Films like “Nomadland”, “Mank”, “Minari” and “Soul” did not qualify for the 2021 WGA Awards.
Every year, the Writers Guild of America leaves out several scripts that compete for the Oscar in their nominations for the award. But this year’s list of ineligibles is huge, from “Mank” to “Nomadland”. The WGA retains jurisdiction over whether scripts are produced under a Writer’s Guild contract and who finally gets credit for a script (they don’t cover most animated films, like this year’s Pixar Oscar nominee, “Soul” ). The guild insists on preventing non-signatories from being part of the WGA Awards.
That is why, unlike other guilds, each year a long list of indie, British and animated films ineligible for WGA is excluded. A WGA nomination is not essential for an Oscar nomination; many exceptions include the American indie “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, the Iranian Oscar winner “A Separation”, the British Oscar winning films “The Miserable” and “The Favorite” and all of Pixar’s animated contestants from “Up “to” Awesome 2 “. “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech” won the Best Film without the benefit of a WGA nomination.
The WGA nominees listed below are less predictive than an indication of what is losing and gaining heat, since the missed launches of early 2020 “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, “The King of Staten Island” and “Da 5 Bloods “, even rising films like” Judas and the Black Messiah “,” Sound of Metal “and” Promising Young Woman “, which will receive an extra boost for the Oscar vote, which starts on March 5 and ends on 10 March, before the March 15 announcement nominations:
Adapted roadmap:
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern, Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad, based on characters created by Sacha Baron Cohen ; Amazon Studios
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Screenplay by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, based on the play written by August Wilson; Netflix
“World News”
Screenplay by Paul Greengrass and Luke Davies, Based on the novel by Paulette Jiles; Universal Pictures
“One Night in Miami”
Screenplay by Kemp Powers, based on the play “One Night in Miami” by Kemp Powers; Amazon Studios
“The White Tiger”
Screenplay by Ramin Bahrani, based on the book “O Tigre Branco” by Aravind Adiga; Netflix
Original Screenplay:
“Judas and the Black Messiah”
Screenplay by Will Berson and Shaka King, Story by Will Berson and Shaka King and Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas; Warner Bros.
“Palm Springs”
Screenplay by Andy Siara, Story by Andy Siara & Max Barbakow; Hulu
“Promising young woman”
Written by Emerald Fennell; Focus features
“Sound of Metal”
Screenplay by Darius Marder and Abraham Marder, History of Darius Marder and Derek Cianfrance; Amazon Studios
“The Chicago 7 Trial”
Written by Aaron Sorkin; Netflix
Documentary screenplay:
“All In: The Fight for Democracy”
Written by Jack Youngelson; Amazon Studios
“The Dissident”
Written by Mark Monroe and Bryan Fogel; Briarcliff Entertainment
“Herb Alpert is …”
Written by John Scheinfeld; Abramorama
“Red Penguins”
Written by Gabe Polsky; Universal Pictures
“Totally under control”
Written by Alex Gibney; Neon
An Oscar perennial who never appears on WGA ballots: Quentin Tarantino. That’s because, in 1994, the WGA gave the young screenwriter a mere credit for Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” story. Since then, Tarantino has refused to join the guild. Last year, he was not among the 64 original scripts and 44 adapted on WGA ballots, which did not prevent the inevitability of an Oscar nomination for “Once upon a time … in Hollywood”, his fourth free WGA nomination for Best Original Screenplay, including two victories (“Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained”). (Tarantino ended up breaking and joined the Directors’ Guild, which does not exclude non-members from their awards.)
Among the films that did not appear on WGA ballots this year are American Academy Award nominees Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers (“Soul”), Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”), the late Jack Fincher (“Mank”) , Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and Deborah Eisenberg (“Let Them All Talk”), as well as French playwright Florian Zeller (“O Pai”), Italian writer and director Edoardo Ponti (“The Life Ahead”), the Hungarian playwright Kata Wéber (“Pieces of a Woman”), British adapter Jane Austen Eleanor Catton (“Emma”) and British director-writers Francis Lee (“Ammonite”) and Armando Iannucci (“The Personal History of David Copperfield” ), among many others.
WGA winners will be presented on March 21.
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