Diablo Cody
"Juno" was runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Cody herself won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Satellite Awards, and the 2008 Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter (which she shared with Jason Reitman, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon).
Independent film
Dennis Hopper, the American actor, made his writing and directing debut with "Easy Rider" (1969). Along with his producer/co-star/co-writer Peter Fonda, Hopper was responsible for one of the first completely independent film of New Hollywood. "Easy Rider" debuted at Cannes and garnered the "First Film Award" () after which it received two Oscar nominations, one for best original screenplay and one for Corman-alum Jack Nicholson's breakthrough performance in the supporting role of George Hanson, an alcoholic lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. Following on the heels of "Easy Rider" shortly afterwards was the revived United Artists' "Midnight Cowboy" (also 1969), which, like "Easy Rider", took numerous cues from Ken Anger and his influences in the French New Wave. It became the first and only X rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture. "Midnight Cowboy" also held the distinction of featuring cameo roles by many of the top Warhol superstars, who had already become symbols of the militantly anti-Hollywood climate of NYC's independent film community.