THE IMITATION GAME Wins USC Libraries Scripter Award

Screenwriter Graham Moore and author Andrew Hodges received the 27th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award for THE IMITATION GAME. Selection committee chair Howard Rodman announced the winners at the black-tie event on Saturday, Jan. 31, at USC’s historic Doheny Memorial Library.

Moore based his adaptation on “Alan Turing: The Enigma,” a 1983 biography by Hodges of the brilliant British World War II code-breaker and computer pioneer who was later persecuted for his homosexuality. Rodman accepted the award on behalf of Hodges, who teaches mathematics at Oxford University’s Wadham College.

“Alan Turing never got to stand on a stage and hear people applaud his name,” Moore said in his acceptance speech. “And I do right now, and that is a profound injustice. All that I can do is spend the rest of my life endeavoring to repair it.”

THE IMITATION GAME’s Scripter win adds to the accolades for the Weinstein Co. film, which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards and eight BAFTAs.

Chaired by USC screenwriting professor and vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the Scripter selection committee chose THE IMITATION GAME from a field of 97 eligible films.

Other nominees for the Scripter were Gillian Flynn, author and screenwriter of GONE GIRL; Novelist Thomas Pynchon and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson for INHERENT VICE; Jane Hawking, author of Travelling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen, and screenwriter Anthony McCarten for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING and Screenwriter Nick Hornby for WILD, adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Last year’s winner was 12 YEARS A SLAVE.

Scripter, established by the Friends of the USC Libraries in 1988, honors the screenwriter of the year’s most accomplished cinematic adaptation as well as the author of the written work upon which the screenplay is based. Scripter is the only award of its kind that recognizes authors of the original work alongside the adapting screenwriters.

From left to right: Scripter Selection Committee Chair Howard Rodman, Scripter Award-winning screenwriter Graham Moore, Dean of the USC Libraries Catherine Quinlan, USC Libraries Literary Achievement Award winner Walter Mosley, and master of ceremonies Glenn Sonnenberg (Photo: Business Wire)