Adapted screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher for ‘Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire’

Adapted screenplay

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Geoffrey Fletcher

Among the biggest surprises of the night, Geoffrey Fletcher won for adapted screenplay for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” The award makes him the first African American to win a screenwriting Oscar. The heavy favorite had been Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s script for “Up in the Air.”

Taking the stage, the seemingly awe-struck Fletcher began, “I don’t know what to say. This is for everybody who works on a dream every day.”

“Precious” was his first produced screenplay, but Fletcher, a graduate of Harvard and New York University, has been writing for years. His journey through the awards season has been equally topsy-turvy. Though Fletcher, 39, also had won two nights earlier at the Spirit Awards and was nominated by the Writers Guild of America, he was not nominated for a Golden Globe.

The other nominees in the category were Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell for “District 9,” Nick Hornby for “An Education,” and Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche for “In the Loop.”