'Argo' wins USC Scripter Award

'Argo' screenwriter Chris Terrio (Credit: Getty Images)

Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio and authors Joshuah Bearman and Antonio J. Mendez have been named the winners of the 25th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award.

The yearly award, which honors work-to-film adaptations, is given to both the film's screenwriter and the authors of the source material. The 25th annual gala was held Saturday night at USC's Doheny Memorial Library.

Terrio, nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, adapted the script for Argo from a 2007 Wired by Joshuah Bearman titled The Great Escape, and from the 2000 memoir The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez, who is portrayed in the film by Ben Affleck.

The film beat out stiff competition from four of its fellow Best Picture nominees: Beasts of the Southern Wild (from Lucy Alibar, the playwright behind Juicy and Delicious, the source for screenwriter Benh Zeitlin's script - which he co-wrote with Alibar); Life of Pi (novelist Yann Martel and screenwriter David Magee); Lincoln (Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and screenwriter Tony Kushner); Silver Linings Playbook (author Matthew Quick and screenwriter David O. Russell); and the lone contender without an Oscar nod under its belt, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (from author Stephen Chbosky, who also wrote the film’s screenplay).

In addition to the top honor, The USC Libraries also bestowed Literary Achievement Award honors to authors/screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain) for their collective body of work.

The Scripter is yet another in a long list of honors for the critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated Argo, which is coping with its Best Director snub by winning every award it can feasibly get its hands on. We'll see on Feb 24 if Oscar is among the accolades added to its already stuffed trophy case.

Full story: The Hollywood Reporter