Scriptwriting is something seemingly everyone in Hollywood does, from cab drivers to this year's Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres, who jokingly presented director Martin Scorsese with a script during the telecast. But the percentage of first-time scriptwriters who succeed in getting a feature film made is infinitesimal. And the number nominated for an Academy Award this year was exactly one, Iris Yamashita, for her work on Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima."

A Japanese-American born in Missouri and raised in California, Yamashita was working as a Web programmer when she wrote short stories and a script, "Traveler in Tokyo," about her mother's experiences in wartime Japan. It won a contest -- and came to the attention of scriptwriter and director Paul Haggis, who recommended her to Eastwood for "Letters," a film depicting the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese point of view.

Eastwood's big Oscar contender this year was supposed to be "Flags of Our Fathers," which told the story of the Iwo Jima battle and its aftermath from the American perspective, but "Letters" ended up getting more Oscar nominations -- four altogether -- including one for Yamashita and Haggis's original screenplay. They did not win the Oscar, which went to "Little Miss Sunshine," but the film has been a big success in Japan, where it has grossed nearly 5 billion yen after nine weeks in theaters. [Its U.S. box office, about $13 million, is less impressive.]