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Summary
Simon Stephenson has accused The Holdovers of blatant plagiarism, claiming that the entire script was copied line by line from his Frisco screenplay. The writer provided evidence to the Writers Guild of America, claiming that key elements such as story, characters and dialog were identical. Despite having been in the industry for 20 years, Stephenson insists that the similarities between the two scripts are no mere coincidence.
After becoming an Oscar favorite, The Holdovers is being accused of plagiarism. The 2023 dramatic comedy revolved around a teacher at an all-male boarding school in 1970s New England, who finds himself stuck supervising a handful of students left on campus during the Christmas vacations with the help of the cafeteria manager, Mary. Led by Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa, the film was a commercial and critical success, receiving five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Giamatti, Best Supporting Actress for Randolph and Best Original Screenplay for David Hemingson.
A new report from Variety reveals that Simon Stephenson, best known for co-writing the story for Pixar's 2021 film Luca, is accusing The Holdovers of having plagiarized his Black List screenplay titled Frisco. In an email exchange acquired by the publication, the writer raised his concerns to the Writers Guild of America, indicating that the 2024 Oscar favorite had blatantly copied his unproduced dramatic comedy project, while another email thread from late February saw him accusing the film of taking "the significant entirety" of his script, including its "story, characters, structure, scenes, dialogue," which he described as "blatant." See Stephenson's various email accusations below:
I've encountered a problem relating to credits on a high-profile project covered by the WGA. The evidence that The Holdovers script was plagiarized line by line from Frisco is genuinely overwhelming - anyone looking at even the briefest sample invariably uses the word "blatant".
I can demonstrate beyond any possible doubt that the significant entirety of the screenplay for a film with WGA-sanctioned credits that is currently on its way to winning a screenwriting Oscar was plagiarized line-for-line from a popular unproduced screenplay of mine. I can also demonstrate that the director of the offending film was sent and read my script on two separate occasions before the offending film went into development. By 'significant entirety' I mean literally everything - story, characters, structure, scenes, dialog, the whole thing. Some of them are incredibly blatant: many of the most important scenes remain effectively unchanged and even remain visibly identical on the page layout.
I've been working as a writer for 20 years - in my native UK before coming to the US - so I'm very aware that people can often come up with surprisingly similar ideas and sometimes some elements can be "borrowed" etc. it's just not that situation. The two scripts are forensically identical and full of unique smoking guns.
Will the accusation of plagiarism from the remnants hurt their Oscar chances?
Stephenson's Frisco script, from which he claims The Holdovers plagiarized, is said to have the story of "a world-weary middle-aged children's doctor and the 15-year-old patient he gets stuck caring for," admittedly similar to The Holdovers' thrilling story about a troubled teacher caring for a 15-year-old he is inadvertently responsible for caring for. Writer de Luca is said to have expressed his concerns to various members of the WGA board, which is supposedly "still being discussed internally", although sources report that he has been pushing for a proper investigation due to the film's Oscar campaign.
This wouldn't be the first time a movie has been embroiled in controversy ahead of the Oscar season. Guillermo del Toro was similarly accused of plagiarism for The Shape of Water, although the case was dropped, while Green Book's Best Picture win sparked controversy due to reports of voters not wanting to award Roma, released by Netflix, and the previous film's focus family. subject, feeling it was an inaccurate representation of him. Roman Polanski's win for Best Director also generated backlash due to him pleading guilty to a statutory rape charge at the time.
Although Payne and Hemingson are not under the same scrutiny as Polanski, the fact that they are being accused of plagiarism raises the question of whether The Holdovers will be overlooked at the Oscars. Looking back at previous ceremonies, the closest situation would be Shape of Water or The Disaster Artist, for which James Franco won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, although he wasn't nominated for an Oscar due to his legal problems. With The Holdovers already facing strong competition from the likes of Barbie, Oppenheimer and May December, among others, it could end up missing out on its biggest nominations.
Source: Variety
The remnants 
The Holdovers is a comedy drama film starring Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, a prep school teacher hated by his colleagues and students. Stuck at the academy during the vacations, with no family or friends to visit, he finds himself in the company of a bright but troubled young student called Angus and the school's head cook, Mary. Together, the three will create a makeshift family as they bond over the holidays.
Director Alexander Payne
Release date November 10, 2023
Studio(s) MiraMax , Gran Via
Focus features of the distributor(s)
Writers David Hemingson
Cast Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston
Running time 133 minutes
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