The 73rd Writers Guild Awards is underway in a virtual ceremony, honoring the best in original and adapted script and documentary, TV, new media, news, radio / audio and promotional writing.
For the first time in recent history, the award ceremonies at WGA West and WGA East will be synchronized, as both were merged tonight into a live broadcast. Typically, two ceremonies are held separately in Los Angeles and New York at the same time, with both reading the winners at different times. Often, the NY awards ceremony will go ahead of LA and announce the winners, completely spoiling the suspense for anyone in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.
Tonight’s host Kal Penn, dressed in a purple satin tuxedo jacket, was alive from what appeared to be his home. THE Harold and Kumar actor mentioned that he just became a WGA member.
Related Story
David A. Goodman reflects on the agency’s struggle and the impact of the pandemic ahead of his last WGA award as president – Deadline questions and answers
“When I joined the SAG, they gave me a pin, oh, well and health insurance,” he joked.
“The program brings together a wonderfully diverse range, from liberal writers on the East Coast to liberal writers on the West Coast,” he continued.
“We are presenting 26 awards tonight … it is also the same number of weeks that we spent off work,” added Penn.
In the past, WGA ceremonies were known for their sketches or pranks by two presenters, however, which were replaced this year by a pre-recorded show with many of the winners speaking directly from home. These sketches were replaced by Zinger montage videos, that is, several WGA members at the top answered the question what did they want to be when they were 12, that is, The social network Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin replied that he wanted to be on Broadway musicals.
Breaking the form during the virtual show, the winners of the Original Long Form for Lady america –Tanya Barfield, Joshua Griffith, Sharon Hoffman, Boo Killebrew, Micah Schraft, April Shih, Dahvi Waller – decided not to appear on camera and instead issued a statement that was read by a male announcer:
“The creator of our program, Dahvi, is superstitious about planning speeches for awards that we have not yet won, so we, the team of screenwriters at Lady america took the liberty of writing a declaration, just in case …
We are honored to receive this WGA award and are very happy to have had the opportunity to tell these stories. We are grateful to Dahvi, who united us and raised our voices. She advocated telling stories of intersectionalism and marginalized figures often relegated to historical footnotes.
The battle for ERA, women’s rights, civil rights and human rights, are all connected. We hope that the success of our show will encourage other writers to explore the under-represented figures of history and strive to tell multidimensional stories. The whole future exists in the past. We continue to be inspired by the words of Shirley Chisholm: “If there is no place for you at the table, bring a folding chair”.
Nominees for the best original script are the scribes behind Judas and the Black Messiah, Palm Springs, Promising young woman, Sound of Metal and The Chicago Trial 7. The Adapted Roadmap race is among Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Black Bottom by Ma Rainey, News of the World, One Night in Miami and The White Tiger.
The documentary category will see All In: The Fight for Democracy, The Dissident, Herb Alpert Is…, Red Penguins and Totally under control facing the WGA trophy.
Last year, the guild aligned itself with the Oscar script awards, giving Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won Parasite in the original script and by Taika Waititi JoJo Rabbit in adapted. Both won on Oscar night. This is a feat that does not always occur, as the WGA only recognizes nominees who are members of the guild, that is, last year, the guild ignored Quentin Tarantino’s Once upon a time in Hollywood in the original script category, as the filmmaker is not a member of the WGA. AMPAS, however, nodded at Tarantino’s script.
On the TV side, AMC’s Better to call Saul led all programs with five nominations, including Drama Series, joining Amazon Studios’ The boys, From Netflix The crown and Disney + ‘s The Mandalorian.
Hulu also received several nominations, including Comedy with Tony McNamara’s The big and Pen15 and FX on Hulu What we do in the shadows, who will be fighting it with HBO and Apple TV + ‘s Curb Your Enthusiasm Ted Lasso.
Ted Lasso and The big they are also nominated in the New Series category.
The extinct Quibi snatched the award in the shortform category for #FreeRayshawn. Bojack Horseman nodded to Animation, facing The Simpsons, who obtained four of the six nominations, and Bob’s burgers.
We will be updating the winners live here, so update to see the updates.
SCRIPT
Original Screenplay
Adapted Roadmap
Documentary screenplay
TELEVISION, NEW MEDIA AND NEWS
Drama Series
Comedy series
New series
Ted Lasso
Written by Jane Becker, Leann Bowen, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence, Jamie Lee, Jason Sudeikis, Phoebe Walsh, Bill Wrubel; Apple TV +
Original Long Form
Lady america
Written by Tanya Barfield, Joshua Griffith, Sharon Hoffman, Boo Killebrew, Micah Schraft, April Shih, Dahvi Waller; FX Networks
Adapted Long Format
The Queen’s Gambit
Written by Scott Frank, Allan Scott, Based on the novel by Walter Tevis; Netflix
New original media and adapted in an abbreviated way
#FREERAYSHAWN
Written by Marc Maurino; Quibi
Animation
“Xerox of a Xerox” (BoJack Horseman)
Written by Nick Adams; Netflix
Episodic Drama
“Fire Pink” (Ozark)
Written by Miki Johnson; Netflix
Episodic comedy
“The Great” (The Great)
Written by Tony McNamara; Hulu
Comedy / Variety Conversation Series
Comedy / Variety Specials
Stephen Colbert’s election night in 2020: the last position of democracy: rebuilding America again, better in 2020
Lead writers: Ariel Dumas, Jay Katsir Writers: Delmonte Bent, Michael Brumm, River Clegg, Aaron Cohen, Stephen T. Colbert, Nicole Conlan, Paul Dinello, Glenn Eichler, Django Gold, Gabe Gronli, Barry Julien, Michael Cruz Kayne, Eliana Kwartler, Matt Lappin, Felipe Torres Medina, Opus Moreschi, Asher Perlman, Tom Purcell, Kate Sidley, Brian Stack, John Thibodeaux, Steve Waltien; Show time
Comedy / Variety Skit Series
At home with Amy Sedaris
Writers: Jeremy Beiler, Cole School, Peter Grosz, Amy Sedaris; truTV
Questionnaire and public participation
Daytime Drama
Days of our lives
Lead writer: Ron Carlivati Writers: Lorraine Broderick, Joanna Cohen, Carolyn Culliton, Richard Culliton, Rick Draughon, David Kreizman, Rebecca McCarty, Ryan Quan, Dave Ryan, Katherine D. Schock, Elizabeth Snyder; NBC
Children’s episode, long format and special
“The slumber party”
Written by Sarah Rothschild; Netflix
Documentary Screenplay – News
“Agents of Chaos, Part II”
Written by Alex Gibney and Michael J. Palmer; HBO documentary films
Documentary screenplay – different from current events
“Opioids, Inc.” (Frontline)
Written by Tom Jennings; PBS
News script – regularly scheduled, bulletin or last-minute report
“Anger in America” (World News Tonight with David Muir)
Written by Dave Bloch, David Muir, Karen Mooney, David Schoetz; ABC news
News roadmap – review, feature or comment
“Fifteenth: a celebration of overcoming”
Written by Dave Bloch; ABC news
Digital News
“The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd”
Written by Aymann Ismail; Slate.com
RADIO / AUDIO
Radio audio news script – regularly scheduled, bulletin or last-minute report
Radio audio news roadmap – review, feature or comment
PROMOTIONAL WRITING
On Air Promotion
“Get Out The Vote – Check out these moves”
Written by Meghana Reddy and Angad Bhalla; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube