9. Coen Brothers - Inside Llewyn Davis
As soon as countless critics on the Croisette began breathlessly typing away on their personal electronic devises professing their practically universal approval of the Coens' newest venture, Inside Llewyn Davis, their nomination for Best Original Screenplay was etched in stone. No, nix that, as soon as the projector fired up (or maybe a DVD or Blu-ray player, sadly enough) and the credit "Written by Joel and Ethan Coen" appeared on screen, the brothers were assured of yet another writing nomination. Regardless of whether Oscar Issac's campaign in the lead acting category is ultimately successful, or whether John Goodman manages to snag his long-overdue first Oscar nomination, or if Inside Llewyn Davis gives the Coens' their third Best Picture nomination in a row, one thing I would be willing to stake my fate and fortunes on (which are admittedly small) is that the Coen Brothers will be nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Even the Coens' fiercest critics must concede that, if nothing else, the Brothers Coen make for one hell of a writing duo. Maybe you have issues with their aesthetic approach from time to time, or maybe you don't like the way in which they construct performances from their actors, but if individuals do have an essence in life, then Joel and Ethan Coen are essentially screenplay writers before anything else. The Academy seems to concur with my view as well, as both Coen Brothers have received five nominations between the two writing categories. Remarkably, this excludes such vaunted Coen classics as The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, and Raising Arizona, which have since been coronated as cinematic royalty by contemporary cineastes. The Coens still have a way to go to catch up to the all-time leader of writing Oscar nominations, the prolific Woody Allen who has had an astounding fifteen Oscar nominations as a writer in his career (and maybe a sixteenth in the works, but more on that momentarily), but the Coens are inarguably a writing institution unto themselves at this point. Now even though some admirers of the film have pegged the Coens' most recent effort as "slight," in this category that line of criticism is utterly superfluous. Smaller films with the more "personal" touch are often most appreciated by writers, and a film about a struggling folk artist in the early 1960's New York folk scene honestly sounds like the wet dream of at least a few writers out there, so you can go to Vegas and lay your money down on this one.