7. Bob Wilson - Nebraska
Before its mixed-to-positive reception at the Cannes Film Festival, I initially had this ranked a little higher on my list. Since that time, I have knocked it down a peg or two, but I still see this as a serious contender in the category. Many pundits and critics were eager to declare Nebraska DOA in terms of its awards chances after a collective response of "Eh..." from the elites on the Croisette. After the Cannes jury slightly surprised astute analysts by handing the Best Actor award to Bruce Dern (most had Michael Douglas taking the award for his portrayal of Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's supposed swan song, Behind the Candelabra), many experts began backtracking a bit. Now the adroit consensus on the film's Oscar prospects is that Bruce Dern will most definitely be a contender for Best Actor, while Will Forte and June Squibb remain dark horse candidates in the supporting categories, but beyond that, anything else is wishful thinking. I, on the other hand, am not so quick to write the film off as a potential major player. As I posited in my Cannes post-mortem, I don't think Nebraska is the type of film that was necessarily meant for the Cannes audience, but that does not mean it will not play well for members of the Academy (whose taste often severely differ from those at Cannes anyway). We also have to consider Payne's track record. Only two of his films have failed to receive nominations for their screenplays (his debut feature, Citizen Ruth, and the Jack Nicholson-starrer, About Schmidt), and his last two films, The Descendants and Sideways, won Payne Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay. While it is true that Payne himself actually sat out on writing duties for Nebraska (the film was written by feature film rookie Bob Nelson), many are likely to see Payne's hand in the work and vicariously credit him regardless. The film's plot centers on a senile odd man and his son who take a road trip to Nebraska in order to claim a fictitious sweepstakes prize. This is the type original setup that is looked kindly upon by the writers branch, as is the mix of comedy and drama that Payne has become so well known for. Throw in a bunch of eccentric, sassy peripheral players into the mix (as is said to populate the film), and I don't see how you could not consider Nebraska to be a strong contender in the Best Original Screenplay race.