From bookshelf to reel

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald DahlNomination Best Live Action Short FilmThis is a story about Henry Sugar who develops the ability to see through objects He learns this when he comes across the story of Imdad Khan or Imhrat Khan in the book the man who saw the world without using his eyes Dahlrsquos story is an irresistible pageturner Benedict Cumberbatch as Sugar and Ben Kingsley as Imdad Khan bring the book to life in Wes Andersonrsquos adaptation The genius of Anderson is on display Actors transform into characters sets change rapidly backdrops are lifted wigs and moustaches are worn and taken off mdash everything happens on screen while a narrator reads out the storyPoor Things by Alasdair GrayNomination Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Supporting Role Best Cinematography Best Costume and Makeup Best Picture Best MusicAlasdair Grayrsquos 1992 book explores the story of a human created by a Scottish doctor Archibald McCandless and his friend Baxter out of the remains of an unclaimed body of a young woman The book has a Frankensteinlike mood to it It begins with a note explaining the death of the doctor and a warning about the experimental history of Scottish medicine It is woven with letters diary notes and reports which make the book exciting despite its morbid subject It is perhaps the most talked about film this month While Poor Things is yet to arrive in India Yorgos Lanthimosrsquos direction and Emma Stonersquosgenius as an actor have received worldwide acclaimZone of Interest by Martin AmisNomination Best Direction Best Sound Best Writing Best Picture Best International Feature FilmThis 2014 novel enters Auschwitz in 1940s where Paul Doll based on Rudolf Houmlss the commandant of the concentration camp lives with his family It depicts the life of a Nazi officer who falls in love with Dollrsquos wife Hannah and the events that take place when Paul finds out The novel switches between Paul Dollrsquos narration Thomsen the Nazi officerrsquos narration and Szmulrsquos voice who is sent to spy on Hannah The film adaptation debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and has been called an accurate lsquoportrait of the perpetratorsrsquo who were building perfect families and homes in the neighbourhood of the most devastating sites of violence in history the gas chambersAmerican Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J SherwinNomination Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Cinematography Best Direction Best Costume and Best Makeup Best Music Best Picture and Best Production DesignAmerican Prometheus attempts to understand the life of J Robert Oppenheimer popularly known as the father of the atomic bomb Both the 2005 biography and Christopher Nolanrsquos film adaptation deliberately refrain from showing Oppenheimer as a straw man who must be set on fire In fact by following his journey through his personal experiences that shaped him Bird and Sherwin and Nolan present him as a much more complicated man This is also the best element about both This is not to be mistaken with sympathy for the man Glimpses into his childhood his days as a quantum physics scholar his politics his private life his role in the occurrence of the worldrsquos most terrifying tragedy and his trial in 1954 depict the contradictions of Oppenheimer comprehensivelyKillers of The Flower Moon by David GrannNomination Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role Best Cinematography Best Direction Best Music Best Film Editing and Best PictureThis nonfictional book about Oklahoma in the 1920s was published in 2017 Grannrsquos fearless writing grips the reader from the very beginning as he talks about folk from Osage County living on a vast patch of land beneath which large oil deposits had been discovered He documents their murder tracing it to a William King Hale who was finally convicted of committing multiple crimes Martin Scorsese exposes the scars of racial injustice against the victims to the audience through the cinematic adaptation of the book Scorsese doesnrsquot hold anything back and brings a masterpiece that comments on the institutional violence against Osage Indians the native AmericansThe Colour Purple by Alice WalkerNomination Best Actress in a Supporting RolePics courtesyYouTubeThis classic in American fiction was published in 1982 and written as an epistolary novel The protagonist Celiersquos letters to God help us navigate her world from the time she falls into the oppressive hands of her abusive rapist father to her time further with her equally tyrannical husband until she finds comfort in the women who enter her life Walker works with language and gives us the spirit and warmth of Black sisterhood The book was first adapted by Steven Spielberg in 1985 Interestingly the 2023 rendition has been turned into a musical This opens the possibility of using music and lyrics to peer inside the individually vulnerable souls of the characters that Walker draws in the book The film will be out on OTT platforms in the coming weekErasure by Percival EverettNomination Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Supporting Role Best Music Best Picture and Best WritingEverettrsquos 2001 novel is a commentary about the limitations that stand before the creation of any literature and in this case African American literature when writers face the painful reality of the workings of the mainstream publishing industry consisting heavily of white professionals It also throws light on how it works in tandem with market forces to turn readers into consumers and books into commodities erasing real voices and human complexities The protagonist Thelonious Ellison or ldquoMonkrdquo writes a novel My Pafology under his pseudonym Stagg Leigh as a satire against such expectations from Black writers However he is shockingly offered a large sum of money for the manuscript which becomes a success Erasure has been adapted for the big screen as American fiction and is being spoken about for its exceptional wit and humour as Jeffrey Wright takes on the character of Monk who keeps the narrative emotionally groundedOther adaptationsgtgt How Do You Live By Genzaburo Yoshino The Boy and the Heron Nomination Best Animated Feature Filmgtgt Boy a Burrito and a Cookie by Richard Montantildeez Flaminrsquo Hot Nomination Best Musicgtgt Guardians of the Galaxy comic series Nomination Best Visual Effectsgtgt Nimona by ND Stevenson Nomination Best Animated Feature Filmgtgt Find a Way by Diana Nyad Nyad Nomination Best Actress in Leading Role Best Actress in a Supporting Rolegtgt Robot Dreams by Sara Varon Nomination Best Animated Feature Filmgtgt SpiderMan comic Spiderman Across the Spiderverse Nomination Best Animated Feature Film