Film awards season is gaining momentum in the run-up to the granddaddy of them all: the Academy Awards on February 28th. This year, as in the past, has seen many award candidates coming from acclaimed books. The list includes:

Bridge of Spies – Giles Whittell
Brooklyn — Colm Tóibín
Carol (book title The Price of Salt) – Patricia Highsmith
Room – Emma Donoghue
Spotlight (book title Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church) –The Boston Globe Staff
The Big Short – Michael Lewis
The Danish Girl – David Ebershoff
The Martian – Andy Weir
The Revenant – Michael Punke

Here’s what I said about movies adapted from books two years ago in my blog post, You Oughta Be in Pictures (in 2014, four of the nine Best Picture nominees were adapted from books; this year, all but one of the eight nominated films originated as books):

“Once upon a time, it seemed that great books rarely transformed into great movies. Times have changed as plot lines and descriptions in books are more valued by filmmakers. Possibly this change has also been as authors have grown up with movies, their appreciation for that art form inspires how they write.

Why spend many hours engaged in the active reading of books when you can get the entire story faster and easier by sitting in a theatre being passively entertained for a couple of hours? But let’s remember that these movie adaptations are made because of books that excited enough readers to come to the attention of filmmakers. Conversely, some movies lead people to the books that inspired them.”

In 2015, at least 40 books were adapted to movies. Not all of them received Oscar nominations but many are worth seeing and all are worth considering in book form.

There will always be room for various art forms to express a good story and we should celebrate all of them.