We're now less than a week away from the announcement of the Oscar nominations, and in the last major guild announcement to arrive, the Writers Guild of America have announced their nominees for the best screenplays of the year.
As ever, the guild have stricter eligibility restrictions on what can and can't be nominated, which means that some big hitters have missed out. Quentin Tarantino's never been a WGA member, so "Django Unchained" goes without a nod, while "Les Misérables," "Amour," "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and "Anna Karenina" were all ineligible. Also falling outside, as it did with the SAG, was "Beasts of the Southern Wild."
So what did make the cut? Well, the usual awards suspects are here: "Moonrise Kingdom," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Lincoln," "Argo," "Life Of Pi" and "Silver Linings Playbook," all of which are near-certain to convert these into Oscar nominations next week (although Oscar voting closes today, so there's little chance of these nods affecting balloting, though it should reflect the taste of the screenwriters' branch).
Getting a boost, having not found much favor with the guilds to date was Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," while Rian Johnson's "Looper" and Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower," both of which have recurred in the precursor awards, also picked up nominations. And John Gatins' screenplay for "Flight" also made the cut.
It's hard to say how much of this will be reflected in a tight Oscar race next week, but we'd expect to see Tarantino in the Original Screenplay field at the expense of Gatins, Johnson or PTA (and don't discount Michael Haneke either), while "Les Misérables" or, more likely, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" could push out Chbosky or David Magee for "Life of Pi" in the adapted category. We'll find out next week, and you can discover who wins the WGA awards when the guild hold their awards ceremony on February 17th. Read the full nominations, including the documentary screenplay category, below.
Best Original Screenplay
John Gatins – "Flight"
Rian Johnson – "Looper"
Paul Thomas Anderson – "The Master"
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola – "Moonrise Kingdom"
Mark Boal – "Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Adapted Screenplay
Chris Terrio – "Argo"
David Magee – "Life of Pi"
Tony Kushner – "Lincoln"
Stephen Chbosky – "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
David O. Russell – "Silver Linings Playbook"
Best Documentary Screenplay
Sarah Burns, David McMahon, Ken Burns – "The Central Park Five"
Kirby Dick – "The Invisible War"
Alex Gibney – "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In the House of God"
Malik Bendejelloul – "Searching For Sugar Man"
Brian Knappenberger – "We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivisits"
Amy Berg & Billy McMillin – "West of Memphis"
