The 68th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards have just concluded with disappointing, though not surprising, results: Spotlight has claimed their award for Original Screenplay, while The Big Short has won Adapted Screenplay (note that there’s no “best” in front of these categories due to their silly rules which excluded several of the top nominees).
As noted earlier, Spotlight and The Big Short still have to go up against the rest of their competition when it comes time for the Oscars, so these might not be the winners on the big night, though it certainly seems like the most likely outcome. The former still has to go up against the brilliantly-written Inside Out, while the latter must still face off against the very popular Room.
Again, just like tonight, all four of the other Adapted Screenplay Oscar nominees are easily better than Adam McKay’s banking manual, so let’s hope that the Academy has more sense than the WGA showed tonight, and as far as Original Screenplay goes, we can only hope that they recognize the brilliance of Inside Out (perhaps awarding it to make up for its awful snub from the Best Picture category).
Anyways, for a list of tonight’s winners, please see below, and be sure to join us tomorrow at 2pm EST for a live-blogging of the BAFTA award winners, where we’ll hopefully be able to put more pieces of the Oscar puzzle into place.
Original Screenplay: Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight
Adapted Screenplay: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, The Big Short
Documentary Screenplay: Alex Gibney, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Drama Series: Mad Men
Comedy Series: Veep
Episodic Drama: Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, “Uno,” Better Call Saul
Episodic Comedy: Clay Tarver, “Sand Hill Shuffle,” Silicon Valley
New Series: Mr. Robot
Long Form Original: Saints & Strangers
Long Form Adapted: Fargo
Animation: Dan Fybel, “Housetrap,” Bob’s Burgers
Comedy/Variety Series (Including Talk): Real Time With Bill Maher
Comedy/Variety – Music, Awards, Tributes – Specials: Jimmy Kimmel Live: 10th Annual After The Oscars Special
Comedy/Variety – Sketch Series: Inside Amy Schumer
