USC Scripter Awards Winners: ‘Conclave’ Takes Top Film Prize, ‘Say Nothing’ Wins for TV

By Matt Minton

According To The variety At the 2025 USC Libraries Scripter Awards, Edward Berger’s “Conclave” won outstanding film adaptation for Peter Straughan’s screenplay while “Say Nothing” won in the episodic series category, with Joshua Zetumer honored for adapting Patrick Radden Keefe’s nonfiction book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.”

Zetumer accepted his award for “Say Nothing” and took the moment to also shoutout his fellow nominees. “It’s a limited series without big American stars and like so many of the shows that are here tonight, like ‘Shōgun,’ ‘Baby Reindeer,’ ‘Ripley’ and ‘Slow Horses,’ we did everything that you’re told not to do.”

This year’s nominations included “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Nickel Boys,” “Sing Sing” and “The Wild Robot” on the film side, while in TV, “Baby Reindeer,” “Ripley,” “Say Nothing,” “Shōgun” and “Slow Horses” were recognized for their outstanding episodesConsidered a strong indicator for the best adapted screenplay category at the Oscars, past Scripter winners that went on to win at the Academy Awards include “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “The Imitation Game” (2014), “The Big Short” (2015), “Moonlight” (2016), “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), “Nomadland” (2020), “Women Talking” (2022) and “American Fiction” (2023). To date, Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” (2019) and Sian Heder’s “CODA” (2022) are the only films to win the screenplay Oscar without also receiving a Scripter nomination.

“Conclave” won Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Peter Straughan’s screenplay while “Nickel Boys” won the WGA award for best adapted screenplay. Out of this year’s USC Scripter nominees, “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” all went on to receive adapted screenplay nominations at the Oscars. At the same time, “The Wild Robot” was left out of the Oscars in favor of Jacques Audiard’s genre-bending musical “Emilia Pérez.” The USC Scripter Awards have unique eligibility rules that affect musicals and international films; Oscar Best Picture nominees “Emilia Pérez,” “Wicked” and “I’m Still Here” were not eligible here.

The USC Scripter Awards, founded in 1988, bring together the worlds of filmmaking and publishing in an academic setting to celebrate the best scripts of the year.

This year, USC professor and Academy Vice President Howard Rodman chaired the selection committee that chose the selections from 42 films and 66 episodic series submissions. Other representatives include Melissa Just, dean of the USC Libraries System, and co-founder Glenn Sonnenberg.