Fifty-year-old Alice Howland is a wife, mother of three, and world-renowned psychology professor at Harvard. Her seemingly perfect life is turned upside down by a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's. Julianne Moore is nominated for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" for the adaptation of Lisa Genova's novel. Request this item from the NYPL Catalog.
Jane Wilde Hawking was married to physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking from 1965-1995. Travelling to Infinity describes their life together during this period and is "an abridged version" of her 1999 autobiography, Music to Move the Stars. The film adaptation, The Theory of Everything, is nominated for "Best Adapted Screenplay" and stars Felicity Jones as Jane Hawking. Request this item from the NYPL Catalog.
In an interesting twist this year, Damien Chazelle's Whiplash is competing in the "Best Adapted Screenplay" category rather than "Best Original Screenplay". Chazelle made a short film with the same title in 2013 and The Black List named the original 85-page script as one of the "most liked" screenplays of 2012. Click on the link to read the script, which would eventually become the critically-acclaimed film starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. Read online.
After losing her mother at the age of 22, Cheryl Strayed embarked on a 1, 100 mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail with no prior experience. Film critic A.O. Scott of the NY Times calls her memoir Wild "a classic of wilderness writing and modern feminism". Reese Witherspoon is nominated for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" and Laura Deren for "Best Supporting Actress" in the 2014 film. Request this item from the NYPL Catalog.
Of course, there are many more books behind the 2015 Oscar nominees: Foxcatcher, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Boxtrolls, Cressida Cowell's series which inspired How To Tame Your Dragon 2, and (retold in Studio Gibli's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya).
