“CODA” and “Don’t Look Up” won the Writers Guild Awards for adapted and original screenplay, respectively, on Sunday night, during the WGA West-WGA East joint virtual ceremony, hosted by Ashley Nicole Black. On the television side, HBO Max’s “Hacks” won both comedy series and new series, while HBO’s “Succession” won for drama series and episodic drama series.
The nominations honor outstanding achievement for writing in film, television and new media in 2021.
On the film side, the full original screenplay nominees were “Being the Ricardos,” “Don’t Look Up,” “The French Dispatch,” “King Richard” and “Licorice Pizza,” and the adapted screenplay nominees were “CODA,” “Dune,” “Nightmare Alley,” “Tick, Tick … Boom!” and “West Side Story.” (Several Oscar nominees for adapted and original screenplay — “Belfast,” “Drive My Car,” “The Lost Daughter,” “The Power of the Dog” and “The Worst Person in the World” — were ineligible for the WGA Awards.)
Among the TV nominations, “Only Murders in the Building” led the WGA tally with three nods — while “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Loki,” “The Morning Show,” “Succession,” “Yellowjackets,” “Hacks,” “Reservation Dogs,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “The Simpsons” received two nominations each. HBO led all networks with nine nominations — and the tally jumps to 12 nods when including HBO Max.
In addition to the WGA categories, Seth Meyers presented late-night host and comedian Dick Cavett with WGAE’s 2022 Evelyn F. Burkey Award, bestowed upon “someone who has brought honor and dignity to writers.” And Colman Domingo presented filmmaker Barry Jenkins with WGAW’s 2022 Paul Selvin Award, given to “to the member or members whose script best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties that are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere,” for Jenkins’ script for “The Underground Railroad” episode “Chapter 9: Indiana Winter.”
Awards presenters included Ariana DeBose, Pamela Adlon, Diedrich Bader, Vanessa Bayer, Nicholas Braun, Chris Hayes, Alanna Ubach, Kel Mitchell and Paul Reiser.
Hugh Fink served as executive producer for the 2022 Writers Guild Awards. The ceremony was co-produced by Joselyn Allen and Kelly Brock. Head writers were Ann Cohen and Joe O’Brien — with additional writers including Timothy Cooper, Bonnie Datt, Hugh Fink, Don Hooper, Danielle Koenig, Ed Lee and Bill Scheft. Kristen Bartlett and Mike Drucker were the host writers.
(Excerpt) Read more and see a List of Winners in: Variety