MGM's 'Women Talking' wins the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay

Sarah Polley, the filmmaker behind MGM’s Women Talking, won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay at the 2023 Academy Awards.

“I just want to thank the Academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ being so close together like that,” Polley said in her acceptance speech.

Polley, who wrote and directed Women Talking, bested a field of fellow nominees that included the writers of All Quiet on the Western Front, Glass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery, Living, and Top Gun: Maverick. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Miriam Toews and inspired by events at a Mennonite community in Bolivia. It shares the story of a group of women in an isolated religious community who grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith.

“Miriam Toews wrote an essential novel about a radical democracy in which people who don’t agree on every single issue managed to sit together in a room and carve out a way forward together free of violence,” Polley said. “They do so not just by talking, but also by listening.”

The award was the most recent for Polley, whose screenplay has also been honored at the Critics Choice Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Writers Guild of America Awards. Women Talking was also a nominee for best picture at the Academy Awards.

Women Talking is available to rent or purchase on Prime.