As I understand it, the Academy’s decision to classify Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash screenplay as adapted, even though it’s (a) somewhat autobiographical and (b) an expansion of Chazelle’s own short film about the exact same subject, is due to their own curious definition of “adapted.” When a script has been adapted from another form, that’s all that matters to them. They don’t care if Chazelle adapted his own short film into a feature-length screenplay or if he based his screenplay on a short film by Donald Duck. The point is that he adapted it from another source, period. This is a somewhat absurd way to look at it since Whiplash is clearly Chazelle’s original idea, but that’s the Academy for you. If they wanted to be cool and easy about it, they would rescind this decision and reclassify Chazelle’s screenplay as original…but that’s unlikely.