Oscars 2024: all the latest from the biggest night in film

The Holdovers has five Oscar nominations… and one accusation of plagiarism.

On the eve of the 2024 Academy Awards, Variety reports that a screenwriter, Simon Stephenson (Luca, Wonka, Paddington 2), has leveled accusations that the screenplay for Alexander Payne’s movie The Holdovers is “plagiarised line-by-line” from Stephenson’s unproduced screenplay Frisco.

Variety:

At the heart of Stephenson’s complaint is the contention that Payne had the “Frisco” script in both 2013 and again in late 2019, right before Payne approached Hemingson about collaborating on a project. That contention seems to be backed up by emails involving several Hollywood agencies and producers.

In addition to a nomination for the Best Picture prize, The Holdovers has also been nominated for best original screenplay.