What does the Oscar read? An analysis of the nominated films that are based on books

Of the ten candidates for best film in 2024, five are inspired by biographies, novels and non-fiction stories. The most notable example is “Oppenheimer”, by Christopher Nolan based on the book by Kai Bird (see the exclusive interview on the following pages), but there are other titles that also deserve attention, and that revitalize the old phenomenon of film adaptation. “Although cinema always makes adaptations, it is ultimately an unfaithful art; That is to say, at the end of the day a film combines the literary in its own way and ends up creating its own world,” says José Carlos Cabrejo, university professor and editor of the magazine “Ventana indiscreta”, from the University of Lima.

Dystopias and tragedies

A strong candidate for a golden statuette is “Poor Creatures”, by Yorgos Lanthimos, whose plot arises from the novel of the same name by the Scotsman Alasdair Gray, who takes us to the 19th century, to present the dark and fantastic story of Bella, a woman brought back to life with a baby brain by a doctor who now acts as her father. However, the young woman’s open sexuality leads her to have various adventures and challenge the codes of Victorian morality. “Although the film is inspired by Gray’s book, it is very faithful to the world of its director, with the use of short focal lengths and a certain idea of ​​the visceral and the monstrous,” says Cabrejo.

This difference between book and film adaptation is also evident in “The Zone of Interest” (nominated for best film and best foreign film), by Jonathan Glazer. In this case, the book of the same name by Martin Amis addresses the topic of the Holocaust, from the perspective of Nazi officers, who air their loves and personal intrigues in an undefined extermination camp. In Glazer’s adaptation, the plot takes place in an adjacent house in Auschwitz, where the idyllic family life of Commander Rudolph Höss takes place, while the barbarism only reaches the viewer through distant and heartbreaking echoes.

And the same thing happens with “The Snow Society” (candidate for best foreign film), by the Spaniard Juan Bayona, who recreates the novel of the same name by the Uruguayan journalist and writer Pablo Vierci based on the stories of the survivors of the plane crash that occurred in 1972. in the Andes. Bayona, who has directed horror films like “The Orphanage,” takes the film into his domain. “If you see the film,” says Cabrejo, “you realize that it is very faithful to the visual style of its director and we see these characters coming out of the snow as if they were zombies, or the images of the corpses or the relationship with meat.” human; So Bayona starts from a literary work but to do something very much in his own style.”

Drama and fiction

The surprise best picture candidate “American Fiction,” by Cord Jefferson, is also the product of an adaptation. This is “Erasure”, a novel by Percival Everett that tells the story of Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, an African-American writer scandalized by the sudden success of a low-quality novel that only confirms racial stereotypes and shows ‘that’ that the public wants to consume. Film and novel are a criticism of the way in which certain literature is constructed and the dynamics of best-sellers.

Finally, another adapted film that is competing for an Oscar is “The Flower Moon Killers,” based on a non-fiction book by David Grann. Martin Scorsese’s film focuses on the plot hatched in the 1920s to murder dozens of Oklahomans in order to take away their land and oil wealth.

Other adaptations nominated for an Oscar are “The Color Purple,” by Sam Blitz Bazawule, based on the novel by Alice Walker; “Robot Dreams”, by Pablo Berger, based on the graphic novel by Sara Varon; “The Boy and the Heron”, by Hayao Miyazaki, based on the novel by Yoshino Genzaburo; and “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”, by Wes Anderson, a short film based on a story by Roald Dahl.