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.