Jordan Peele’s horror film “Get Out” has won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
“Get Out” topped Greta Gerwig for “Lady Bird,” Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for “The Shape of Water,” Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for “The Big Sick,” and Martin McDonagh for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
“I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible,” Peele said in his acceptance speech. “But I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it and people would see it.”
Peele, who is the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, thanked Universal, Jason Blum, the cast and crew, and his wife and mother.
“To everybody who went and saw this movie, everybody who bought a ticket, who told somebody to buy a ticket — thank you!” Peele said.
Peele’s script centers on a young black man, portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya, who has to deal with an array of strange behavior and supernatural horror at the family home of his white girlfriend. The screenplay has been widely praised for providing a nuanced view of racism in contemporary America.
“Get Out” won the Writers Guild of America’s award on Feb. 11. The film also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director for Peele, and Best Actor for Kaluuya.
“Get Out” was by far the most successful box office performer in the category for Universal, with more than $250 million in worldwide grosses.
In an emotional acceptance speech at the 2018 Oscars, writer-director Jordan Peele said he nearly stopped scripting his debut feature, Get Out, 20 times, because he thought it was an impossible film to write, and that he wouldn’t be able to get it made even if he did write it. The film, which won Best Original Screenplay, is a racially charged horror story about a black photographer (Daniel Kaluuya) meeting his white girlfriend’s family and uncovering an eerie plot. It’s Peele’s first writing and directing project, and it makes him the first black winner in the category, and only the fourth nominated, after John Singleton, Spike Lee, and Suzanne de Passe.
Peele’s speech was a quick, emotional retelling of how he wrote the script, followed by a list of thank-yous that included “my mother, who taught me to love even in the face of hate,” and every audience member who “shouted out in the theater.” Offstage, Peele was a little less formal.
I just won an Oscar. WTF?!? — Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) March 5, 2018
Best Original Screenplay is generally considered one of the most interesting races at the Academy Awards. In the past, the category has been something of a catch-all for weird, passionate projects, but that’s been radically changing in recent years, in part due to voting rules changes and a diversity membership drive in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite scandal. While in past years, Get Out was exactly the kind of daring, aggressively different, controversial films that might have been limited to the Best Original Screenplay category, this year it was also nominated for Best Director and Best Picture, with Daniel Kaluuya up for Best Actor as well.
In the Best Original Screenplay category, Get Out was up against The Big Sick (scripted by Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani), Lady Bird (scripted by Greta Gerwig), The Shape of Water (scripted by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (scripted by Martin McDonagh).
The Spirit Awards have predicted the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars four years running
Get Out has triumphed at the Spirit Awards, picking up Best Feature – a significant honour given that the pre-Oscars ceremony has predicted the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars for the past four years.
Jordan Peele’s landmark horror film has been lauded since its release early last year, with the movie being nominated for a host of awards – including four Academy Awards.
Get Out received a significant pre-Oscars boost last night (March 3) at the Spirit Awards, which honour low-budget films and are traditionally held the night before the Oscars. The awards have predicted the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars for the past four years, after awarding Best Feature to 12 Years A Slave (2013), Birdman (2014), Spotlight (2015) and Moonlight (2016).
Taking home Best Feature and Best Director for Peele’s work on the film, Get Out‘s success at the Spirit Awards has now led many to believe that it has an enhanced chance of picking up Best Picture at tonight’s Oscars.
Asked if his film could win big tonight (March 4) after its success at the Spirit Awards, Peele said: “It’s Saturday. Tomorrow’s tomorrow.”
“I think it’s clear to everybody in this room, across the country and across the world, that we’re at the beginning of a renaissance right now,” Peele told those in attendance at the awards.
“Our stories from the outside, stories from the people in this room – the same stories that independent filmmakers have been telling for years – are being recognised and honoured.”
Asked about the possibility of a sequel, Peele opined: “We are not closed off to a sequel. The producers and I agree this is not the kind of movie you make a sequel to just to make a sequel, to make money.
“If we can get a story that feels worthy as a follow-up in this world, then we’ll do it.”
See the full list of winners from last night’s Spirit Awards below.
