Book-to-screen adaptations collected some prestigious accolades at last night’s Golden Globe Awards.
Winners that started as books include:
Movies
Nomadland (Chloe Zhao | Director – Motion Picture Drama), adapted from Jessica Bruder’s book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older adults. These invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in RVs & modified vans, forming a growing community of nomads.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Chadwick Boseman | Actor – Motion Picture Drama), based on August Wilson’s play
The time is 1927. The place is a rundown recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites.
Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage, of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation.
The Mauritanian (Jodie Foster | Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Drama), based on the memoir Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
ince 2002, Mohamedou Slahi has been imprisoned at the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In all these years, the United States has never charged him with a crime. Although he was ordered released by a federal judge, the U.S. government fought that decision, and there is no sign that the United States plans to let him go.
Three years into his captivity Slahi began a diary, recounting his life before he disappeared into U.S. custody and daily life as a detainee.
TV
The Queen’s Gambit (Best Limited Series or Film Made for TV; Anya Taylor-Joy | Actress – Limited Series or Film Made for TV), adapted from the novel by Walter Tevis
Eight year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of sixteen, she’s competing for the U.S. Open championship. But as she hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting.
I Know This Much Is True (Mark Ruffalo | Actor – Limited Series or Film Made for TV), based on Wally Lamb’s novel
On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother, Thomas, entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut, public library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable. . . .
One of the most acclaimed novels of our time, Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True is a story of alienation and connection, devastation and renewal, at once joyous, heartbreaking, poignant, mystical, and powerfully, profoundly human.