Toronto filmmaker Sarah Polley wins best adapted screenplay Oscar for ‘Women Talking’

Toronto-raised filmmaker Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” has won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

It’s the first career Oscar for Polley, whose film is also nominated for best picture.

“Women Talking” is about a group of women who gather in a hayloft to discuss what steps to take after a series of sexual assaults shocks their remote Mennonite community.

What ensues is a debate about faith, forgiveness and justice that echoes a real-world discourse about violence against women and abuses of power.

Polley adapted the script from Manitoba author Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name. The movie’s ensemble cast includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley.

Polley beat out other screenplay nominees from films that include “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Living,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

She was previously nominated in the same category for the 2007 relationship drama “Away from Her.”