2024 Oscars favorite accused of ‘brazen’ plagiarism by writer after 5 nominations

After becoming one of the Oscar favorites, Leftovers is accused of plagiarism. The 2023 comedy-drama revolved around a teacher at an all-male boarding school in 1970s New England who finds himself stuck supervising a handful of students left on campus over Christmas break with the help from cafeteria manager Mary. Directed by Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa, the film was a critical and commercial success, garnering five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Giamatti, Best Supporting Actress for Randolph and best original screenplay for David Hemingson.

A new report from film/news/the-holdovers-accused-plagiarism-luca-writer-1235935605/” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Variety reveals that Simon Stephenson, best known for co-writing the story for the 2021 Pixar film Lucasaccused Leftovers of having plagiarized his Black List script entitled Frisco. In an email exchange acquired by the publication, the writer raised concerns with the Writers Guild of America, saying the 2024 Oscar frontrunner had blatantly copied his unproduced comedy-drama project, while another email thread from late February saw him accusing the film of taking “meaningful completeness” of his scenario, including his “story, characters, structure, scenes, dialogue“, which he described as “cheeky“. See Stephenson’s various email accusations below:

I encountered a credits issue on a fairly high profile project covered by WGA. The evidence that the Holdovers script was plagiarized line for line by Frisco is truly overwhelming – anyone looking at even the briefest sample almost invariably uses the word “cheeky”.

I can demonstrate beyond any doubt that the entire significant screenplay of a film with WGA-sanctioned credits that is currently on track to win a screenwriting Oscar was plagiarized line for line from one of my popular unproduced screenplays. I can also demonstrate that the director of the offending film was sent to and read my script twice before the offending film entered development. By “meaningful completeness” I mean literally everything: the story, the characters, the structure, the scenes, the dialogue, the whole thing. Some of it is just incredibly cheeky: many of the most important scenes are effectively unchanged and even remain visibly identical in their layout on the page.

I’ve been a writer for 20 years – in my native UK before coming to the US – and so I’m very aware that people can often have surprisingly similar ideas and that sometimes a few elements can be “borrowed”, etc. it’s just not that situation. The two scenarios are forensically identical and riddled with unique smoking gun evidence.

Will Holdovers’ accusation of plagiarism hurt their Oscar chances?

Stephenson Frisco scenario, of which he claims Leftovers plagiarized, would have the story of “a middle-aged, world-weary children’s doctor and the 15-year-old patient he is forced to care for“, certainly similar to that of Leftovers“The moving story of a struggling teacher who comes to grips with a 15-year history that he is inadvertently tasked with taking care of. The Lucas the writer reportedly raised his concerns with several members of the WGA board of directors, which would be “still under discussion internally“, although sources report that he pushed for a proper investigation due to the film‘s Oscar campaign.

This wouldn’t be the first time a film has found itself mired in controversy heading into Oscar season. Guillermo del Toro was also accused of plagiarism for The shape of wateralthough the case was dismissed, while Green PaperThe Best Picture win sparked controversy due to reports that voters did not want to award the film released on Netflix. Rome and the family of the main subject of the previous film, believing it to be an inaccurate portrayal of him. The Best Director award won by Roman Polanski also sparked backlash due to his guilty plea at the time to rape charges.

Even though Payne and Hemingson are not subject to the same scrutiny as Polanski, the fact that they are accused of plagiarism raises the question of whether Leftovers will be overlooked at the Oscars. Looking at previous ceremonies, the closest situation would be Water shape Or The disaster artist, for which James Franco won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, but was not nominated for an Oscar due to his legal troubles. With Leftovers already facing strong competition from companies like Barbie, Oppenheimer And May Decemberamong other things, he could ultimately lose his biggest nominations.

Source: film/news/the-holdovers-accused-plagiarism-luca-writer-1235935605/” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Variety

Leftovers

The Holdovers is a comedy-drama film starring Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, a prep academy teacher hated by his peers and students alike. Stuck at the academy for the holidays with no family or friends to visit, he finds himself in the company of a bright but disruptive young student named Angus and the school’s head cook, Mary. Together, the three will create a makeshift family as they grow closer during the holiday season.

Director

Alexander Payne

Release date

November 10, 2023

Studio(s)

MiraMax, Gran Via

Distributor(s)

Focus Features

Writers

David Hemingson

Cast

Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine, Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston

Duration

133 minutes