Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network (2011)

Adapted screenplay was another strong category for this past decade with a number of truly excellent winners. It was a tough choice between Adam McKay and Charles Randolph’s surprisingly engrossing screenplay for The Big Short and Aaron Sorkin’s pièce de résistance in The Social Network. In spite of the energy and style that McKay and Randolph infused in The Big Short, even making it palatable and understandable through the use of fourth wall breaking explanations, Sorkin’s tight pacing and snappy dialogue in bringing the creation of Facebook to the screen was all the more impressive. That the film was originally seen as a bit of a joke, and yet turned out to be one of the seminal films of the decade is a testament to Sorkin’s ability to stir interest in this topic, and his opening scene between Mark Zuckerberg and Erica Albright is a prime example of how to write a scene that sets the tone for a film.