Oscar Best Screenplay

2020 · Emerald Fennell · 113 min · Drama / Thriller

Promising Young Woman is a razor-sharp revenge thriller that takes a familiar genre premise and pushes it into territory that is genuinely uncomfortable rather than cathartic. Carey Mulligan is brilliant as a woman whose grief has calcified into something dangerous, and Emerald Fennell's direction keeps the audience off-balance throughout. The ending has generated more debate than perhaps any other film of its year, and that's exactly the point. This is a film designed to provoke, and it succeeds completely.

2023 · Justine Triet · 152 min · Drama

Anatomy of a Fall is a gripping courtroom drama that uses a suspicious death to dissect a marriage with forensic precision. Sandra Hüller's commanding performance and the film's refusal to offer easy answers make it one of the most intellectually stimulating films of 2023.

2021 · Kenneth Branagh · 98 min · Drama

Belfast is Kenneth Branagh's warmest and most personal film, a black-and-white memory piece about growing up during the Troubles that favors nostalgia over political complexity. The performances, particularly from Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds as the grandparents, are wonderful, and the film captures the magic of childhood perception with genuine affection. It's a beautiful film about a terrible time, though its reluctance to engage with the harder edges of its setting leaves it feeling lighter than its subject deserves.