2015 Writers Guild Awards Winners

The Writers Guild of America, West and The Writers Guild of America, East held simultaneous awards ceremonies yesterday with Lisa Kudrow hosting the Los Angeles ceremony, while Larry Wilmore doing the same in the New York event.

The quite confusing double ceremonies saga continues with Los Angeles Laurel Awards for Screen presented to Harold Ramis and for TV to Shonda Rhimes; Special achievement awards were presented to Len Uhley (Animation Writing Award), Margaret Nagle (Paul Selvin Award) and Pedro Almodovar (Jean Renoir Award). Still in Los Angeles, the guild's Morgan Cox Award was given to Jeff Melvoin and its Valentine Davies Award went to Ben Affleck.

In New York, honorary awards were presented to Norman Lear (Evelyn F. Burkey Award for Bringing Honor and Dignity to Writer), Paul Haggis (Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement in Writing), Jeremy Pikser (Richard B. Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild) and Liz Essley Whyte (John Merriman Memorial Award).

The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game were last night winners but I wonder what these wins could mean for Oscars as in the original screenplay Birdman did not qualify for this award as the four writers are NOT guild members (!) and in the adapted screenplay BAFTA winner script  for The Theory of Everything was also ineligible for a WGA Award.

Still we have to consider that even with the exclusions, the WGA winners have a reliable track record predicting the Oscar winners, which matched 14 in the last 20 years in adapted script and 13 of 20 in original.  So, with this said, most pundits predict that The Grand Budapest Hotel will win Oscar for original screenplay and yes, the most likely adapted script winner is The Imitation Game that also won the prestigious USC Scripter Award.  Me, I believe that original is almost sure, but adapted is still an open race.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go official site here.

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1/7/15
Today the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) announced the nominations for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen during 2014. Some could be surprised when most honored films and possible Oscar contenders are NOT listed among the nominees BUT check the following paragraphs.

Feature films eligible for a Writers Guild Award were exhibited theatrically for at least one week in Los Angeles during 2014 and were written under the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) or under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement of the Writers Guild of Canada, Writers Guild of Great Britain, Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild, or the New Zealand Writers Guild. Theatrical screenplays produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild must have been submitted for Writers Guild Awards consideration.

Documentaries eligible for a Writers Guild Award featured an onscreen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for one week during 2014. Theatrical documentaries must have been produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild to be eligible for awards consideration.

Not eligible films: The Theory of Everything, Selma, Birdman, Mr. Turner and many more. Perhaps due to the multiple not eligible films is why empty stops were filled with films like blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy that is making many really happy -at least in social media-.

Original Screenplay
Richard Linklater for Boyhood
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman for Foxcatcher
*Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler
Damien Chazelle for Whiplash

Adapted Screenplay
John Hall for American Sniper
Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl
James Gunn and Nicole Perlman for Guardians of the Galaxy
*Graham Moore for The Imitation Game
Nick Hornby for Wild

Documentary Screenplay
John Maloof and Charlie Siskel for Finding Vivian Maier
*Brian Knappenberger for The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
Mark Bailey and Kevin McAlester for Lasts Days in Vietnam
Gabe Polsky for Red Army

To learn previously announced TV and other categories go official site here or go here for the complete list with all the categories in one list. Winners will be honored on Saturday, February 14 at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City.