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New York and Los Angeles – The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen during the 2008 season. Winners will be honored at the 2009 Writers Guild Awards held on Saturday, February 7, 2009, at simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Burn After Reading
Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Focus FeaturesMilk
Written by Dustin Lance Black
Focus FeaturesVicky Cristina Barcelona
Written by Woody Allen
The Weinstein CompanyThe Visitor
Written by Tom McCarthy
Overture FilmsThe Wrestler
Written by Robert Siegel
Fox Searchlight Pictures
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ADAPTED SCREENPLAYThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Screenplay by Eric Roth
Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Based on the Short Story by F Scott Fitzgerald
Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros PicturesThe Dark Knight
Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer
Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics
Batman Created by Bob Kane
Warner Bros PicturesDoubt
Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley
Based on his Stage Play
Miramax FilmsFrost/Nixon
Screenplay by Peter Morgan
Based on his Stage Play
Universal PicturesSlumdog Millionaire
Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup
Fox Searchlight Pictures
---
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAYBoogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Written by Stefan Forbes and Noland Walker
InterPositive MediaChicago 10
Written by Brett Morgen
Roadside AttractionsFuel
Written by Johnny O'Hara
Greenlight Theatrical / Intention MediaGonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Screenplay by Alex Gibney, From the Words of Hunter S. Thompson
Magnolia PicturesWaltz with Bashir
Written by Ari Folman
Sony Pictures Classics
---
Feature films eligible for a Writers Guild Award were released in the year 2008 and produced under the jurisdiction of Writers Guilds of America, East and West or affiliate guilds in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand. There were 255 films eligible for nomination in the categories of Original Screenplay (155) and Adapted Screenplay (100).Documentaries eligible for a Writers Guild Award featured an on-screen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for one week in 2008. While the credited writers of these documentaries were required to join the WGAE Nonfiction Writers Caucus or WGAW’s Nonfiction Writers Caucus or in order to be considered, scripts need not have been written under WGA jurisdiction to be considered.
The 2009 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 7, 2009, at simultaneous ceremonies at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City and the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
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Shocking not to see Martin McDonagh’s brilliant script for In Bruges not nominated for Original Screenplay since it’s better than anything that is listed.
Why, oh why, is “Burn After Reading” nominated for anything? I love the Coen Brothers, but that was one of their worst movies. Instead of making me laugh, all it did was give me a headache.
No love for Gran Torino?*
Well, it’s now official. The Coen Brothers could submit the phone book and still get a WGA nomination. Actually, the phone book is actually entertaining, so that’s unfair to phone books.
nyguy, except for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, every single nominated film was sent to WGA members as a screener; In Bruges was not. It seems that not being sent as a screener significantly hurts a film’s chances these days.
So the WGA nominates the Milk guy… even though he was on set during the strike. Good job, guys.
Ironic if “Frost/Nixon” wins a WGA Award, given that the script is non-union.
Apparently it was supposed to be British Guild (Morgan’s a Brit, wrote it there), but they dropped the ball, maybe thinking the WGA had jurisdiction (since the production company’s American, the director, etc). And the WGA assumed the Brit Guild had it taken care of. Unknown if the company was deliberately trying to monkey with the Guilds.
Bottom line, it was written non-union, and due to some loophole in the WGA Award rules, it can still be up for a WGA award. No joke.
It’s too bad. Frost/Nixon was a great movie, I wish I could bring myself to vote for it.
I was coming to post about the sad absence of In Bruges and nyguy beat me to it.
I loved “Burn” but come on…
How the fuck was Benjamin Button nominated? That was honestly one of the worst written movies I have ever seen. Clearly I’m not getting all the hype…
I’m in the WGA and never received a nominating packet. Anyone else not get theirs? For the record, I would never, ever have voted for the bunch of stupid nonsense that amounted to ‘Burn After Reading,’ nor ‘B Button,’ a flat, soulless repeat of ‘Forrest Gump’, as if Eric Roth’s only got one story line in him. Couldn’t bear to watch either one to the end. I did see ‘The Vistor’ twice. It is delicate and beautifully constructed, simple and lovely. At least the nominating committee, whoever they are, got one right.
Used to be you could count on the writers not to be blinded by bullshit and hype.
Not anymore.
THIS TOWN NEEDS AN ENEMA!
Am I the only one who finds it odd that a union that struck (rightly) in large part over the importance of New Media, its own awards don’t have any New Media categories? It’s not like there were no Guild-covered Internet projects this past year.
I share the feelings of shock at the sight of that list. If the Oscar noms look like most of the crappy lists we’ve seen of late, don’t blame anything else for the ratings.
Re: Screeners
Sure, most have seen the movies anyway, but still…
It’s ridiculous to hand out awards for writing based on the finished film, is it not? Of course this explains at least one laughable choice in the past (Oscar comes to mind) which made anyone who’s read the “script”, to use the term lightly, gag. The acceptance speech did the rest and will never be forgotten…
It doesn’t take any longer to read a script than it takes to watch the flick, so that’s no excuse. I need something uplifting, is there nothing uplifting going on? Nothing? (New Moon news were anything but, just FYI)
Curious WGA-er…spot on! I also watched The Visitor twice and found it one of the most beautiful, indeed lyrical films ever created. As for Burn After Reading, more like Burn After Viewing. The Coens have become a parody of the nihilists in The Big Lebowski. Can’t wait for the release of another downer shit-fest from that smirking, jaded tag team.
No packets this year, it was email.
And I never did get a screener of Doubt. or Vicky Cristina Barcelona either.
Burn After Reading gets a nom but no Tropic Thunder?
*SIGH*
“In Bruges” is award worthy? Really? It was just another smirky “Hitman-Out-of-Water” movie.
Of the nominated scripts, “The Visitor” is worthy of winning. It’s beautiful, tender, and heartfelt. Bravo.
But I must tell you that few movies, few scripts, have jumped off the screen and wrapped their hands around me like “In Bruges.” What an amazing piece of filmmaking. This is Mamet meets Coen Brothers, with one classic line after another. I am simply stunned to see it being so ignored by critics and awards this year.
I swear it’s the only Colin Farrell movie I can watch. Who know he could act?
What a drag then, I didn’t get the email re nominations either. Wasn’t this, over all, just a crappy year for movies? Our standards have fallen so low that Burn After Reading winds up on the WGA shortlist…well, no worse than Juno actually winning the award last year. Sigh. What’s happened to us?
Sad. I used to count on the WGA to sift the chaff from the wheat, script-wise. I agree that In Bruges/Martin McDonagh should have been a lock.
WHAT!??!
no TWILIGHT!??!!