Writers Guild Awards Midnight in Paris & The Descendants

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced its annual awards last night in simultaneous East and West Coast awards ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles with the top movie honors going to Woody Allen for his original screenplay for Midnight in Paris and Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash for their adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel The Descendants. AMC’s “Breaking Bad” won the award for television writing in the drama category, while ABC’s “Modern Family” took the corresponding award for television comedies. The WGA win for The Descendants continues to solidify its lead in the Adapted Screenplay category (although notably Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air won the WGA then lost Oscar night). Allen’s win also points towards an Oscar night win, although Michel Hazanavicius’ original screenplay for The Artist, its primary competition, was deemed ineligible by the WGA. In some of the other movie awards from the WGA, Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega’s Better This World won for documentary while HBO’s movies Cinema Verité and Too Big Too Fail each won an award for their original and adapted screenplays respectively in the long-form television categories. The full list of WGA winners in all categories is below: MOTION PICTURE WINNERS ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen (Sony Pictures Classics) ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings (Fox Searchlight) DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega (Loteria Films) TELEVISION WINNERS DRAMA SERIES Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett (AMC) COMEDY SERIES Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Carol Leifer, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker (ABC) EPISODIC DRAMA (TIE) “Box Cutter” (Breaking Bad), Written by Vince Gilligan (AMC) (TIE) “The Good Soldier” (Homeland), Written by Henry Bromell (Showtime) EPISODIC COMEDY “Caught in the Act” (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Jeffrey Richman (ABC) NEW SERIES Homeland – Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm (Showtime) LONG FORM – ORIGINAL Cinema Verite – Written by David Seltzer (HBO) LONG FORM – ADAPTED Too Big To Fail – Written by Peter Gould, Based on the book written by Andrew Ross Sorkin (HBO) COMEDY / VARIETY – (INCLUDING TALK) SERIES The Colbert Report, Writers: Michael Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Dan Guterman, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Barry Julien, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Meredith Scardino, Scott Sherman, Max Werner (Comedy Central) COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS After the Academy Awards, Head Writers: Gary Greenberg, Molly McNearney; Writers: Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, John N. Huss, Sal Iacono, Eric Immerman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jonathan Kimmel, Jacob Lentz, Danny Ricker, Richard G. Rosner (ABC) ANIMATION “Homer the Father” (The Simpsons), Written by Joel H. Cohen (Fox) DAYTIME DRAMA General Hospital, Written by Meg Bennett, Nathan Fissell, David Goldschmid, Robert Guza, Jr., Karen Harris, Elizabeth Korte, Mary Sue Price, Michele Val Jean, Susan Wald, Tracey Thomson (ABC) CHILDREN’S – EPISODIC & SPECIALS “Hero of the Shadows” (Supah Ninjas), Written by Leo Chu, Eric S. Garcia (Nickelodeon) DOCUMENTARY – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS “Wiki Secrets” (Frontline), Written by Marcela Gaviria & Martin Smith (PBS) NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN OR BREAKING REPORT “Educating Sergeant Pantzke” (Frontline), Written by John Maggio, Martin Smith (PBS) NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY “Doctor Hot Spot” (Frontline), Written by Thomas Jennings (PBS) RADIO WINNERS DOCUMENTARY 2010 Year in Review, Written by Gail Lee (CBS Radio News) NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED OR BREAKING Portraits of a Terrorist: Who is Osama Bin Laden?, Written by Gail Lee (CBS Radio News) NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE OR COMMENTARY Justice in a Time of Terror, Written by Andrew Cohen & Rob Mank (CBS Radio News) PROMOTIONAL WRITING AND GRAPHIC ANIMATION WINNERS ON-AIR PROMOTION (RADIO OR TELEVISION) “Fairytale” (Today Show), Written by Carol M. Sullivan; NBC News TELEVISION GRAPHIC ANIMATION “CBS News Animations” (CBS News), Graphic Animation by David Rosen (CBS News NEW MEDIA NOMINEES ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING ORIGINAL NEW MEDIA “Episode 1,” “Episode 2,” “Episode 4,” “Episode 5,” “Episode 6” (Aim High), Written by Heath Corson & Richie Keen (cambio.com/aim-high) ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DERIVATIVE NEW MEDIA “A New Day,” “Family Matters,” “Neighborly Advice,” “Step Mom,” “Everything Dies” (The Walking Dead), Teleplay by John Esposito, Story by John Esposito and Greg Nicotero (amc.com) VIDEOGAME NOMINEES VIDEOGAME WRITING Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Written by Amy Hennig (Sony Computer Entertainment)