'Descendants' wins Scripter award

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Box-office hit "The Descendants" won the 24th annual University of Southern California Libraries Scripter Award for best screenplay.

Author Kaui Hart Hemmings and screenwriters Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash were recognized for their work on the script at a ceremony Saturday, USC Libraries said in a news release Sunday.

"This is such a wonderful honor and to be part of something that celebrates and puts books on a pedestal and none of this would have been possible without Kaui's wonderful book," Rash said at the event. "It was such a wonderful journey for us to fall in love with the book and have the opportunity to turn it into the film."

The Scripter award is the only one of its kind that recognizes the author of a book upon which an adaptation is based, the release said.

"An adaptation can sometimes bring so many more readers that I never would have had and to have those readers say that they love both the book and the film and that they work so well together is such a blessing," Hemmings, the book's author, said.

"The Descendants" has won film of the year by the Los Angeles, Dallas, Florida, Kansas City and Southeastern film critics associations, in addition to best drama of the year by the Golden Globes, the release said. The film is nominated for best picture and adapted screenplay awards at the Academy Awards.