Carey Mulligan, Dominic Cooper in An Education (Kerry Brown / Sony Pictures Classics) (top); George Clooney in Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount) (bottom)

Crazy Heart, District 9, An Education, Precious, and Up in the Air are this year's five USC Libraries Scripter Award nominees, as reported by Steve Pond in The Wrap.

For the last 22 years, the Scripter Award has gone to the best adaptation of a literary work as determined by a committee of writers, film industry figures, and members of the University of Southern California faculty. Past winners of the Scripter Award include Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, Children of Men, Capote, Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, A Beautiful Mind, Wonder Boys, The Hurricane, L.A. Confidential, The English Patient, Sense and Sensibility, Schindler's List, A River Runs Through It, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Accidental Tourist, and 84 Charing Cross Road.

This year’s selection committee includes writers Russell Banks, Michael Chabon and Michael Ondaatje; screenwriters Nicholas Kazan, Callie Khouri and Steven Zaillian; actresses Amy Brenneman and Jamie Lee Curtis; directors Lawrence Kasdan and Gary Ross; film critics Peter Rainer and Leonard Maltin; and musician T Bone Burnett. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Naomi Foner, who also happens to be Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal's mother, is the Chair.

The USC Libraries Scripter Award will be announced on Saturday, Feb. 6, at the Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library on the USC campus in downtown Los Angeles.

Scripter Awards 2010 Nominations

Crazy Heart – Fox Searchlight Pictures
Scott Cooper, screenwriter
Thomas Cobb, author

District 9 – TriStar Pictures
Neill Blomkamp, screenwriter and author
Terri Tatchell, screenwriter

An Education – Sony Pictures Classics
Nick Hornby, screenwriter
Lynn Barber, author

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire – Lionsgate
Geoffrey Fletcher, screenwriter
Sapphire, author

Up in the Air – Paramount Pictures
Jason Reitman, screenwriter
Sheldon Turner, screenwriter
Walter Kirn, author