Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and George Clooney’s The Ides of March are among a number of big films not to make the cut for this year’s Writers Guild awards.
Instead the US body has nominated some more unexpected titles for its prizes, to be handed out on 19 February. Sports drama Win Win and cancer-based comedy 50/50 are among the movies up for the original screenplay prize. The US version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig, is up for best adapted screenplay. The nominations also omitted such critically acclaimed titles as The Artist, My Week with Marilyn and The Iron Lady.
However, this is because these films had been ruled ineligible under Writers Guild of America (WGA) rules.
Raunchy farce Bridesmaids, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Young Adult – the latest film from Juno scribe Diablo Cody – round out the original screenplay field. The Descendants, The Help, Hugo and Moneyball are the other nominees in the adapted screenplay category, The British-made Senna, about legendary Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, is one of five titles up for the documentary screenplay prize. The WGA also gives prizes to television writers working in comedy, drama, animation and children’s shows.
Last year, the Guild gave its original and adapted screenplay prizes to Inception and The Social Network respectively.
Yet The King’s Speech – winner of the original screenplay prize at last year’s Oscars – was omitted from the shortlist, a fact alluded to by Inception’s Christopher Nolan as he picked up his trophy. The prize, he said last February, would have been more significant if “certain other screenplays” had been nominated alongside his. Writers Guild nominations are restricted to movies made under the trade association’s rules on pay and working conditions or pacts struck with affiliated foreign groups.