Welcome to For Your Consideration, the Collider show that breaks down awards season with hosts Scott Mantz, Perri Nemiroff and Jeff Sneider, who offer their Best Original Screenplay predictions. Not only is this category competitive this year, but it's also fairly wide open, with no clear frontrunner in sight.
Since, acting-wise, Roma is led by women and Green Book is led by men, those two films won't square off against each other in any of the acting races, but this is the category where they'll clash before Best Picture is given out. Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón does a wonderful job chronicling a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s, and he's been nominated in this category once before for Y tu mamá también. Meanwhile, Peter Farrelly went solo to direct Green Book, which is a major crowdpleaser that is all but assured two acting nominations. He co-wrote the script with Brian Hayes Currie and Nick Vallelonga, the latter of whom is the son of the film's main character Tony Vallelonga, who's played by Viggo Mortensen. All three of the hosts feel most confident in these two films, but if there's a third most-likely nominee they agree on, it's Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade.
Burnham is a standup comic by trade, but he also happens to be a natural filmmaker with a good ear, doing a remarkable job of capturing the language and existential crisis of being a teenage girl. Of course, he had a little help from gifted newcomer Elsie Fisher, but his achievement is no less impressive. A24 will be campaigning this one hard and there will be plenty of love from Film Twitter, which loves to boost awards underdogs like this one.
From there, it's anyone's guess. The Favourite was written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, and the period film is dripping with delicious dialogue, but Jeff questions whether it will be everyone's cup of tea. It's certainly a unique picture that will have many passionate supporters.
Speaking of passionate supporters, count Scott and Perri among those who think A Quiet Place will score an Oscar nomination in this category. A directing nomination may be just outside John Krasinski's grasp, but the Academy could look to honor him here, as he earned writing credit along with original scribes Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. They all did a great job of making a movie with an original hook, and creating a world with rules of its own in that movie. It's one of Jeff's favorite films of the year, but he's not sure he fully trusts the Academy to recognize the brilliance of that genre film. Sure, Get Out was nominated in this category, but its themes were a bit more politically relevant, and Jeff fears that may be what voters are looking for here.
Instead, Jeff sticks his neck out for Adam McKay's Vice, sight unseen, as the Academy previously nominated him for adapting The Big Short with Charles Randolph. The trailer already features some juicy lines, and you couldn't ask for a better cast than Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell. Scott agrees with Jeff that, barring catastrophe, Vice will be among the final five nominees.
In the end, Scott, Perri and Jeff come to a compromise regarding their predictions, so tune in to see where they settled, and watch through the end of the episode to see Jeff rattle off some additional contenders in the mix for Best Original Screenplay. To keep up with all things For Your Consideration, follow the gang on Twitter and Instagram at @MovieMantz, @PNemiroff and @TheInSneider. Stay tuned next week for more awards talk, and we'll FYC-ya later!
