The writer’s strike hasn’t yet succeeded in organizing the reality show writers or getting money for when a movie is shown on the Internet, but it has screwed up the awards season pretty thoroughly. Hopefully that’s worth the millions in lost income for both the writers and the technical people who are out on their ears. One awards presentation that is sure to be free from labor strife is the Writer’s Guild Awards.
The Guild took a break from chanting and writing clever picket signs to announce their 2007 movie writing nominations. Like the Director’s Guild nominations, there are some expected names that mirror the critic’s awards that have been flooding out for the last few weeks, but there are one or two surprises.
In case you haven’t been following that closely, the critics have been most often choosing Diablo Cody’s teenage pregnancy comedy, Juno, for original screenplay and Joel and Ethan Coen’s modern Western, No Country for Old Men for adapted screenplay. Those have to be considered the front runners for the WGA awards as well, and they would both be well deserved in my book. I don’t have an actual book, obviously, but you understand.
The original screenplay nominations, in addition to Juno, went to Michael Clayton, The Savages, Lars and the Real Girl, and Knocked Up! That’s right, the funniest movie of the year got a little love, finally. While Michael Collins is an uninspired choice, The Savages and Lars and the Real Girl haven’t gotten much award notice up to this point.
Joining No Country for Old Men in the adapted screenplay category are three somewhat expected choices, Into the Wild, There Will Be Blood, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, along with a real left field choice, Zodiac. It’s surprising that a critical awards organization finally realized with Zodiac and Knocked Up that some movies were released before December 1st. Since Atonement was shut out of both the DGA and WGA nominations, it might not make it into the Oscars after all, despite being quintessential Oscar porn
The WGA also has an award for documentary writing. If you’re interested in those nominations, which you aren’t, check out the press release linked to above. The non-televised awards will be given out in Los Angeles and New York on February 9th.
