Books Made into Oscar-Nominated Films

Before they were nominated for Academy Awards, these stories were books. Which do you prefer, the book or the movie?

Updated March 17, 2025
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12 years a slave illustrated : narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853 from a cotton plantation in Avoyelles Parish, in the Mississippi Valley of Louisiana
Paper Book
Here is the harrowing true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York. He was kidnaped by unscrupulous slave hunters and sold into slavery where he, endured unimaginable degradation and abuse until his rescue twelve years later.

306.362 N819 2013

A long way home : a memoir
Brierley, Saroo.
Paper Book
Lion is the heartbreaking and inspiring original true story of the lost little boy who found his way home twenty-five years later and is now a major film starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. As a five-year old in India, I got lost on a train. Twenty-five years later...

362.734 B766 2014

Nomadland : surviving America in the twenty-first century
Bruder, Jessica
Ebook

331.398 Bruder 2017

Black Panther. Book 1A nation under our feet
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
A new era for the Black Panther starts here! The indomitable will of Wakanda, the famed African nation known for its vast wealth, advanced technology and warrior traditions - has long been reflected in the will of its monarchs, the Black Panthers. But now the current Black Panther, T'Challa, finds...
Room : a novel
Donoghue, Emma
Paper Book
Now a major Oscar-winning film starring Brie Larson Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don't have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners. Room...
Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
Grann, David
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION **NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DE...

970.3 Osage Grann 2017

Travelling to infinity : my life with Stephen
Hawking, Jane
Ebook
Complete with exclusive photographs of the couple, this moving and engaging memoir written by Stephen Hawking’s first wife covers the turbulent years of her marriage with the astrophysics genius, her traumatic divorce, and their recent reconciliation   ...

530.092 H313yh 2014

Alan Turing : the enigma : the book that inspired the film The Imitation Game
Hodges, Andrew.

510.92 T846yh 2014

Les miserables
Hugo, Victor
Paper Book
Now a major musical film from Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech), starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, and also featuring Amanda Seyfreid, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron-Cohen, Victor Hugo's Les Miserablesis one of the great works of western...
Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race
Lee Shetterly, Margot.
Paper Book

510.92 L516 2016

The King's speech
Logue, Mark.
Paper Book
THE BESTSELLING BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE OSCAR AND BAFTA AWARD-WINNING FILM One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century - amazingly he was an almost unknown, and certainly unqualified, speech therapist called Lionel Logue. Logue...

941.084 L829yL 2010

Life of Pi : a novel
Martel, Yann.
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee Winner of the Booker Prize
Atonement : a novel
McEwan, Ian.
Paper Book
On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge....
War horse
Morpurgo, Michael.
Paper Book
Before the Steven Spielberg film, before the National Theatre production, there was the classic children's novel... In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the trenches. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets knocking riders...
True grit
Portis, Charles.
Paper Book
There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Tom Chaney shoots him down in the street for a horse, USD150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces. Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie...
The revenant
Punke, Michael.
Ebook
Winner of 3 OSCARS including BEST DIRECTOR and BEST ACTOR Winner of 5 BAFTAS including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Film Winner of the 2016 Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Actor - Drama, and Best Director The novel that inspired the epic new movie...
All quiet on the western front
Remarque, Erich Maria
Paper Book
** NOW A HIT NETFLIX FILM, WINNER OF 7 BAFTAS AND 4 OSCARS, INCLUDING BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE** One by one the boys begin to fall... In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the...
The reader
Schlink, Bernhard.
Paper Book
'A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of a German conscience' [Independent on Saturday] For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark...
Black Klansman : race, hate, and the undercover investigation of a lifetime
Stallworth, Ron
Paper Book
***ADAPTED AS A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE BY SPIKE LEE - WINNER OF THE GRAND PRIX AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2018 *** What happens when a black detective goes undercover in the KKK? An extraordinary true story. In 1978, Ron Stallworth is the first black...

322.42 Stallworth 2018

The help
Stockett, Kathryn.
Paper Book
Aibileen is a black maid, raising her 17th white child, but with a bitter heart after the death of her son. Minny is the sassiest woman in Mississippi. Skeeter is a white woman with a degree but no ring on her finger. Seemingly as different as can be, these women will come together for a clandestine...
Women talking : a novel
Toews, Miriam
Paper Book
A profound, unsettling and virtuosic piece of fiction from the award-winning author of All My Puny Sorrows.
The fellowship of the ring : being the first part of The lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
Classic hardback edition of the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, featuring Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design. Includes special packaging and the definitive edition of the text with fold-out map and colour plate section. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to...
The return of the king : being the third part of The Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
The Return of the King is the third part of JRR Tolkien's epic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings, soon to be a major movie. The armies of the Dark Lord are massing as his evil shadow spreads even wider. Men, Dwarves, Elves and Ents unite forces to battle against the Dark....
The two towers : being the second part of the lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
The Two Towers is the second part of JRR Tolkien's epic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. Frodo and the Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the...
Brooklyn : A Novel
Tóibín, Colm
Paper Book
The nickel boys : a novel
Whitehead, Colson
Paper Book
'RaMell Ross's transcendentally moving and frightening film' (Guardian, New York Film Festival) now a major motion picture and shortlisted for a Golden Globe. WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020 WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION...
Winter's bone : a novel
Woodrell, Daniel.
Paper Book
The last time Ree saw her father, he didn't bring food or money., but promised he'd be back soon with a paper sack of cash and a truck-load of delights. Since he left, she's had to look after her mother - sedated and losing her looks - and her two younger brothers. Ree hopes the boys won't turn out...

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