Tonight the Writers Guild held the 2010 Writers Guild Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City. The winners were no real surprise as Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner took home the award for adapted screenplay and Mark Boal won for his Hurt Locker screenplay in the original screenplay category. The Cove won for documentary screenplay.
Of course, this gives both of these scripts a bump in consideration at the Oscars, but it should be remembered several films were not eligible for a WGA nomination based on Guild rules.
Of the films nominated for an Oscar that were not eligible for a WGA Award include An Education, District 9 and In the Loop in the adapted category. In the original screenplay category both Inglourious Basterds and Up were not eligible. These films, according to Steve Pond at The Wrap, failed to qualify under WGA rules, which require scripts to be written for productions that are signatories to the guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement, or the agreement of affiliated international guilds.
So, take the winners however you may. My current predictions have Up in the Air taking the adapted screenplay Oscar and WGA inelligible Inglourious Basterds taking original. The WGA nominees and winners are listed below:
Adapted Screenplay
- Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper)
- Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron)
- Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
- Star Trek (Robert Kurtzman, Roberto Orci)
- Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)
Original Screenplay
- (500) Days of Summer (Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber)
- Avatar (James Cameron)
- The Hangover (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore)
- The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
- A Serious Man (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
Documentary
- Against the Tide (Richard Trank)
- Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore)
- The Cove (Mark Monroe)
- Earth Days (Robert Stone)
- Good Hair (Lance Crouther, Chris Rock, Chuck Sklar, Jeff Stilson)
- Soundtrack for a Revolution (Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman)
This isn’t the last of this weekend’s awards announcements as the BAFTAs will be held tomorrow. Stay tuned and thanks to Anne Thompson and Steve Pond on Twitter for the up-to-the-minute award announcements.
