, including best feature, it had received no other recognition this awards season. But Sachs is a highly respected writer, and his adaptation beat out the likes of Die My Love, Hedda, The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, Mickey 17, Nuremberg, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere and Wicked: For Good.
Hamnet nominee Zhao was previously nominated for — and won — the best film adaptation Scripter Award for 2020’s Nomadland. Train Dreams nominees Bentley and Kwedar were nominated for it at the most recept Scripter Awards, for Sing Sing. Frankenstein nominee del Toro was previously nominated for it for 2022’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which was the first-ever animated nominee. And One Battle After Another nominee Anderson was previously nominated for it for 2007’s There Will Be Blood and 2014’s Inherent Vice, the latter of which, like One Battle, was adapted from a Pynchon novel.
Here is a full list of the TV adaptation finalists:
- Max Hurwitz and Billy Luther for the episode “Ábidoo’niidę́ę́ (What He Had Been Told),” from AMC’s Dark Winds, based on the novels Dancehall of the Dead and The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman
- Mike Makowsky for the episode “Destiny of the Republic,” from Netflix’s Death by Lightning, based on Candice Millard’s nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
- Chandni Lakhani and Scott Frank for the untitled first episode of Netflix’s Dept. Q, based on the novel The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
- Will Smith for the episode “Scars,” from Apple’s Slow Horses, based on the novel London Rules by Mick Herron
- Peter Straughan for the PBS series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, based on the novel The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light nominee Straughan was a winner of the most recent film adaptation Scripter Award, for Conclave, and was also nominated for it for 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; he could become the first person to win Scripter Awards for both a film adaptation and a TV adaptation.
Slow Horses — and specifically, its writer Smith — has received Scripter nominations in each of the past three years, winning in the first two of those. (No other TV program has won more than once.) Dept. Q nominee Frank won this award for 2000’s The Queen’s Gambit, and was also nominated for the film adaptation Scripter Award for 1995’s Get Shorty and 2017’s Logan. And Death by Lightning nominee Makowsky was previously nominated for the film adaptation Scripter Award for 2020’s Bad Education.
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At the 38th Scripter Awards, Michael Connelly will also accept the USC Libraries Literary Achievement Award, in recognition of his contributions to the art of mystery storytelling, both on the page and on the screen. Connelly’s 41 novels have introduced the world to police detective Harry Bosch and defense attorney Mickey Haller, and inspired numerous screen adaptations, including the Bosch, Bosch: Legacy and Ballard series on Amazon Prime; the 2011 feature film The Lincoln Lawyer and the Netflix series of the same name; and the 2002 feature film Blood Work. He often plays an active role in bringing his stories to the screen as both an executive producer and a credited teleplay writer.
Refinements to this year’s eligibility guidelines reaffirm the Scripter Awards’ focus on honoring the written word as a source of inspiration for screen storytellers. Works adapted from books or book series, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, plays, or magazine articles remain eligible. Video games and characters originating in previously published works are no longer considered eligible source material.
All proceeds from the Scripter Awards gala support the library services, collections, and programs that inspire and inform the achievements of USC’s faculty, students, and staff.