Our second rundown article this week takes us to the final screenwriting category for this year’s Oscars featuring another competition between Best Picture nominees. The general consensus is now that The King’s Speech has become a Best Picture frontrunner, it’s chances in Original Screenplay have improved.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• The Kids Are All Right (O)
• The King’s Speech (O) (New)(H) (O)

Runners-Up

• Another Year (H)
• Inception (H)
• The Kids Are All Right (H) (H)

KEY:

Wesley Lovell: At first glance, the originality of the nominated screenplays would suggest a tough race. However, with The King’s Speech emerging as a major player in the Best Picture race, its chances to win this award have tripled. We don’t have a viable guild precursor to tell us if King’s Speech has the chance of beating WGA winner Inception because King’s Speech wasn’t eligible. However, the Academy tends to throw as much at its eventual winner as it can even when it doesn’t deserve the victory (see the Cinematography, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing wins of Slumdog Millinoaire for a prime example). I would be surprised if King’s Speech didn’t win here and if it doesn’t, we may see an upset by the WGA winner Inception and a potential collapse of Best Picture chances.

Peter J. Patrick: Both The Kids Are All right and Another Year won acclaim for their screenplays. The Kids are All Right is Best Picture nominee, which gives it an edge. However, as happened at the WGA, there could be a major upset with Christopher Nolan winning for Inception. Nolan has a huge fan base, having been nominated for the Directors Guild award three times now without having that honor lead to an Oscar nomination for directing. This could be his consolation prize, but I’m still betting on the more coherent scripts of both Kids and Year.

Tripp Burton: The rising front-runner status of The King’s Speech should carry over here easily, especially since people seem to eat up David Siedler’s personal story as much as they do the film itself. The Kids Are All Right could pose a threat, especially if this is the only place the Academy chooses to award it, and that film does seem a little more like the usual winner in this category. The other three films could prove to be dark horses, though, especially after Inception’s WGA victory this past weekend.