Diana Ossana

Diana Ossana
Born	Diana Lynn Ossana (1949-08-24) August 24, 1949 St. Louis, Missouri
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, producer, novelist

Diana Lynn Ossana (born August 24, 1949) is an American writer who has collaborated on writing screenplays, teleplays, and novels with author Larry McMurtry since they first worked together in 1992, on the semi-fictionalized biography Pretty Boy Floyd. She won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers' Guild of America Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her screenplay of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, along with McMurtry, and adapted from the short story of the same name by Annie Proulx. She is a published author in her own right of several short stories and essays.

Biography

Ossana was born to an Italian immigrant father, Livio A.A. Ossana, and Marian (Anyan), of Irish/Welsh heritage, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended Eastern New Mexico University, where she double majored in English and political science. She moved to Arizona in 1977.

Ossana first read the Annie Proulx short story "Brokeback Mountain" in the October 13, 1997 issue of The New Yorker magazine. She immediately urged her writing partner Larry McMurtry to read it, and asked him if he felt they could write a screenplay based on the story. McMurtry agreed they could. They wrote Proulx asking her for an option to the short story in order to write a screenplay. Proulx replied that although she did not see the potential for a movie in the story, she would agree to their option. Ossana and McMurtry proceeded to write the script, which they completed in early 1998. Their screenplay for Brokeback Mountain won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Writers Guild of America Award. Ossana, a producer of the film, also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama and a Best Film award (shared with James Schamus) for Best Film. The film was released in the United States in December 2005. Brokeback received widespread critical acclaim, and won the Golden Lion (Best Film) award at the Venice Film Festival, a Best Film award at the BAFTA Awards, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Drama. As a producer, Ossana joined cast and crew during the three months of shooting in Canada.

She currently resides in Arizona.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

• 2005: Best Picture (nominated), Brokeback Mountain
• 2005: Best Adapted Screenplay, Brokeback Mountain

BAFTA Film Awards

• 2005: Best Film, Brokeback Mountain
• 2005: Best Screenplay - Adapted, Brokeback Mountain

Golden Globe Awards

• 2005: Best Screenplay, Brokeback Mountain
• 2005: Best Drama, Brokeback Mountain

PGA Awards

• 2005: Best Film, Brokeback Mountain

WGA Awards

• 2005: Best Screenplay - Adapted, Brokeback Mountain

External links

• Diana Ossana at IMDb
• HTML version of production notes for Brokeback Mountain (with an interview with Ossana about the film and some biographical information)
• Guide to the Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana papers at Rice University (with some background information)
• "My Time on Brokeback Mountain" (essay by Diana Osanna on advocate.com, January 2006)