The USC Libraries Scripter Award is an annual honor from the University of Southern California that recognize outstanding screen adaptations of written works. Unique to the awards, both the original author and the screenwriter are honored. Chosen by a jury of writers, scholars, and industry professionals, the Scripters celebrate excellence in bringing stories from page to screen in film and television.
The ceremony also featured crime novelist Michael Connelly receiving the USC Libraries Scripter Literary Achievement Award. The honor was presented by Titus Welliver, who starred as Connelly’s detective Harry Bosch in Prime Video’s Bosch and its spinoffs.
For 2026, the writers behind Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Netflix’s limited series Death by Lightning were announced as the winners of the 38th USC Libraries Scripter Awards on Saturday, Jan. 24th.
In the film category, Anderson and novelist Thomas Pynchon took home the award for One Battle After Another, a crime drama inspired by Pynchon’s 1990 novel. Anderson and Pynchon were previously nominated for a USC Scripter Award in 2014 for Inherent Vice, also adapted and directed by Anderson from Pynchon’s 2009 novel. This year, One Battle After Another won over fellow film nominees Frankenstein, Hamnet, Peter Hujar’s Day, and Train Dreams.
In the episodic series category, screenwriter Mike Makowsky and author Candice Millard won for Death by Lightning, adapted from Millard’s nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. The four-episode Netflix series explores the events leading up to the assassination of President James Garfield, portrayed by Michael Shannon, by Charles Guiteau, played by Matthew Macfadyen. The series beat out nominees including Dark Winds, Dept. Q, Slow Horses, and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
source: Deadline
The ceremony also featured crime novelist Michael Connelly receiving the USC Libraries Scripter Literary Achievement Award. The honor was presented by Titus Welliver, who starred as Connelly’s detective Harry Bosch in Prime Video’s Bosch and its spinoffs.
For 2026, the writers behind Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Netflix’s limited series Death by Lightning were announced as the winners of the 38th USC Libraries Scripter Awards on Saturday, Jan. 24th.
In the film category, Anderson and novelist Thomas Pynchon took home the award for One Battle After Another, a crime drama inspired by Pynchon’s 1990 novel. Anderson and Pynchon were previously nominated for a USC Scripter Award in 2014 for Inherent Vice, also adapted and directed by Anderson from Pynchon’s 2009 novel. This year, One Battle After Another won over fellow film nominees Frankenstein, Hamnet, Peter Hujar’s Day, and Train Dreams.
In the episodic series category, screenwriter Mike Makowsky and author Candice Millard won for Death by Lightning, adapted from Millard’s nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. The four-episode Netflix series explores the events leading up to the assassination of President James Garfield, portrayed by Michael Shannon, by Charles Guiteau, played by Matthew Macfadyen. The series beat out nominees including Dark Winds, Dept. Q, Slow Horses, and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
source: Deadline
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