Which Award Season Movies Are Based on a True Story?

From stories about Somali pirates to tales of morally corrupt Wall Street stockbrokers, it feels like this award season is chock-full of true (or, at the very least, inspired-by-true) stories. Looking at Hollywood's history of handing out trophies, it's easy to see why real-life tales are popping up more on the big screen — two of the past three winners for best picture at the Oscars have been inspired by real people (2010's champion, The King's Speech, and this year's big winner, Argo, were both dramatic retellings of real 21st-century events). This year, there are at least seven award season contenders that were at least partly based on real life. Keep reading to see our guide to the real — and not-so-real — sides of this year's biggest movies.

American Hustle
Sony Pictures

American Hustle

The Real Story: American Hustle is loosely based on Abscam, the FBI's sting operation that lasted from 1978 to 1980.

How the Movie Differs: Director David O. Russell is open about the fact that this is a loose adaptation of the Abscam scandal, and many of the names and characters have been changed. Two key differences: Amy Adams's character, Sydney Prosser, is based on a woman named Evelyn Knight, who was never involved in the operation, and Christian Bale's character, Irving Rosenfeld, (who was based on the similarly named Melvin Weinberg) never tried to blackmail the FBI into giving Jeremy Renner's politician character, Carmine Polito, a reduced sentence. The man whom Carmine is based on, Angelo Errichetti, was also not the trusting family man that he is in the film; in fact, he was a corrupt and reportedly foul-mouthed megalomaniac.

Dallas Buyers Club
Focus Features

Dallas Buyers Club

The Real Story: Matthew McConaughey's film is based on the real story of Ron Woodroof, an AIDS patient who started a buy-in club for alternative treatments in the '80s and was the subject of a profile in The Dallas Morning News in 1992.

How the Movie Differs: The filmmakers have been open about the fact that they took some liberties with the story in order to create a more engaging plot. For one thing, Woodroof claimed that he knew he had AIDS well before 1985. The other main characters — Rayon, played by Jared Leto, and Dr. Eve Sacks, played by Jennifer Garner — were also not based on real people and were instead invented or pieced together from other people in Woodroof's real-life circle.

Saving Mr. Banks
Disney

Saving Mr. Banks

The Real Story: Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson's latest feature is based on the real-life story of Walt Disney's quest to turn P. L. Travers's book Mary Poppins into a film.

How the Movie Differs: The film portrays Travers as being tart and difficult to deal with, and, according to various reports, that much is true. However, the movie does gloss over some interesting parts of her life, like that she allegedly had a lesbian relationship with Madge Burnand, a woman she lived with in England. There's also the rather unsavory fact that she adopted a young boy named Camillus but refused to adopt his identical twin brother, Anthony, despite his family's pleading.

Captain Phillips
Sony Pictures

Captain Phillips

The Real Story: Tom Hanks's other big award season movie, Captain Phillips, is based on the real-life capture of merchant mariner Captain Richard Phillips by Somali pirates in 2009. The screenplay is based on Phillips's 2010 memoir, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea.

How the Movie Differs: Both the film and Phillips's account have been hotly contested by some of his crew members involved in the pirate takeover. They even filed a lawsuit against their company, Maersk, alleging that Phillips deliberately drove them into pirate-infested waters against repeated warnings. One crew member also claimed that the scene in the film where Phillips, played by Hanks, makes a stink about following antipiracy procedures before setting off to sea is completely untrue. The unnamed crew member claimed that Phillips refused to follow antipiracy protocol, which could have helped them avoid being taken as hostages.

12 Years a Slave
Searchlight Pictures

12 Years a Slave

The Real Story: The movie is based on Solomon Northup's memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, which was published in 1853.

How the Movie Differs: The film does a good job of sticking to Northup's story. One key difference, however, is that, in the memoir, Mary Epps (played by Sarah Paulson in the movie) never goes into a violent rage against Patsey (played by Lupita Nyong'o). In the book, Northup acknowledges that Mary appears jealous of her husband Edwin's affection for Patsey, but she is never moved to violence or incites a physical fight between Edwin and Patsey. Northup does note that Patsey did suffer greatly in Edwin's hands, but this was due to Edwin's own rage issues.

Rush
Universal Pictures

Rush

The Real Story: Ron Howard's Formula One sports drama is based on the real-life rivalry between drivers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and their encounters during the 1976 racing season.

How the Movie Differs: The real Lauda was involved in the making of the film and gave input on the aspects of racing and his relationship with Hunt, who died in 1993. However, Lauda has said that he and his wife never considered that he should give up racing following his disfiguring crash on Aug. 1, 1976. He also claimed that he was not disappointed when Hunt won the 1976 championship.

The Wolf of Wall Street
Paramount Pictures

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Real Story: Martin Scorsese's latest project is based on disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name.

How the Movie Differs: The film remains faithful to Belfort's memoir, which, as some critics have pointed out, could be part of the problem. The Belfort on screen (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and in the book is presented as a big-time stockbroker who shook up Wall Street, when in reality he was a very successful but still relatively small-time player in the world of finance.

Philomena
The Weinstein Company

Philomena

The Real Story: The film is based on journalist Max Sixsmith's 2009 book, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, which is about the real-life Philomena's journey to discover the son she was forced to give up.

How It Differs: The story is, on the whole, pretty true, although they did take some liberties to bring humor and drama to it. Sister Hildegard McNulty (played by Barbara Jefford) never met with Max (Steve Coogan's character), and the real Philomena said that she came off as a bit of a "dumb cluck" in the movie to get laughs.