If you ever run into Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund and he happens to tell you about his idea for his next script, be warned that whatever you say in response might end up in that very same movie.
I’m Rebecca Ford, and for Awards Insider this week I spoke with the writer-director of Triangle of Sadness about how he comes up with his colorful characters like those in his latest Palme d’Or–winning satire—a group of wealthy passengers aboard a luxury yacht that end up on a sickening journey, in more ways than one. He tells me he spends a lot of time thinking about the story he wants to tell, and talking to anyone he meets about it. Often, they have their own stories to share, and if he hears one he likes, well, “I steal it and I put it into the script,” he tells me.
My conversation with Östlund got me thinking about the original-screenplay race, which should be very competitive this year. Triangle of Sadness deserves a lot of credit for its bracingly original story, and will be a real contender in that race, but it’s got some very steep competition. The Banshees of Inisherin, which opens in limited release today, has already gathered plenty of critical acclaim, and its writer-director Martin McDonagh has been nominated twice in this category already (for In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). It’s pretty much for certain that Steven Spielbergwill earn his very first Oscar nomination in the screenplay category for cowriting his semi-autobiographical coming-of-age love story to the movies, The Fabelmans, with his longtime collaborator (and two-time Oscar nominee) Tony Kushner. Other major contenders include The Daniels for the highly original Everything Everywhere All at Once, Todd Fieldfor his opus Tár, and Dana Stevens for the powerful action-drama The Woman King.
That doesn’t leave a ton of room for other contenders to break through, but one film I have my eye on is another Cannes debut, Aftersun, which also hits theaters today. The A24 release is a small film, about a father (Paul Mescal) and his daughter (Frankie Corio) on a summer vacation to Turkey, but it packs a big emotional punch. Since Cannes, audiences have been raving about the film, and so perhaps there’s room for it to sneak in for a nomination in this category. Writer-director Charlotte Wells recently spoke to Vanity Fair about creating this story, inspired very much by her own father, who died when she was 16. “It was making my way through memories and dealing with various feelings and ultimately dealing with grief,” she says of the process of writing this script.
Many of the writer-directors in this year’s race are presenting scripts that are based on their own lives, including Elegance Bratton’s The Inspection and James Gray’s Armageddon Time. It’s those raw, authentic touches that often bring a story to life, and it’s a big reason this year’s race will be so competitive. As for who might actually win? The ink is nowhere near dry on that.
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