Four of the nine best picture nominations for this year's Academy Awards, which will be presented March 2, are based on books, comprising an impressive reading list among Oscar's major categories:
12 Years a Slave, based on the autobiography by Solomon Northup: best picture, director (Steve McQueen), actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), supporting actor (Michael Fassbender), supporting actress (Lupita Nyong'o), adapted screenplay (John Ridley) and three more nominations.
Captain Phillips, based on A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips & Stephan Talty: best picture, supporting actor (Barkhad Abdi), adapted screenplay (John Ridley) and three more.
The Wolf of Wall Street, based on Jordan Belfort's memoir: best picture, director (Martin Scorsese), actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), supporting actor (Jonah Hill) and adapted screenplay (Terence Winter). 
Philomena, based on The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith: best picture, actress (Judi Dench), adapted screenplay (Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope) and one more.
August: Osage County, based on the play by Tracy Letts: actress (Meryl Streep) and supporting actress (Julia Roberts).
The Great Beauty: best foreign language film. (Although this wasn't a book-to-film adaptation by the strictest definition, Film Comment noted that director Paolo Sorrentino's novel Everybody's Right "is everywhere in Sorrentino's world because literature has always been his true calling." The Great Beauty also won a Golden Globe Award last week.)
Dirty Wars, based on the book by Jeremy Scahill: best documentary feature.
Other multiple-nomination book-to-film adaptations include The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in three categories, The Great Gatsby and Lone Survivor in two categories each. The best animated feature film category has three adaptations: Frozen, The Wind Rises and Ernest & Celestine.
