Six nominated writers reveal craft secrets — and one faces prison for his words

Oscar Screenwriters Open Up at Santa Barbara Writers Panel

Every year, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival gathers a handful of the season’s Oscar-nominated screenwriters for an unguarded conversation about craft, process, and the often messy business of putting words on a page. The 2026 edition, held on February 14 at the historic Arlington Theatre, may have been the most emotionally charged in the panel’s history. Six writers — each holding an Oscar nomination — sat before an audience and talked shop. But the room held more than professional pride. One of the panelists, Iranian writer-director Jafar Panahi, acknowledged he would be returning home after awards season knowing he could be imprisoned when he arrived.

Jafar Panahi: Writing From Inside the Cage

Panahi, whose film “It Was Just an Accident” is nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay, shot the picture in secret inside Iran despite a government ban on his filmmaking. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and was submitted to the Oscars by France, which served as a co-producer. “Everything that I wrote in this script were the real experiences that I had, either come across myself or heard through my friends,” Panahi told the audience through interpreter Sheida Dayani. The film follows a group of former prisoners who believe they have spotted their sadistic jailer — a premise that emerged directly from Panahi’s own time behind bars and from conversations with fellow dissidents. The film’s co-writer, political journalist and human-rights activist Mehdi Mahmoudian, was not present at the panel. He had been imprisoned in northern Iran for 17 days after signing “The Statement of the Seventeen,” a letter condemning Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for the killing of thousands of protesters. Mahmoudian was released on bail of approximately $10,000 in early February 2026. When asked why he planned to return to Iran after the Oscar ceremony despite the personal danger, Panahi answered simply: “My existence is shared with my family, my colleagues, and my friends. That’s half of me. If I don’t go back, I leave them alone. I turn my back on them.” The audience responded with sustained applause. For those wishing to follow the political situation facing Iranian filmmakers, the PEN America organization tracks global threats to writers and artists in real time.

Guillermo del Toro: Building Monsters With Words

Guillermo del Toro, nominated for Adapted Screenplay for his “Frankenstein,” which earned nine Oscar nominations overall, offered a contrasting but equally passionate account of his writing practice. Del Toro has spent decades treating genre — horror, fantasy, dark fairy tales — as a vehicle for genuine literary ambition. He described his next several projects at the panel: a stop-motion adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Buried Giant,” a gothic Western rewrite of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and a collaboration with Scott Frank adapting the 2016 Spanish thriller “The Fury of a Patient Man.” He described the visual approach of his upcoming work as “very unadorned, handheld, no cranes” — a significant creative shift for a filmmaker known for elaborate production design. Del Toro has won three Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Picture for “The Shape of Water” and Best Animated Feature for “Pinocchio.” His Adapted Screenplay nomination this year puts him in a category alongside Paul Thomas Anderson (“One Battle After Another”), Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (“Train Dreams”), Chlo Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell (“Hamnet”), and Will Tracy (“Bugonia”).

Clint Bentley: The Quiet Craftsman

Clint Bentley, who wrote “Train Dreams” with regular collaborator Greg Kwedar, arrived at the panel fresh from a Spirit Awards sweep the following day, where the film won Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. Bentley’s path to Oscar recognition has been methodical and low-profile — he and Kwedar previously received an Adapted Screenplay nomination for “Sing Sing” at last year’s ceremony. Their next project is a romantic drama called “Saturn Returns,” starring Will Poulter and Rachel Brosnahan, set up at Netflix.

The Craft of Compression and Courage

What connected the six writers across their very different backgrounds and national cinemas was a shared belief that screenplay writing demands rigorous discipline alongside emotional honesty. Ronald Bronstein, co-nominated for “Marty Supreme” alongside Josh Safdie, Eskil Vogt for “Sentimental Value” alongside Joachim Trier, and Will Tracy for “Bugonia” all contributed to what amounted to a masterclass in the range of contemporary screen storytelling. The panel is a useful reminder that behind every Best Picture nomination is a draft — and behind every draft, a human being taking a risk with language. Writers looking to deepen their understanding of screenplay structure can explore the resources at the Writers Guild of America and study craft guides published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For a full breakdown of this year’s screenplay nominees and what makes each script distinctive, the Screenwriters Federation also maintains educational resources for working and aspiring writers. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for later in 2026.