Saturday, February 04, 2006

Hollywood Writers Honour Their Own at Writers Guild Awards

Sandwiched between the Golden Globes and the Oscars, the Writers Guild Awards were announced Saturday evening at ceremonies in both Los Angeles and New York. Why are the Screen Actors Guild Awards televised but not the Writers Guild Awards? Yeah, yeah, I know – the celebrity factor. But still. I bet the acceptance speeches were better written.

Movies

Brokeback Mountain gave the Oscar oddsmakers another reason to back that favourite, as Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana took the Adapted Screenplay award (the film was based on a short story by Annie Proulx). Crash has some reason to hope, though, with Bobby Moresco and director Paul Haggis given the Original Screenplay honours.

Television

Outstanding Achievement
For the first time this year, the Writers Guild of America created a category for best overall writing for a television series, an award that is given to the season's writing team. The writers of Lost took home the Outstanding Achievement in Writing for a Dramatic Series, while Larry David was the sole writer credited for the Comedy Series award, for Curb Your Enthusiasm. The New Series award went to the writers of Grey's Anatomy.

Episodic
Traditionally, the WGA has honoured writers of individual episodes. This year, Lawrence Kaplow of House won for the "Autopsy" episode in the Episodic Drama category. Jenji Kohan was awarded the Episodic Comedy prize for "You Can't Miss the Bear", the pilot of Weeds. The Simpsons prevailed in the Animation category, with Michael Price winning for the "Mommie Beerest" episode.

Long Form
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which also won an Emmy for writing, was honoured by the Writers Guild in the Long Form – Adapted category (it was based on a book by Roger Lewis), with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely adding to their trophy shelves. Warm Springs, which lost the Emmy to the Sellers television movie (those awards don't distinguish between original and adapted), picked up the Long Form – Original Writers Guild award for Margaret Nagle.

For a complete list of winners, check out the Writers Guild of America website.

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(Cross posted to Blogcritics)