The writers behind the film “Women Talking” and the series “Slow Horses” received the 35th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library on Saturday night (3/4).
The Scripter Awards recognize the year’s most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the big screen and episodic series.
Winning the Scripter honor in the film category were screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews for “Women Talking>
“There’s not another person, another writer, another filmmaker, that I would entrust my book to other than Sarah Polley,” Toews said.
Polley described Toews’ work as “searing, uncompromising, funny, and wise,” commenting that “with this book she offered the world an offramp from grief and rage toward what true democracy might look like.”
In the episodic series category, novelist Mick Herron and screenwriter Will Smith took home Scripters for the episode “Failure’s Contagious,” from the Apple TV+ series “Slow Horses,” which Smith adapted from Herron’s book of the same name.
“It’s an absolute privilege to be on the short list tonight.” Herron said, “These are some of the best books you’ll ever read, made into some of the best TV you’ll ever see.”
“The only real test for me in fiction is do I believe it,” Smith said, “I love it when I read a book and feel the characters have a life before and after, and I always feel that with Mick’s writing.”
Glenn Sonnenberg, who co-founded the Scripter Awards in 1988 with Marjorie Lord Volk, served as master of ceremonies. In his opening remarks, Sonnenberg acknowledged that this was the first year the Scripters were presented in person since January 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic upended normal life.
Earlier in the evening, longtime USC Libraries Board of Councilors member Jim Childs received the Ex Libris Award, which honored his exceptional commitment to the libraries.
