10 book adaptations nominated for Oscars

The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were revealed Tuesday last, and 10 of the films featured were based on books or have book connections. Winners will be named on March 12 at a televised ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. If you haven’t already read them, put them on your TBR list now and see how the adaptations stack up to the originals.

Pinnochio (Nominated for: Best Animated Feature)

Loosely based on Carlo Collodi’s original 1883 children’s story, The Adventures of Pinocchio

follows the wooden prankster puppet Pinocchio’s exploits and misadventures and his rebellious and free-wheeling nature which ironically lands him under the control of others. Full of boisterous comic wit, ranging from blunt slapstick to sly satire, as well as serious exploration of love and responsibility in the face of a violent world, The Adventures of Pinocchio has earned its place as a world classic of children’s literature.

The Boy, the Fox, the Mole, and the Horse (Nominated for: Best Animated Short Film)

Based on the book by Charlie

Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the

Horse is radiant with Mackesy’s warmth and gentle wit, blending handwritten narrative with dozens of drawings, including some of his best-loved illustrations (including “Help,” which has been shared over one million times) and new, never-before-seen material.

Ivalu (Nominated for: Best Animated Short Film)

This is an adaptation of Morten Dürr’s graphic novel and was nominated in the best live-action short film category for this year’s awards.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

(Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Song, Music and Visual Effects)

Based on the

Marvel Comics character Black Panther.

The Quiet Girl (Nominated for: Best International Feature Film)

Adapted from the 2010 novella

Foster by Irish writer Claire Keegan, whose perfect little gem

of a book Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker

Prize last year. In

Foster, Keegan also produces a small bit of perfection (it’s only 62 pages). It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household — where everything is so well tended to — and this summer must soon come to an end.

Women Talking (Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay)

Based on the 2019 book of the same name by Miriam Toews. One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than 100 other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm.

All Quiet on the Western Front (Nominated in nine categories, imcluding for Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Adapted Screenplay)

The book by

Erich Maria

Remarque is a testament of one Paul

Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the

German army during

World War

I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another… if only he can come out of the war alive.

Blonde (Nominated for: Best Actress)

Based on the book by Joyce Carol Oates. Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker -- the child, the woman, the fated celebrity and idolised blonde the world came to know as the actress known as Marilyn Monroe.

My Year of Dicks (Nominated for: Best Animated Short Film)

Based on the book Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public, by best-selling author and Tv/film writer Pamela Ribon, this “mortifying memoir” tells about Ribon miserably trapped in small town Texas. With no invention of the Internet in sight, Ribon spent countless hours of her high school years writing letters to her (often unrequited) crushes. The big question is: Why did she always keep a copy for herself? Wince along with her as she tries to understand exactly how she ever thought she’d win a boy’s heart by writing him a letter that began: “Share with me your soul,” and ends with some remarkably awkward erotica. You’ll come for the incredibly bad poetry, you’ll stay for the incredibly bad poetry about racism.

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (Nominated for: Best Costume Design)

Based on the book Mrs ’Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico the story is about a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, while tidying Lady Dant’s wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life — a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she’s never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she’s never wanted anything so badly. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs Harris scrimps and saves until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris.when she arrives at the House of Dior, Mrs Harris has little idea of how her life is about to be turned upside down and how many other lives she will transform forever.