Many of this year’s Academy Award-nominated movies started on the page, and that doesn’t mean a printed script! Of the films fighting it out to be crowned the best at the 96th Academy Awards, half took inspiration from novels, which are well worth reading for movie fans eager to see how these incredible stories reached the screen while they further explore their themes.
The year in movies was dominated by the Barbenheimer phenomenon that made the most of the vastly different blockbusters Oppenheimer and Barbie, much to the joy of audiences, movie theaters, the color pink, and Hollywood. That shows the direct literary inspiration for this year’s crop of fantastic films isn’t the whole story of 2023 and 2024, but there’s no doubt novels have opened up incredible moments of history, fantasy, and satire at cinemas this year. Here are the fiction and non-fiction books secretly in the running to pick up an Oscar on March 10th.
From a weighty biography about the father of the atomic bomb to a fantastical commentary on society and a stinging critique of the publishing industry’s perception of race, the varied selection of Best Picture nominees has translated to this diverse collection of books. Film fans looking to dig into the inspiration behind these movies can find the best prices and delivery options at Amazon by signing up for a free 30-day trial of Prime.