Host a Virtual Movie Screening with Pulitzer-Inspired Films

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman won the 1937 Prize in Drama for this lighthearted romantic comedy, and it was adapted to screen by Frank Capra — who in turn won an Oscar for Best Director. In this film, a man from a pretentious family becomes engaged to a woman from a kindhearted but certainly eccentric one of her own. Numerous pitfalls ensue, but, in true rom com fashion, love prevails.

Winner of the 1983 Prize in Fiction, Alice Walker’s staggering novel was adapted by Steven Spielberg and nominated for 11 Academy Awards. The story is wrenching, unforgiving, and ultimately triumphant. Celie, a Southern woman suffering through years of abuse, pours her thoughts into letters for her sister Nettie, finds a champion in the strength of Sofia and forges a friendship with her husband’s mistress, Shug. Unimaginable hardship torments each woman, but their connection to one other produces transcending strength.

Michael Cunningham’s The Hours won the 1999 Prize in Fiction before being adapted into a psychological drama by Stephen Daldry and garnering nine Academy Award nominations, including a win for Nicole Kidman as Best Actress. The plot follows three women whose lives are interconnected by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway: Clarissa Vaughan, a modern-day New Yorker preparing a party; Laura Brown, a 1950s California housewife in an unhappy marriage, and Virginia Woolf herself, struggling to write the seminal text in 1920s England. It is gripping, heartbreaking and will have you ordering a copy of Mrs. Dalloway the second the credits roll.

August Wilson’s Fences won the 1987 Prize in Drama and was reprised in 2010 with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in leading roles — both of whom earned Tony Awards for their work. Produced and directed by Washington, this film features Davis and himself back in their award-winning positions, capturing their emotional performances for posterity. Fences follows an African-American garbage collector named Troy Maxson and his frustrations with the world around him.

The Boston Globe’s 2003 Prize in Public Service is immortalized in this biographical drama film directed by Tom McCarthy. It follows The Globe’s “Spotlight” team — America's oldest continuously operating investigative journalist unit — and its work on cases of widespread and systemic child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. With six Academy Award nominations, Spotlight took home Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Edith Wharton became the first female to win a Pulitzer with her 1921 Prize-winner The Age of Innocence. This novel was adapted in 1993 by Martin Scorsese and stars Hollywood legends Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. Set in the grandeur of 1870 high society, the story follows three wealthy New Yorkers caught in a tragic love triangle. There’s scandal, risk and redemption — the perfect movie to get utterly lost in.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy won the 2007 Prize in Fiction and was adapted into a post-apocalyptic survival film by John Hillcoat shortly thereafter. The plot imagines a man and his son enduring a perilous journey from a desolate wasteland to an unnamed coast, where they hope to find warmth and better chances of survival. Fraught with terror and grief, this movie will leave you rooted to your seat long after its closing scene.

Based on a book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — the journalists at the heart of The Washington Post’s 1973 Prize in Public Service — this film is an American political thriller about the Watergate scandal. Starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein and Woodward, the investigation that brought down the Nixon presidency is presented with the detail and drama of the real-life case.