Oscars 2017: Who Should Win Every Award (And Who Actually Will)

5. Best Adapted Screenplay

Oscars Casey Affleck Denzel Washington
20th Century Fox

Nominees: Arrival, Fences, Hidden Figures, Lion, Moonlight

Who Should Win

Moonlight.

Loosely based on the never-produced stage play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Barry Jenkins does an incredible job in turning this story into a film. He wisely chooses to split it into three distinct chapters, each more powerful and affecting than the last. Moonlight's screenplay is dripping with emotion and longing, and is the base from which Moonlight finds its magic.

Who Will Win

Fences.

It certainly wouldn't be a surprise to see Moonlight take home the statue here, but I think Fences just about has the edge. It's very clearly a stage production put on film, but it's a very good one. And mostly it gives the Academy a chance to award an Oscar to August Wilson, a true playwriting great, over a decade after his death.

Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.