AFT Awards: Best Original Screenplay

This is the fifth category of the 14th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Alice Junior, Breaking Fast, Ema, Herself, Honeymood, Mank, On the Rocks, S#!&house, Sound of Metal, Summertime, The Best Years, The Killing of Two Lovers, Welcome to the USA

Runners-up:
Dating Amber
Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt)
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Nine Days
Blast Beat

The winner:
The 40-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank) was wonderfully fresh and totally committed to its main character’s enthralling and marvelous journey.

Other nominees:
Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
Palm Springs (Max Barbakow and Andy Siara)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin)
The King of Staten Island (Judd Apatow, Pete Davidson, and Dave Sirus)