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Emma Thompson struggles with writers block as author Karen Eiffel in “Stranger Than Fiction”

With Oscar fever in the air, the New York Times published an essay last Friday by Roger Rosenblatt about the best films about writers.

His nominations (available at nearby branches unless otherwise noted) include “Stranger Than Fiction“, with its portrait of writer’s block; “Misery,” about a reader’s unhealthy obsession with an author, based on Stephen King’s book of the same name; and “Wonder Boys,” based on the novel by Michael Chabon.

In the end, he declares the winners as “The Third Man,” with its Western-writer-turned-sleuth based on the novel by Graham Greene; “Starting Out In the Evening,” from the novel by Brian Morton; and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” with struggling writer Paul Varjak, based on the novella by Truman Capote (available at Montclair).