Golden Globes and Critics Choice screenplay nominees for National Screenwriters Day

Happy National Screenwriters Day! As I promised yesterday, I'm covering the Golden Globes and Critics Choice screenplay nominees as the first Sunday entertainment feature of 2025. I begin with the nominees for Best Screenplay, Motion Picture at the Golden Globes.

A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg
Anora
Sean Baker
The Brutalist
Brady Corbet
Mona Fastvold
Conclave
Peter Straughan
Emilia Pérez
Jacques Audiard
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat

Eight of Gold Derby's editors, including Joyce Eng and Christopher Rosen, picked Anora, while one each chose A Real Pain, The Brutalist, and Conclave. Gold Derby's experts generally agree, with 18 of the 32 judging Anora the best, followed by eight choosing Conclave, five picking A Real Pain, and one standing out for The Substance. Seventeen of the site's top 24 users agree with Anora, followed by four for Conclave and three voting for The Substance. The users apparently don't like A Real Pain. As consolation, I'm sharing Joyce Eng eliciting Jesse Eisenberg's 'great ambivalence' about his own pain inspired 'A Real Pain'.

Jesse Eisenberg's 'great ambivalence' about his own pain inspired 'A Real Pain.' The Oscar nominee explains how he overcame writer's block, casting Kieran Culkin, and more. Gold Derby senior editor Joyce Eng hosts this webchat.

After watching this interview, I've decided I like Eisenberg better as a writer than as an actor. I think he still deserves his Razzie for playing Lex Luthor.

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was worse than Leto as Joker...My wife and I agreed he wasn't Lex Luthor, who should be colder and more openly calculating, but a more organized version of The Joker who had a goal beyond "watching the world burn."

That performance did not make my memory of Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network a happier one. Maybe A Real Pain might change that.

I'm going to agree with the prognosticators at Gold Derby that Anora will win tonight. Follow over the jump to see if they think it will repeat for Best Original Screenplay at the Critics Choice Awards next week.

Best Original Screenplay
Anora
Sean Baker
September 5
Moritz Binder
Tim Fehlbaum
Alex David
The Brutalist
Brady Corbet
Mona Fastvold
A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat
Challengers
Justin Kuritzkes

Gold Derby's top 24 users like A Real Pain better in this field with three of them choosing it. Anora is still their top pick with 21 voting for it. The site's editors agree as seven of ten have voted for Anora and the rest for A Real Pain. The same is true for the experts, nine of twelve choosing Anora and three A Real Pain. Anora looks to be on track to win two awards for its screenplay on consecutive Sundays.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Emilia Pérez
Jacques Audiard
Wicked
Winnie Holzman
Dana Fox
Sing Sing
Greg Kwedar
Clint Bentley
Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross
Joslyn Barnes
Conclave
Peter Straughan
Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve
Jon Spaihts

The three groups of forecasters at Gold Derby ranked Conclave second overall for Best Screenplay, Motion Picture, so it should be first away from Anora in this category and it is. Ten of the twelve experts, eight of ten editors, and 23 (!) of the top 24 users voted for it. One expert each dissented by voting for Dune: Part Two and Sing Sing. Two editors and one top user chose Sing Sing. They have one week to change their minds and I might report on updated predictions for the Critics Choice Awards then.

Since I'm not going to write about the rest of tonight's nominees, I'm outsourcing it to Gold Derby's 'Awards Magnet': 2025 Golden Globe winners predictions.

Gold Derby editors and experts Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng make their 2025 Golden Globe winners predictions for film and TV.

I'll check the accuracy of Rosen and Eng's predictions in this year's edition of Celebrating diversity in acting winners at the Golden Globes for MLK Day weekend in two weeks. Stay tuned.