Room (2015), Lenny Abrahamson’s film based on Donoghue's screenplay adapted from her novel, stars Brie Larson as Ma (Joy), Jacob Tremblay as Jack, Sean Bridgers as Old Nick, Joan Allen as Joy’s mother Nancy, Tom McCamus as Nancy’s husband Leo, and William H. Macy as Joy’s father Robert.
It was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (a win for Brie Larson), Best Director and Best Picture. It won audience awards at eight festivals and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Dramatic Role. Room was also honoured with nine Candys (Canadian Screen Awards), seven IFTAs (Irish Film and Television Academy Awards), the British Independent Film Award for Best International Film, Best Canadian Film at Vancouver International Film Festival, an Amerian Film Institute top ten award and a MIND Media Award.
Emma Donoghue won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Screenplay, the Canadian Film and Television Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Austin Film Critics' Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Indiana Film Journalists Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Nevada Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (tied with Drew Goddard for The Martian), the Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Eda Award for Best Woman Screenwriter, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Screenplay in a Canadian Film, and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay, as well as being nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Bafta.
Bibliography
Barry Monahan, The Films of Lenny Abrahamson: a Filmmaking of Philosophy (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), ch. 6.
Tatjana Bijelić, ‘Mother-child Bonding and Spatial Androgyny in the Film Adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s Novel Room,’ in Istrazivanja: Casopis Fakulteta Humanistickih Nauka 12 (2017), 115-129.
G. J. Veldhuijzen, ‘Faithfully Adapting a Child’s Voice for the Screen: A Critical Analysis of Narrative Strategies in the Film Adaptations of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Emma Donoghue’s Room,’ MA thesis (Utrecht, 2017).
‘Emma Donoghue on how she wrote the screenplay for Room,’ The Guardian, 15 January 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/15/emma-donoghue-room-screenplay
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/the-business/lenny-abrahamson-emma-donoghue-bring-room-to-the-screen
Shanee Edwards, ‘Room author Emma Donoghue reveals biggest film vs. book differences,’ 12 October 2016, http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1096769/room-author-interview-emma-donoghue-book-vs-movie
Anne Thompson, ‘10 Ways the Golden Globe-Nominated ‘Room’ Filmmakers Wrote Their Own Script’, 20 November 2015, http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/10-ways-the-room-filmmakers-wrote-their-own-script-for-an-oscar-contender-20151120
‘Emma Donoghue on finding the right director for her best-selling ‘Room’,’ August 17 2015, http://www.indiewire.com/article/emma-donoghue-on-finding-the-right-director-for-her-best-selling-room-20150817
Aliza Weinburger, 'What's it like to switch between novelist and script writer? Emma Donoghue knows', 20 June 2015, http://mashable.com/2015/06/19/emma-donoghue-novelist-script-writer/#