Writers Guild Awards keep up Oscar momentum for Coda and Don't Look Up
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Movie still of Coda starring Emilia Jones (left) and Marlee Matlin.
PHOTO: APPLE TV+
LOS ANGELES (NYTIMES) - A sudden Oscar front-runner and a dark-horse contender took top honours at the Writers Guild Awards (WGA) on Sunday night (March 20), as the heartwarmer Coda and the satirical Don't Look Up prevailed in the adapted and original screenplay categories, respectively.
"This is real, legitimate excitement," Adam McKay, the writer-director of Don't Look Up, said in a pre-taped speech.
Although several awards shows have returned to in-person gatherings, the WGA ceremony was virtual, and nominees were asked to send in their acceptance speeches ahead of time. Only the winner's was played during the ceremony.
Several major films were ineligible for the WGAs this year because they were not written under a bargaining agreement with the WGA or its sister guilds.
So Belfast and The Worst Person In The World (in the original-screenplay category) and The Power Of The Dog and The Lost Daughter (in the adapted category) were not in the running.
And because that significantly whittled down the pool of big contenders, most pundits expected writer-director Sian Heder's Coda, based on the 2014 French film La Famille Belier, would prevail with the Writers Guild, although Don't Look Up still faced stiff competition from director Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza.
Can the WGA victors also win their Oscar races now that Belfast has lost its awards mojo and the surging Coda beat The Power Of The Dog at last weekend's influential Producers Guild Awards?
In a recent screenplay contest at the Baftas, Coda pulled out another surprise win over The Power Of The Dog, its biggest best-picture rival.
Since the path to the top Oscar almost always winds through the screenplay categories, an adapted-screenplay win for Coda on Oscar night could foreshadow the film's ultimate fate.
And although Don't Look Up has a tougher path to the best-picture Oscar, with no notable awards-season wins until now, the WGA victory at least suggests that the original-screenplay race will remain one to watch.
Here are some of the other WGA winners:
Documentary: Exposing Muybridge
Drama series: Succession
Comedy series: Hacks
New series: Hacks
Original long-form series: Mare Of Easttown
Adapted long-form series: Maid