(Updated: 2/24/10, 6:13p) Today, we have a one-two punch for you, highlighting the year’s writing awards. Since the Academy has had so many different category descriptions and rules, we thought it best to cover our favorites of these groups somewhat collectively. In addition, the trivia encompasses all writing awards and our predictions are for both Adapted and Original Screenplay categories.

Trivia: Five Facts

• Although established at the first Academy Awards, the writing categories have fluctuated more than almost any other category (the music awards have had more frequent and recent changes). The official Original and Adapted Screenplay categories went into full use in 1957.
• 250 trophies have gone out to writing award winners in the category’s 81-year history.
• If you want to win a Best Picture Oscar, you’d better hope your script is nominated. Only 7 times has a film won Best Picture without a corresponding writing nomination (Wings in 1927/28, The Broadway Melody in 1928/29, Grand Hotel in 1931/32, Cavalcade in 1932/33, Hamlet in 1948, The Sound of Music in 1965 and Titanic in 1997). You don’t have to win the prize, but it helps. 55 of 81 Best Picture winners also won a screenwriting award. Also, your likelihood of winning Best Picture is higher if you happen to be based on an Adapted Screenplay. 35 Best Picture winners were nominated Best Adapted Screenplay whereas only 16 Best Picture winners were Best Original Screenplay nominees. I am not including the years where the category was not specifically called Original or Adapted screenplay or a similar equivalent.
• In the Adapted Screenplay category, 4 individuals hold the record for most nominations at 4 each: James Poe, Richard Brooks, Stanley Kubrick and Eric Roth. For Original Screenplay, Woody Allen is the all-time champ with 14 nominations followed distantly by Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman with 5 each and then Tullio Pinelli, Stanley Shapiro and Mike Leigh with 4 each. The overall most nominated were Woody Allen (14), Billy Wilder (12), Federico Fellini (8), John Huston (8) and Charles Brackett (7). On the winners side of things, Charles Brackett, Paddy Chayefsky, Francis Ford Coppola and Billy Wilder share credit for most awards at three each.
• The writing awards are the only categories in which blacklisted writers often worked under pseudonyms and received nominations for their work. The Academy has since given credit to these writers in arrears. Four blacklisted writers were awarded Oscars either under a pseudonym or not listed as nominees. Dalton Trumbo was nominated twice for Roman Holiday in 1953 and The Brave Ones in 1956 under the noms-de-plume Ian McLellan Hunter and Robert Rich respectively; Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson had adapted The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 from Pierre Boulle’s novel. The screenwriting credit at the Oscars was given to Boulle alone; Writer Nedrick Young had been listed on the credits for The Defiant Ones in 1958 as Nathan E. Douglas.

Predictions

Best Original Screenplay

• The Hurt Locker (Peter, Wes) (Wesley, Tripp)
• Inglourious Basterds (Wesley, Tripp) (Peter, Wes)
• The Messenger
• A Serious Man
• Up

Best Adapted Screenplay

• District 9
• An Education
• In the Loop (Peter)
• Precious (Wesley, Tripp, Wes)
• Up in the Air (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Wes)

KEY: (Winner Prediction) (Alternate Winner)

The Commentary

Wesley Lovell – Original Screenplay: It would be easy to jump immediately to The Hurt Locker as a winner in this category based on its WGA win. However, Quentin Tarantino, not being a guild member, was ineligible for the award. Add this to the fact that the Academy loves to spread awards around in recent years to contenders that may or may not win, Inglourious Basterds is a strong choice for a winner.; Adapted Screenplay: With four Best Picture nominees in this category, it might be hard to pick if it weren’t for the well regarded script of Up in the Air being a nominee. Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner have swept up award after award and it’s the most screenplay-dependent film in the list. Plus, this gives the Academy a chance to give Reitman an Oscar after his streak of three critically-acclaimed Oscar-nominated films.
Tripp Burton – Original Screenplay: There are four Best Picture nominees, and common sense states that one of those should win this award. Two of those films are in the running for Best Picture, and those two are the front-runners here too. The Hurt Locker would seem to be the favorite, but the screenplay is not one of the obvious strengths of the film. Plus, it has to face Quentin Tarantino’s wild screenplay to Inglourious Basterds. This seems to be the kind of year where the Academy wants to spread the wealth of awards, and this will guarantee that Tarantino won’t go home emptyhanded.; Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner have written a screenplay that has gotten a lot of acclaim so far, with WGA and Golden Globe wins under their belt. This is the best chance to honor the film, and they should win this pretty easily.

Our Favorite Winners

KEY:
Appears on Two Lists
Appears on Three Lists
Appears on Four Lists
Appears on Opposing Lists

Wesley Lovell

Original Screenplay

1. Annie Hall (One of the funniest movies all-time, the movie is testament of Woody Allen’s ability to blend humor, honesty and humility.)
2. The Red Balloon (Without a single word of dialogue, you understand and sympathize with the film, a testament to great writing.)
3. The Crying Game (It wasn’t the first twist, but it sure gave the milieu a boost. Exploring themes most Oscar-nominated films were afraid to, The Crying Game showed us that love knows no bounds.)
4. Pulp Fiction (Quintessential Tarantino, this film has snappy dialogue, tense situations and twists and turns that don’t reveal themselves until the end. It was one of the first films to chop up its story through time and blend it all back together again.)
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (The power of the screenplay is in exploring the human mind’s desire to forget that which pains when it’s all we can remember, but discovering the pain can be accompanied by great joy.)

Adapted Screenplay

1. It Happened One Night (One of the funniest movies ever made, this film creates a formula for competent romantic comedies that is still in use today.)
2. The Godfather, Part II (Telling two parallel stories of wealth and poverty, The Godfather series remains one of the greatest works of cinema. The story itself is what makes this film so memorable.)
3. The Exorcist (When horror films are done well, the result is a film like The Exorcist which tells a truly terrifying story with pathos and passion.)
4. Brokeback Mountain (Adapting a short story to the big screen, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana create a mesmerizing deconstruction of the cowboy mythos and create an unparalleled work of dignity and compassion.)
5. Gods and Monsters (A surprise winner, Bill Condon’s screenplay tells the story of iconic director James Whale whose life in the decadent, backdoor Hollywood is complicated when a passionate young man shows him what love is all about.)

Other Writing Awards

1. Casablanca (This is probably the greatest screenplay ever written. That it won an Oscar proves that sometimes the best really can win.)
2. Citizen Kane (Coming in closely behind Casablanca on the list of greatest screenplays, the script isn’t the film’s greatest quality, but it’s a significant asset.)
3. The Lost Weekend (Trying to externalize the dangers of alcohol abuse, this film keys in on mannerisms and situations that bring a realism to the film that isn’t easily topped.)
4. A Place in the Sun (While the film is a touch melodramatic at times, there’s no question it’s one of the most poignant and tragic love stories ever written.)
5. All About Eve (Witty, charming and effervescent. Every aspect of this film succeeds and without the biting dialogue and unflinching attitude presented in the screenplay, the film wouldn’t be nearly as great even with Bette Davis delivering the lines.)

Peter J. Patrick

Original Screenplay

1. Citizen Kane (I may not agree with the consensus that it’s the greatest movie ever made but it certainly contains the most brilliant original screenplay)
2. Sunset Blvd. (wry, uncanny indictment of Hollywood)
3. The Apartment (perceptive commentary on the way we live now, yes, now, in 1960 and 2010)
4. The Crying Game (brilliant written suspense thriller)
5. Moonstruck (deceptively simple family comedy/drama)

Adapted Screenplay

1. All About Eve (wittiest dialogue ever written for a film)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird (beautifully captures the essence of childhood)
3. A Man for All Seasons (literate, intelligent, compassionate and accurate account of a much filmed historical era)
4. Midnight Cowboy (brilliant script brings compassion and understanding to squalid, seedy locales)
5. L.A. Confidential (marvelous film noir twenty-two years after the genre supposedly breathed its last breath)

Tripp Burton

Original Screenplay

1. Sunset Blvd. (Easily one of the most perfectly constructed screenplays of all time.)
2. Annie Hall (Woody Allen has two deserving wins in this category, but his work on Annie Hall is among the sharpest, funniest screenplays ever written)
3. Network (Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant screenplay becomes greater and greater every year as it becomes less and less a fantasy)
4. The Red Balloon (In a category that often honors the best or most witty dialogue, it is nice to see a choice with no dialogue, remembering that story and structure are just as important to screenwriting)
5. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar’s difficult and edgy foreign film is the kind of film that usually doesn’t win here, but a weak year in the category allowed him long over-due recognition.)

Adapted Screenplay

1. Casablanca (I feel obvious choosing this film, but for once what people say is the best truly is the best ever.)
2. All the President’s Men (How do you make a thriller exciting when everyone knows the ending? This is how.)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Horton Foote takes a perfect novel and manages to allow it to be a perfect screenplay also, without losing any of the heart or intelligence of the book)
4. A Letter to Three Wives (All About Eve the next year may have the better zingers, but Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s first Oscar win is a wonderful lesson in structure and plotting)
5. Traffic (There are a lot of deserving winners I thought about putting here, but Stephen Gaghan’s brilliant ability to balance all these stories in a cohesive and clear form is a feat unto itself)

Our Least Favorite Winners

KEY:
Appears on Two Lists
Appears on Three Lists
Appears on Four Lists
Appears on Opposing Lists

Wesley Lovell

Original Screenplay

1. Gandhi (A boring text book made into a film. We learn more about Mahatma Gandhi than we probably ever wanted to know, and we learn it all in immense mind-numbing detail.)
2. Patton (Unlike Gandhi, we at least have a few explosions to keep us entertained, but it’s the same style of writing.)
3. Crash (Pedantic platitudes, simplistic stereotypes and characters we have little concern about. This film flits between styles so quickly and unevenly, it feels like too many films pieced together for some selfish result.)
4. Chariots of Fire (Telling the classic triumph-over-adversity sports story in the most flat and dry way possible.)
5. Rain Man (You may care about Raymond Babbitt, but it’s all Dustin Hoffman’s performance that does that. The screenplay tries at times to get in the way of that goal and never pushes the audience to think for itself.)

Adapted Screenplay

1. Around the World in 80 Days (How do you mix in dozens of cameos? That seems to be the only reason this screenplay won. It’s fairly faithful to the book, but it’s not more than a frivolous entity.)
2. A Beautiful Mind (I don’t mind an adaptation changing up parts of the source material as long as it embellishes the story. Here, however, the opposite occurs. Yes it appeals to certain people, but it’s a horribly shallow script that fails to pick up on some potentially engaging elements.)
3. Slumdog Millionaire (Love is inevitable. Love is blind. Love is walking around in dung to get an autograph. When Fantasy has little basis in reality, you get a film that’s falsely optimistic.)
4. Tom Jones (Snappy dialogue is not one of this script’s strengths. Perhaps the humor is lost on me, but I find little to be entertained by in this film.)
5. Forrest Gump (When compared with films like Gandhi and Patton, this faux biography is entertaining. Convoluted and cloying, this film’s screenplay drags out every ploy it can to wring tears out of the audience without really having much original or important to say about the world.)

Other Writing Awards

1. The Greatest Show on Earth (How do you turn the circus into a movie? You take the most hackneyed situations possible and present them as if they are some great experience. Only the story surrounding Buttons the clown carries any effective weight.)
2. From Here to Eternity (For a film that was so well received at the Oscars, it sure is easy to forget what the film’s about. Aside from a single scene on the beach, very little about this movie is memorable.)
3. Going My Way (It’s Bing Crosby as a priest! That’s what this film has going for it. A couple of interesting songs, but it has nothing truly witty, zingy or exceedingly interesting to say.)
4. The Best Years of Our Lives (Not the unflinching follow up to World War II that All Quiet on the Western Front was to World War I, this film tries to examine what life would be like for soldiers returning from war. There are too many emotionally hollow scenes to truly allow the film to explore difficult subjects.)

Peter J. Patrick

Original Screenplay

1. Lost in Translation (there was a screenplay there?)
2. The Hospital (lots of shouting about obvious wrongs)
3. Crash (muddled screenplay)
4. Interrupted Melody (standard biopic adds nothing to the genre)
5. Designing Woman (wan comedy)

Adapted Screenplay

1. The French Connection (without the chases it would have been nothing)
2. Slumdog Millionaire (excitingly directed, but the screenplay was often confusing)
3. Bad Girl (Borzage’s directing style was all, the story was rather ordinary)
4. Cimarron (a bit of a mess of a screenplay)
5. Out of Africa (lots of nice scenery but only intermittently interesting story)

Tripp Burton

Original Screenplay

1. Crash (A horrible movie that is belabored by a heavy-handed, childish script)
2. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (This isn’t a horrible film, but the shallow script doesn’t help it in the least)
3. Good Will Hunting (It was nice seeing Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s excitement at winning, but that enthusiasm couldn’t save a script that feels like a bad first draft)
4. The Candidate (I love political movies, but have always found this movie to be slow and plodding, with no help from the screenplay)
5. Dead Poets Society (A cheap, manipulative movie with a script that is condescending and angsty. I will never understand how some people can love this film)

Adapted Screenplay

1. A Beautiful Mind (In a movie filled with bad work, Akiva Goldsman’s elementary look at mental illness is among the worst)
2. Tom Jones (Bad jokes and lousy exposition abundant)
3. Dances With Wolves (A long and dry film, the screenplay does nothing to help move things along)
4. Going My Way (Not a horrible winner, but a movie I have never much enjoyed (with the best slate of losing screenplays behind it))
5. The Cider House Rules (John Irving is my favorite novelist, so I feel bad putting him on this list, but the cliff’s notes abridgment he made of his great novel is not a worthy winner here at all.)