Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award Nominations

The WGA is always a little off with all of its disqualifications, which this year include most animated films, Birdman, Selma, Mr. Turner, The Theory of Everything, and pretty much any foreign contender. I do think it is interesting that the writers, the one group I thought would come to the film's aid, left off Paul Thomas Anderson. But I love the nods for Wild and Guardians of the Galaxy. It is always interesting to see how these differ from the Oscar nods, and this year will be particularly interesting as Whiplash has been deemed an adapted screenplay by the Academy instead of original. I still think it can get in, and honestly probably has a better shot in Adapted than it did in Original, especially with that Unbroken slot most likely open now. My guess is that Birdman replaces Whiplash in Original with Mike Leigh, JC Chandor, and Paul Webb as the spoilers. Unfortunately, the two I was most excited about (Wild and Guardians) will probably be replaced with Chazelle and The Theory of Everything, with Anderson and Hornby being the spoilers. What all of this means is that actually both categories remain competitive, and there will be some surprises next week. I will also note that this is the first time I have not seen CitizenFour or Life Itself among the nominees for a major documentary prize in a while. Of course knowing the WGA, they might have been ineligible.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Richard Linkalter "Boyhood"
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman "Foxcatcher"
Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Dan Gilroy "Nightcrawler"
Damien Chazelle "Whiplash"

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jason Hall "American Sniper"
Gillian Flynn "Gone Girl"
James Gunn and Nicole Perlman "Guardians of the Galaxy"
Graham Moore "The Imitation Game"
Nick Hornby "Wild"

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
John Maloof & Charlie Siskel "Finding Vivian Maier"
Brian Knappenberger "The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz"
Mark Bailey & Kevin McAlester "Last Days in Vietnam"
Gabe Polsky "Red Army"

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