“The most important thing is the story. Not the script, but the story.” -Richard D. Zanuck

Adem, I noted that comment, too. Interesting distinction. I would take that to mean the writer immersing him/herself in the story universe to the point where they KNOW their characters, they KNOW the personal dynamics, they KNOW the plot, subplots, backstory, all of it. And THAT is what gets translated into the script. So story even trumps script in importance. You can always tweak a script... but you HAVE to know the story.

The ceremony was okay. The films were better. The range of films that 2012 offered was amazing. I didn't necessarily agree with some of the choices, but in the end, I'm glad the industry was able to produce films with such scope, some of which were not nominated. Good year overall. As far as original screenplay, I thought either Django or Zero Dark Thirty deserved it. I saw both twice and read the screenplay for each a couple times. It's pretty hard to go against Django. However, I thought Zero Dark Thirty was the best film of the year. It's unfortunate that people's preconceived opinions about torture, whether you're against how it was portrayed or not, dictated the quality of the rest of the film. I was at least excited to see it win Sound Editing.