Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar Nominees 2012 List By Oscar Grouch  [16 more lists]

Nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony, were announced on January 24, 2012. The Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay is one of the most esteemed and sought-after screenwriting awards in the world, and is given to the writers of the finest script adapted from a work in another medium. (This is usually a fiction or non-fiction book, a play, a TV series or another film, but some films have been adapted from magazine articles, treatments or other pieces as well.) All screenplays for sequels are counted as "adaptations" of the original film in the series. For example, the script to "Before Sunrise" (by Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke) was considered an "adaptation" of the original film, "Before Sunset," even though the writing itself was all original (and some was improvised on the set by stars Delpy and Hawke.)

The award itself was introduced in 1928, and was initially awarded to Benjamin Glazer for the script to "Seventh Heaven," adapted from a play by Austin Strong. All winners since 2007 have been for adaptations of books or novels - "No Country for Old Men" in 2007, "Slumdog Millionaire" in 2008, "Precious" in 2009 and "The Social Network" in 2010, which was based on a non-fiction account of the founding of Facebook called "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. In '09, Geoffrey Fletcher became the first African-American writer in history to win the award for his "Precious" script, adapted from the novel "Push" by Sapphire.

Early favorites for 2012 Adapted Screenplay nominations include Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne & Jim Rash for "The Descendants" (based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings), Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian for "Moneyball" (based on a book by Michael Lewis) and Tate Taylor for "The Help" (based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett.)

Should Sorkin win for "Moneyball," it would be his second consecutive year taking the award after winning in 2011 for "The Social Network." Joseph L. Mankiewicz pulled a similar feat in 1950 and 1951, winning for both "A Letter to Three Wives" and then "All About Eve" the following year.