The films in contention for the 2024 Best Original Screenplay Oscar are “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “May December,” and “Past Lives.” Our odds currently indicate that “Anatomy of a Fall” (16/5) will take the prize, followed in order of likelihood by “The Holdovers” (37/10), “Past Lives” (9/2), “Maestro” (9/2), and “May December” (9/2).
Of the eight individual writers behind these five films, only Josh Singer (“Maestro”) has earned recognition in this category before. Indeed, he is looking to go two-for-two here after succeeding on his 2016 bid for “Spotlight,” which he co-wrote with its director, Tom McCarthy. Coincidentally, he shares his new nomination with the director of “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper, who also has a personal stake in the Best Picture and Best Actor races as a producer and star of the same film.
With this original writing notice, Cooper’s Oscars resume now includes five different categories, the remaining two of which are Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. His first and only preceding general writing bid came for his work on “A Star Is Born” (2019), which is the third remake of the 1937 movie of the same name. Since he picked up a Best Actor notice for that film (which he also directed and produced), he is now only the second person to write two of his own Oscar-nominated roles, emulating fellow lead actor Warren Beatty (adapted: “Heaven Can Wait,” 1979; original: “Reds,” 1982).
Three of the six complete Oscars newcomers in this lineup are women, making for the largest such representative amount since 2018. In that case, Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Emily V. Gordon (“The Big Sick”), and Vanessa Taylor (“The Shape of Water”) all came up short against Jordan Peele (“Get Out”). This time, the female subset is made up of Samy Burch (“May December”), Celine Song (“Past Lives”), and Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”), the last of whom is concurrently in the hunt for Best Director. Song is this category’s third female nominee of Asian descent and could make history as the first Korean woman to take the gold.
Rounding out this roster are first-timers David Hemingson (“The Holdovers”), Arthur Harari (“Anatomy of a Fall”), and Alex Mechanik (“May December”), the last two of whom are also the respective romantic partners of Triet and Burch. Until now, the last such pair who had shared in a single original screenplay nomination were Gordon and her “Big Sick” co-writer, Kumail Nanjiani.
The films that won in this category most recently are “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2023), “Belfast” (2022), “Promising Young Woman” (2021), and “Parasite” (2020). This year’s winner will be revealed during the 96th Academy Awards ceremony, airing March 10 on ABC.
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