Juno

Juno is a glorious little film in the second category. Written by someone with the fabulous name of Diablo Cody (Diablo...! What were her parents thinking...?), the dialogue has all the power and energy of some great classical work, with intricate sentence structures, meandering witticisms, mysterious uses of vocabulary and unheard-of words - and yet the speakers are middle American teenage girls. I won't witter on about the great characterisation, clever structure and strong story, and I certainly won't name the director, because that stuff's all over the reviews and the publicity. No. I want to celebrate the writer. I'm glad to say that we already have in England, because we gave this person a BAFTA for her screenplay. All I can say is she deserved it. She did that thing that only happens once in a while - she made me feel like it's worth carrying on in this God-awful profession! Because you never know, maybe one day I'll produce something that will energise some other jaded writer watching from the back row of the stalls....