Best Screenplay

Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation)

For the first time in the Calvins, a clear winner emerged in Best Screenplay, as Sofia Coppola ran away with the title for her Lost in Translation script. Six voters made it their pick for number one, three times more votes than any other script received.

Coppola's tale of collective loneliness and isolation struck a big chord with our voters, who admired the witty banter and natural conversational quality of the dialogue and the relaxed but powerful way she was able to develop character. Anyone who's been alone -- or just felt that way -- in a strange city can relate to the situation that Coppola has drawn here.

Sliding into a solid second place finish was Niki Caro's script for Whale Rider, a marvelously charming and moving film. Deftly avoiding cliché when it would have been easy to make a simple story, Caro made a rarely seen culture as familiar as the people next door and a family story for the ages.

The trio of Walsh, Boyens and Jackson make their third appearance in this category for their writing in the Lord of the Rings films. The third place finish for Return of the King matches the result of two years ago for Fellowship and follows a fourth place finish for The Two Towers last year. It was a monumental task to convert such an epic novel to the screen while keeping true to the spirit of the source material and these three did so handily. Take a bow, folks.

Closely behind that trio sits another, the screenwriters of Finding Nemo. A clever and funny film about the responsibilities of fatherhood among... fish, Nemo was able to entertain while at the same time sending a wonderful message about family and dedication. Plus it made our sides split. Pixar hasn't let us down yet.

While Kill Bill Vol. 1's style seemed to get most of the credit for its success, it also had a very clever screenplay, filled with Tarantino's trademark wit and endlessly quotable dialogue. Tarantino once again made the decision to fracture his timeline, but unlike many other screenwriters, understands why and when you should do it to maximum effect. The story was simply crackerjack and ridiculously entertaining and well deserving of its placement here.

Brazil's answer to Goodfellas, City of God, placed its script very close behind in sixth. This story of the slums of Rio told the story of many lives across many years in the midst of desperate poverty and was never less than compelling.

Jim Sheridan and his two daughters Kirsten and Naomi brought their script for In America in at seventh. A semi-autobiographical tale of the early years of their family in New York, it was a powerful tale about loss and togetherness. Just between you and me, I think this group is starting to go soft on us.

This year's non-traditional comic book adaptation of choice was American Splendor, the screenplay that we placed in eighth. It blended elements of Harvey Pekar's life with his comic books (themselves based on his life) as well as documentary-esque scenes of Pekar himself during the filming of the movie in order to tell his life story, a brilliant conceit which many of our voters were impressed with.

Following in ninth was Brian Helgeland's script for Mystic River, adapted from the best-selling novel. The screenplay wove three narratives together to a devastating conclusion worthy of its inclusion here.

Rounding out the top ten is the screenplay for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. A rousing yarn about nautical warfare in the 19th century, it also took the time to examine changing philosophical ideas at this crucial point in history.

Significant snubs were handed to three Oscar nominated screenplays, those of Dirty Pretty Things, The Barbarian Invasions and Seabiscuit. In the case of the first two, it was mostly a limited distribution pattern that failed to bring them to our attention but in Seabiscuit's case, as in most other categories, we simply failed to be impressed by the picture. (Reagen Sulewski/BOP)

Top Ten
Position	Actor	Film	Total Points
1	Sofia Coppola	Lost in Translation	103
2	Niki Caro	Whale Rider	71
3	Frances Walsh, Peter Jackson & Philippa Boynes	The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King	59
4	Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson & David Reynolds	Finding Nemo	55
5	Quentin Tarantino	Kill Bill Vol. 1	52
6	Bráulio Mantovani	City of God	51
7	Jim Sheridan, Kirsten Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan	In America	44
8	Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini	American Splendor	40
9	Brian Helgeland	Mystic River	34
10	Peter Weir and John Collee	Master and Commander: Far Side of the World	32