Why the 5 BAFTA "Best Original Screenplay" Films Were Nominated

I love the “Best Original Screenplay” Category of any awards organisation. Why? Because it strips back all the extraneous factors that people say make up a great film (e.g. direction, cinematography, Daniel Day Lewis) and focuses solely on the style and substance of the story. Naturally, there may be a degree of bias in that love, but, as previously asserted, I have the relevant degree to allow me to make such declarations. So whenever a new year comes around, along with a new, fresh set of screenplay nominations, it’s a fun little hobby to analyse and speculate what made them stand above their competitors.

1) Birdman – Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicholas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo

Written by some sort of modern reboot of the Four Tenors, Birdman is truly unlike any film you have seen before. Akin to that distinct stress dream that anyone who has ever performed on stage before has experienced, the movie seamlessly glides around the theatre, jumping from scene to scene, building to a dizzying climax of desperation, madness and false validation. Among the chaos, the titular Birdman looms in the shadows, reflective of a bygone career and pulling the strings to orchestrate his dramatic comeback.

What really makes the screenplay great are the unique, yet eerily familiar, contrasting characters that populate the story world. Different schools of acting, public persona cultivation and ignorance are violently bashed against one another and deconstructed in the resulting mess. Every character feels like a ticking time bomb, and part of the joy for the audience is wondering who is going to go off first. Birdman isn’t a superhero film at all, although it has plenty to say about them... I would more accurately describe it as an “alter-ego” film.

2) Boyhood – Richard Linklater

The basic pitch for Boyhood almost sounds like it came from some sort of bet, late at night in a bar after a few too many drinks were consumed. Films have spanned vast timescales before, often relying on period costumes or bizarre prosthetics to achieve some semblance of age, but never undertaken with this level of ambition or determination. Whilst it was filmed over a staggering 12 years, adapting itself to the changing world on the fly, take a moment to consider the level of forethought and planning required in the scripting stages.

Linklater’s Screenplay taps into a deep nostalgia buried in almost every male on the planet, and confidently unfolds it before our eyes, like pulling out mementos from a time capsule. It doesn’t feel the need to distribute rose tinted spectacles among the cinema-goers however, charting the rocky perils of adolescence alongside the innocence of youth to a level of exceptional realism. Naturally, the ambition and notoriety of Boyhood will certainly aid in its nominations during awards season, but ultimately the amount of care and precision taken with the screenplay to make the world feel believable will be what secures it any victories.

3) The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson

Separating our perceptions of the fantastic performances and direction of The Grand Budapest Hotel with that of its screenplay is arguably much easier than with any other film on this list. That’s not to say that there is a noticeable disconnect between what we’re seeing and what was on the page – in fact, it’s that the writing, as always with Wes Anderson, is so sharp that it has inspired these great performances and directorial cues from the start. He’s created a world, specifically a hotel, that you want to visit, populated by characters that you want to meet, in spite of the dire situations surrounding the plot.

Taking place over 4 different time periods, with varying levels of narrative focus, the film manages to sustain a consistent story momentum, framing what could have been an over-convoluted crime caper with a complex balance of necessary restraint with delightful whimsy. Dialogue is punchy and witty throughout, accelerating the story breathlessly from set piece to set piece. The Grand Budapest Hotel, at its core, however, is about the blossoming of an unlikely friendship, and how the titular hotel manages to cultivate a relationship between two men that spans decades.

4) Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy

While it would have been great to have a solo film for the one member of the X-Men (X-Man?) that has been significantly underappreciated in the movie universe, what Nightcrawler provides is a scintillating thriller that noticeably stopped my heart from beating on multiple occasions. Lou Bloom, a determined man in search of a job in LA, finds himself muscling into the cut-throat world of “stringers”, who stalk police sirens in order to be first to the scene of the crime with their camera, before selling their footage on to local news studios.

Bloom himself is a chilling combination of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Abed from Community, spouting business idioms with an unsettling level of disconnect for the victims. As the title suggests, the character becomes almost predatory, and when he begins to blur the lines between observer and participant, you can feel the stakes being dramatically ramped up inside your own throat. Nightcrawler grabs you harder than any of the other films on this list, desperately dragging you down the rabbit hole, forcing you to take a long look at the ethics and presentation of the news, and who really is “the star”.

5) Whiplash – Damien Chazelle

First and foremost, this film isn’t actually out yet, and while I would love to read the screenplay ahead of its release, part of me doesn’t want my first viewing to be spoilt... which is interesting, considering what I said earlier about the script being the purest form of the story. Nevertheless, let’s look at what I do know about Whiplash. The story is partly based on writer / director Damien Chazelle’s experience as a band student in High School, particularly his fear towards his intimidating instructor. It drove him to strive for greatness, despite it almost seeming like his instructor was trying to stop him from achieving it.

So what exactly does Whiplash tap into? Unfaltering determination in the face of adversity, going beyond your self-prescribed limits and a deep need for validation. Perhaps what the film is providing for audiences is a new take on modern aspirations. Forget the obvious desires that come with superhero movies, or the vicarious gratification of action or romance films. What has become inherently interesting to us now is the pure strength of will, patience and hardship required to be the best at something – a distant hope we all seek, but are only now willing to accept the price of.

James Cottle, after studying Scriptwriting for 4 years, is now an embittered real life freelance writer, and seeks to unlearn everything he knows. But he needs your help... Follow him on Twitter @Jxmxsc and share this blog to help spread his anarchic plight for reform amongst the writing masses.