The WGA Awards boosted a pair of movie screenplays into Oscar frontrunner status on Saturday night, handing its marquee Original Screenplay award to Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won for Neon’s Parasite, and its Adapted Screenplay award to Taika Wiatiti for Searchlight’s Jojo Rabbit. Both of the winning scripts are nominated for Oscars on February 9.
This year the guild wasted no time in its 72nd edition, awarding its marquee prizes early in the night in simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Many of the film-side nominees gathered in the Edison Ballroom in NYC, so as to make the shorter jump to the BAFTAs which are Sunday in London.
Last year, the guild did not line up with Oscar’s screenwriting prizes, awarding Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade in original screenplay and Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? in adapted. Green Book and BlacKkKlansman won out on Oscar night.
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The other film screenplay award tonight went to Alex Gibney, for his HBO Documentary Films pic The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.
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In fact, on the TV side HBO swept most of the biggie awards — Best Drama for Succession, Barry in Comedy Series, Watchmen in New Series, Chernobyl in Long Form Original and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for Comedy/Variety Talk. Succession took another prize for Episodic Drama.
FX’s Fosse/Verdon took the Long Form Adapted Prize.
Netflix has four wins including for Liz Feldman’s pilot for Dead to Me which won for Episodic Comedy, and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson taking the Comedy/Variety Sketch prize.
PBS and CBS News both won twice in the news categories.
The WGA West’s show at the Beverly Hilton, hosted by Ana Gasteyer, also included the presentation of honorary awards to Nancy Meyers (Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement), Merrill Markoe (Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement), Brad Falchuk (Valentine Davies Award), and Bombshell screenwriter Charles Randolph (Paul Selvin Award).
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In NYC, the WGA East presented honorary awards to Richard Price (Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement), Paula Pell (Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence and Mentorship) and Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (Richard B. Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild).
Here’s the complete list of winners:
SCREENPLAY
Original Screenplay
Parasite
Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, Story by Bong Joon Ho; Neon
Adapted Screenplay
Jojo Rabbit
Screenplay by Taika Waititi, Based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens; Searchlight
Documentary Screenplay
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films
TELEVISION, NEW MEDIA, AND NEWS
Drama Series
Succession
Written by Jesse Armstrong, Alice Birch, Jon Brown, Jonathan Glatzer, Cord Jefferson, Mary Laws, Lucy Prebble, Georgia Pritchett, Tony Roche, Gary Shteyngart, Susan Soon He Stanton, Will Tracy; HBO
Comedy Series
Barry
Written by Alec Berg, Duffy Boudreau, Bill Hader, Emily Heller, Jason Kim, Taofik Kolade, Elizabeth Sarnoff; HBO
New Series
Watchmen
Written by Lila Byock, Nick Cuse, Christal Henry, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Cord Jefferson, Jeff Jensen, Claire Kiechel, Damon Lindelof, Janine Nabers, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Tom Spezialy, Carly Wray; HBO
Original Long Form
Chernobyl
Written by Craig Mazin; HBO
Adapted Long Form
Fosse/Verdon
Written by Debora Cahn, Joel Fields, Ike Holter, Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson, Charlotte Stoudt, Tracey Scott Wilson; Based on the book Fosse by Sam Wasson; FX Networks
Original Short Form New Media
Special
Written by Ryan O’Connell; Netflix
Animation
“Thanksgiving of Horror” (The Simpsons)
Written by Dan Vebber; Fox
Episodic Drama
“Tern Haven” (Succession)
Written by Will Tracy; HBO
Episodic Comedy
“Pilot” (Dead to Me)
Written by Liz Feldman; Netflix
Comedy/Variety Talk Series
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Senior Writers: Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Jill Twiss, Juli Weiner Writers: Tim Carvell, Daniel O’Brien, John Oliver, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Ben Silva, Seena Vali; HBO
Comedy/Variety Specials
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Presents: Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Part 2
Head Writer: Melinda Taub; Writing Supervised by: Joe Grossman, Nicole Silverberg; Writers: Samantha Bee, Kristen Bartlett, Pat Cassels, Sean Crespo, Mike Drucker, Mathan Erhardt, Lewis Friedman, Miles Kahn, Sahar Rizvi. Special Material by: Allison Silverman; TBS
Comedy/Variety Sketch Series
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
Writers: Jeremy Beiler, Zach Kanin, Tim Robinson, John Solomon; Netflix
Quiz And Audience Participation
Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
Head Writer: Bret Calvert; Writers: Seth Harrington, Rosemarie DiSalvo; Nickelodeon
Daytime Drama
The Young and the Restless
Writers: Amanda L. Beall, Jeff Beldner, Sara Bibel, Matt Clifford, Annie Compton, Christopher Dunn, Sara Endsley, Janice Ferri Esser, Mellinda Hensley, Lynn Martin, Anne Schoettle, Natalie Minardi Slater, Teresa Zimmerman; CBS
Children’s Episodic, Long Form And Specials
“Remember Black Elvis?” (Family Reunion)
Written by Howard Jordan, Jr.; Netflix
Documentary Script – Current Events
“Trump’s Trade War” (Frontline)
Written by Rick Young; PBS
Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events
“Right To Fail” (Frontline)
Written by Tom Jennings; PBS
News Script – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report
“Terror in America: The Massacres in El Paso and Dayton” (Special Edition of the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell)
Written by Jerry Cipriano, Joe Clines, Bob Meyer; CBS News
News Script – Analysis, Feature, Or Commentary
“Fly Like An Eagle” (60 Minutes)
Written by Katie Kerbstat Jacobson, Scott Pelley, Nicole Young; CBS News
Digital News
“Stories About My Brother”
Written by Prachi Gupta, Jezebel.com
RADIO/AUDIO
Radio Audio News Script – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report
“Hail and Farewell: Remembering Some Headline Makers”
Written by Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
Radio Audio News Script – Analysis, Feature, Or Commentary
“The Enduring Legacy of Jackie Kennedy Onassis”
Written by Dianne E. James, Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
PROMOTIONAL WRITING
On Air Promotion
Star Trek: Picard and All Rise Promos
Written by Jessica Katzenstein; CBS