27th USC Libraries Scripter Award goes to The Imitation Game

Screenwriter Graham Moore and author Andrew Hodges received the 27th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award for The Imitation Game. Selection committee chair Howard Rodman announced the winners at the black-tie event on Saturday, Jan. 31, at USC’s historic Doheny Memorial Library.

Moore based his adaptation on “Alan Turing: The Enigma,” a 1983 biography by Hodges of the brilliant British World War II code-breaker and computer pioneer who was later persecuted for his homosexuality. Rodman accepted the award on behalf of Hodges, who teaches mathematics at Oxford University’s Wadham College.

“Alan Turing never got to stand on a stage and hear people applaud his name,” Moore said in his acceptance speech. “And I do right now, and that is a profound injustice. All that I can do is spend the rest of my life endeavoring to repair it.”

The Imitation Game’s Scripter win adds to the accolades for the Weinstein Co. film, which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards and eight BAFTAs.

Scripter, established by the Friends of the USC Libraries in 1988, honors the screenwriter of the year’s most accomplished cinematic adaptation as well as the author of the written work upon which the screenplay is based. Scripter is the only award of its kind that recognizes authors of the original work alongside the adapting screenwriters.

USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan welcomed the attendees gathered in the Los Angeles Times Reference Room of Doheny Memorial Library, and noted that the proceeds from the night’s event benefited the USC Cinematic Arts Library.

“Our Cinematic Arts Library is a tangible embodiment of cinema history and of the cultural history of the world,” Quinlan said. “It connects our students and scholars from near and far with knowledge that exists nowhere else but here, knowledge that makes possible their discoveries in the art, craft, and business of making films.”

Chaired by USC screenwriting professor and vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the Scripter selection committee chose The Imitation Game from a field of 97 eligible films.

Rodman also presented writer Walter Mosley with the Literary Achievement Award for his prizewinning career encompassing a range of genres from mystery to science fiction, erotica to nonfiction.

Mosley, a native of Southern California, has set much of his work there, including his “Easy” Rawlins series that features a black detective working in post-war Los Angeles. He is currently working on a Broadway version of his first novel, “Devil in a Blue Dress,” which was adapted in 1995 into a film starring Denzel Washington.

“In one stroke, Walter stood the crime genre on its head,” Rodman said. “And in doing so, over the course of a 25-year career, has triumphantly turned the world 180 degrees.”

In receiving the award, Mosley credited libraries for their central role in guaranteeing intellectual freedom and a civil society, “By making libraries stronger we make America stronger.”

The 27th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award finalists