LOS ANGELES - Five movies about culture clashes and strangers in strange lands collected nominations yesterday for best original movie script from the Writers Guild of America.
Among the contenders for best original screenplay were Bend It Like Beckham
about the daughter of a traditionalist Indian Sikh family in England who dreams of playing soccer; Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as lonely Americans in a Tokyo hotel; and Dirty Pretty Things about a Nigerian immigrant who uncovers grim dealings in London's underbelly.
The other nominees were The Station Agent
about an embittered dwarf who makes friends despite trying to isolate himself, and In America
director Jim Sheridan's semi-autobiographical tale of an Irish immigrant family struggling to survive in New York.
Sheridan collaborated on the screenplay with daughters Naomi, 30, and Kirsten, 27.
What father wouldn't be happy to be up there with his daughters? he said yesterday. This gets me so many brownie points with the family that it scares me.
He said he let his daughters do their own drafts of the script, basically because I knew when the vanity and egocentricity of doing your own story is difficult ... It was humbling. I would urge any parent to get their children to write a script about them.
In the category for best adapted screenplay, the true-life racehorse drama Seabiscuit and the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King were picked to compete against American Splendor
about comic book writer Harvey Pekar, and the novels-turned-movies Cold Mountain and Mystic River.
Seabiscuit director Gary Ross, who adapted the screenplay from author Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling book, said he was grateful other writers recognized his efforts to add a dramatic spine to the real-life story.
It was such a famous and popular piece of history that it felt like a real challenge to make this a personal movie
which is the only way to move people
he said. For me
it was about the interdependence of three people (jockey Red Pollard
trainer Tom Smith and owner Charles Howard) and how they pulled each other out of the depths of despair and crisis.
Television drama nominees included two episodes of Law & Order: SVU
along with installments of The West Wing
