The Writers Guild of America has announced their nominees for the best screenplays of the year, and they certainly know how to shake things up.
The Original Category played out as expected, securing love for frontrunners La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight. Academy favorite Hell or High Water also receives a nomination for its screenplay. And finally, the excellent but oft-ignored script for Loving gets the love its always deserved, bringing in its first major nomination.
Best Adapted Screenplay is where things become interesting. The frontrunners, Fences and Arrival, both receive deserved noms for their excellent screenplays. Hidden Figures also brings in one of its first major nominations, and it makes me excited to see it tomorrow. Meanwhile, Nocturnal Animals gets a nomination, which surprises me a bit, because the script is the weakest part. However, I’m sure Tom Ford sent them all cologne, and in a lot of ways, it could be worse, so I’m not too angry. And then…Deadpool. Yep, the Merc With a Mouth has found himself on the list of best screenplays of the year. It’s not a bad pick-that script is ingenious-it’s just a bit surprising. I guess it shouldn’t be, considering the WGA has always been comic book friendly, and has given nominations to The Dark Knight and Guardians of the Galaxy in the past, but still…Deadpool. Between this and an ACE nomination yesterday, should we start considering it a major Oscar contender? The next few weeks will tell.
The Documentary category includes Author: The JT LeRoy Story, Command and Control, and Zero Days. I have not seen any of these documentaries, and I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to. We shall see in the coming weeks.
Now, it should be noted that Loving and Moonlight have both been considered “Adapted” by the Academy, so while they may be frontrunners here, they will be competing in a different category at the big show. Meanwhile, major contenders like Lion and Zootopia remain ineligible with the guild.
The Writers Guild will give out there awards on February 19th.
Best Original Screenplay
- Hell or High Water-Taylor Sheridan
- La La Land-Damien Chazelle
- Loving-Jeff Nichols
- Manchester by the Sea-Kenneth Lonergan
- Moonlight-Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell McCraney
Best Adapted Screenplay
- Arrival-Eric Heisserer
- Deadpool-Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
- Fences-August Wilson
- Hidden Figures-Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
- Nocturnal Animals-Tom Ford
Best Documentary Screenplay
- Author: The JT LeRoy Story-Jeff Feuerzeig
- Command and Control-Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser; Story by Brian Pearle and Kim Roberts
- Zero Days-Alex Gibney
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