Sunday, February 2, 2014

Her, Captain Phillips, Breaking Bad, and Veep are the Big Winners at the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) Awards

2014-wga-awards-her-captain-phillips
I would say that going into the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) Awards last night, the films most
 people were predicting to win were American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street.  After thinking about the actual winners Her, and Captain Phillips they make more sense, especially with this Guild.  Who better than writers to see the flaws in Hustle, and epic nature of the Billy Ray script for Captain Phillips.

So what does this mean for Oscar, well in the Original Screenplay this is still a battle between Her and American Hustle.  Many on twitter argued that Hustle still has a larger appeal to whole Academy, which could be true.  Hustle is nominated for the BAFTA while Her is not.  If Hustle wins it gains some ground, but if it loses to any other film the Oscar goes to Her.  Either way I think Her is out front.

In the Adapted category Phillips won, but its two strongest competitors are not in the running 12 Years a Slave and Philomena.  Slave is the front runner, both are nominated at BAFTA.  BAFTA can be a great crystal ball, but there are also times with British factor makes the water murky.  Philomena could win at BAFTA, which pushes it ahead a little bit, but 12 Years a Slave still is the favorite to win here.

Looking at the bigger picture, I have a headache.  No Best Picture race has been closer, ever.  Gravity is slightly ahead with two Guild wins, PGA and DGA.  12 Years a Slave also won the PGA.  American Hustle won SAG. Her and Captain Phillips won the WGA.  I have never seen five different films split the Guilds.  

Her and Captain Phillips are the safest to eliminate, they do not have Best Director nominations, and they won't be Argos.  The two may still walk home with Oscar trophies, I think Her wins screenplay, and Phillips could win Editing or a Sound award, it is loud, and loud wins.

I think American Hustle is in third, sure it won at SAG, but it only won Ensemble, and no other acting prize.  Many will argue that since Adams and Bale picked up nominations on Oscar morning the film is wildly popular with actors, but not enough.  The loss at the WGA is also telling, the writers did not like it, and that's said to be the films "strength."

This comes down to that damn tie with the PGA, I could see either Gravity or 12 Years a Slave winning, but Gravity has the edge.  Films rarely win PGA and DGA rarely lose Oscar, so if I were predicting today it would be Gravity.

Stories We Tell won the Documentary prize, which is a great win for the underrated Sarah Polley, who was snubbed for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars.

On the television side Breaking Bad was a double winner for writing in Drama Series, and won for single episode. Veep won writing for a Comedy Series, and 30 Rock took home home the episodic award for their finale.  Part of this is very funny considering Bad and Veep have never nor been nominated for many writing Emmy Awards.  Will this change this year, oh yes!

Full List of Nominees and Winners Below (source goldderby.com)

FILM
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
"American Hustle," Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell

"Blue Jasmine," Woody Allen
"Dallas Buyers Club," Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
X - "Her," Spike Jonze
"Nebraska," Bob Nelson
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
"August: Osage County," screenplay by Tracy Letts based on his play

"Before Midnight," by Richard Linklater & Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke; based on characters created by Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan


X - "Captain Phillips," by Billy Ray; based on the book "A Captain’s Duty" by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty

"Lone Survivor,"  by Peter Berg; based on the book by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson

"The Wolf of Wall Street," by Terence Winter; based on the book by Jordan Belfort
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
"Dirty Wars," Jeremy Scahill & David Riker

"Herblock – The Black & The White," Sara Lukinson & Michael Stevens

"No Place on Earth," Janet Tobias & Paul Laikin

X - "Stories We Tell," Sarah Polley

"We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks," Alex Gibney

TELEVISION 
-BREAK=
DRAMA SERIES
X - "Breaking Bad"
Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett


"The Good Wife"
Meredith Averill, Leonard Dick, Keith Eisner, Jacqueline Hoyt, Ted Humphrey, Michelle King, Robert King, Erica Shelton Kodish, Matthew Montoya, J.C. Nolan, Luke Schelhaas, Nichelle Tramble Spellman, Craig Turk, Julia Wolfe

"Homeland"
Henry Bromell, William E. Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Barbara Hall, Patrick Harbinson, Chip Johannessen, Meredith Stiehm, Charlotte Stoudt, James Yoshimura

"House of Cards"
Kate Barnow, Rick Cleveland, Sam Forman, Gina Gionfriddo, Keith Huff, Sarah Treem, Beau Willimon

"Mad Men"
Lisa Albert, Semi Chellas, Jason Grote, Jonathan Igla, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Janet Leahy, Erin Levy, Michael Saltzman, Tom Smuts, Matthew Weiner, Carly Wray
COMEDY SERIES
"30 Rock"
Jack Burditt, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Luke Del Tredici, Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, Matt Hubbard, Colleen McGuinness, Sam Means, Dylan Morgan, Nina Pedrad, Josh Siegal, Tracey Wigfield

"Modern Family"
Paul Corrigan, Bianca Douglas, Megan Ganz, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Becky Mann, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Audra Sielaff, Emily Spivey, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker

"Orange Is the New Black, Written by Liz Friedman, Sian Heder, Tara Herrmann, Sara Hess, Nick Jones, Jenji Kohan, Gary Lennon, Lauren Morelli, Marco Ramirez

"Parks and Recreation"
Megan Amram, Donick Cary, Greg Daniels, Nate DiMeo, Emma Fletcher, Rachna Fruchbom, Daniel J. Goor, Norm Hiscock, Matt Hubbard, Dave King, Greg Levine, Joe Mande, Sam Means, Aisha Muharrar, Matt Murray, Amy Poehler, Alexandra Rushfield, Michael Schur, Jen Statsky, Harris Wittels, Alan Yang

X - "Veep"
Simon Blackwell, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Georgia Pritchett, David Quantick, Tony Roche, Will Smith
NEW SERIES
"The Americans"
Michael Batistick, Joshua Brand, Joel Fields, Melissa James Gibson, Sneha Koorse, Joe Weisberg, Bradford Winters

X - "House of Cards"
Kate Barnow, Rick Cleveland, Sam Forman, Gina Gionfriddo, Keith Huff, Sarah Treem, Beau Willimon


"Masters of Sex"
Michelle Ashford, Tyler Bensinger, Michael Cunningham, Lyn Greene, Richard Levine, Amy Lippman, Sam Shaw, Noelle Valdivia

"Orange Is the New Black"
Liz Friedman, Sian Heder, Tara Herrmann, Sara Hess, Nick Jones, Jenji Kohan, Gary Lennon, Lauren Morelli, Marco Ramirez

"Ray Donovan"
Ann Biderman, Sean Conway, David Hollander, Brett Johnson, Ron Nyswaner

EPISODIC DRAMA
“Buried” (Breaking Bad), Thomas Schnauz

X - “Confessions” (Breaking Bad), Gennifer Hutchison

“Episode 101” (House of Cards), Beau Willimon

“Granite State” (Breaking Bad), Peter Gould

“Hitting the Fan” (The Good Wife), Robert King & Michelle King

“Pilot” (Masters of Sex), Michelle Ashford
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Career Day” (Modern Family) Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh

“Farm Strong” (Modern Family), Elaine Ko

X - “Hogcock!” (30 Rock), Jack Burditt & Robert Carlock

“Lesbian Request Denied” (Orange Is the New Black), Sian Heder

“Leslie and Ben” (Parks and Recreation), Michael Schur & Alan Yang

“Pilot” (Orange Is the New Black), Liz Friedman and Jenji Kohan; Netflix
LONG FORM – ADAPTED
"Killing Kennedy," by Kelly Masterson, based on the book by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard

X - "Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight," by Shawn Slovo, based on the book by Howard Bingham and Max Wallace

SHORT FORM NEW MEDIA – ORIGINAL
X - “Episode 4: The Collected Sylvia” (Sylvia Plath: Girl Detective), by Mike Simses; sylviaplathgirldetective.com

“Episode 8” (Lauren, Season 2), by Jay Rodan; youtube.com/wigs

“I Do Over Part 1” (Husbands), by Bradley C. Bell & Jane Espenson; cwseed.com

“I Do Over Part 2” (Husbands), by Bradley C. Bell & Jane Espenson; cwseed.com

ANIMATION
X - “A Test Before Trying” (The Simpsons), by Joel H. Cohen

“Game of Tones” (Futurama), by Michael Rowe

“Hardly Kirk-ing” (The Simpsons), by Tom Gammill & Max Pross

“Murder on the Planet Express” (Futurama), by Lew Morton

“Saturday Morning Fun Pit” (Futurama), by Patric M. Verrone

“Yolo” (The Simpsons), Written by Michael Nobori
COMEDY / VARIETY (INCLUDING TALK) – SERIES
X - "The Colbert Report"
Stephen Colbert, Tom Purcell, Michael Brumm, Nate Charny, Rich Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Gabe Gronli, Dan Guterman, Barry Julien, Jay Katsir, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Bobby Mort, Meredith Scardino, Max Werner
"Conan"
Jose Arroyo, Andres du Bouchet, Scott Chernoff, Deon Cole, Josh Comers, Dan Cronin, Scott Gairdner, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Laurie Kilmartin, Rob Kutner, Todd Levin, Conan O'Brien, Matt O'Brien, Jesse Popp, Andy Richter, Brian Stack, Mike Sweeney

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"
Tim Carvell, Rory Albanese, Steve Bodow, Travon Free, Hallie Haglund, J.R. Havlan, Elliott Kalan, Matt Koff, Dan McCoy, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Zhubin Parang, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross, Lauren Sarver, Jon Stewart

"Jimmy Kimmel Live"
Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, Joelle Boucai, Gary Greenberg, Josh Halloway, Sal Iacono, Eric Immerman, Bess Kalb, Jimmy Kimmel, Jeff Loveness, Molly McNearney, Bryan Paulk, Danny Ricker, Rick Rosner

"Portlandia"
Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, Jonathan Krisel, Bill Oakley

"Saturday Night Live"
Head Writers: Seth Meyers, Colin Jost; Writers: James Anderson, Alex Baze, Neil Casey, James Downey, Steve Higgins, Zach Kanin, Chris Kelly, Joe Kelly, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Mike O’Brien, Josh Patten, Paula Pell, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider, Pete Schultz, John Solomon, Kent Sublette, Bryan Tucker
COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS
X - "Blake Shelton’s Not So Family Christmas"
Head Writers: Jay Martel, Ian Roberts; Writers: Alex Rubens, Charlie Sanders
QUIZ AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
X - "Jeopardy!"
John Duarte, Harry Friedman, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Michele Loud, Robert McClenaghan, Jim Rhine, Steve D. Tamerius, Billy Wisse
DAYTIME DRAMA
X - "Days of Our Lives"
Lorraine Broderick, David Cherrill, Carolyn Culliton, Richard Culliton, Rick Draughon, Christopher Dunn, Janet Iacobuzio, David A. Levinson, Ryan Quan, Dave Ryan, Melissa Salmons, Christopher J. Whitesell


"General Hospital"
Shelly Altman, Ron Carlivati, Anna Theresa Cascio, Suzanne Flynn, Kate Hall, Elizabeth Korte, Daniel James O’Connor, Jean Passanante, Elizabeth Page, Katherine Schock, Scott Sickles, Chris Van Etten

"The Young and the Restless"
Associate Head Writers: Shelly Altman, Tracey Thomson; Written by Amanda Beall, Jeff Beldner, Brent Boyd, Susan Dansby, Janice Ferri Esser, Jay Gibson, Beth Milstein, Lisa Seidman, Natalie Minardi Slater, Anne Schoettle, Linda Schreiber, Teresa Zimmerman
CHILDREN'S – EPISODIC & SPECIALS
X - “influANTces” (A.N.T. Farm), Vincent Brown

"The Haunted Cave" (Spooksville), Jim Krieg

“Simon Says” (Sesame Street), Christine Ferraro
DOCUMENTARY – CURRENT EVENTS
“Cliffhanger” (Frontline), Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser

X - “Egypt in Crisis” (Frontline), Marcela Gaviria & Martin Smith
DOCUMENTARY – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS
“The Abolitionists” (American Experience), Rob Rapley

X - “The Choice 2012” (Frontline), Michael Kirk

“Episode 1” (The Dust Bowl),Dayton Duncan

X - “Silicon Valley” (American Experience), Randall MacLowry and Michelle Ferrari; Story by Randall MacLowry
NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“The Election of Pope Francis” (CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley), Jerry Cipriano, Joe Clines and Scott Pelley

“The Fall of Lance Armstrong” (60 Minutes), Michael Radutzky, Michael Rey, Oriana Zill de Granados

“The Inauguration of the President” (CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley), Jerry Cipriano and Joe Clines

X - “Tragedy at Newtown” Special Edition (ABC World News with Diane Sawyer), Lisa Ferri and Matt Negrin
NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
X - “Lethal Medicine” (60 Minutes), Michael Rey, Oriana Zill de Granados, Michael Radutzky

"Throwback Thursday – Happy Birthday, Michael Jackson” (ABC World News Now), Matt Nelko

“Vinyl Revival’ (CBS News), Polly Leider
RADIO
DOCUMENTARY
X - “2012 Year in Review,” Gail Lee; CBS Radio News
NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED OR BREAKING REPORT
X - “Afternoon Drive,” Bill Spadaro; CBS Radio/1010 WINS

“George McGovern: A Look Back,” Gail Lee; CBS Radio News

NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE OR COMMENTARY
“Remembering C. Everett Koop,” Scott Saloway; CBS Radio News

X - “Remembrances,” Gail Lee; CBS Radio News

“Tributes,” Thomas A. Sabella; CBS Radio News
PROMOTIONAL WRITING AND GRAPHIC ANIMATION
ON-AIR PROMOTION (TELEVISION, NEW MEDIA OR RADIO)
“48 Hours: 2013 Fall Preview,” Jay Pedinoff; CBS News Marketing
X - “The Crazy Ones – Building a Better Comedy,” Erial Tompkins; CBS
TELEVISION GRAPHIC ART AND ANIMATION
X - CBS News Animations: “Brain Injury,” “Pills,” “Bionic Leg,” “Midland Parade,” “Concordia Salvage;” Animation by David Rosen; CBS News
(*Editor Note: There were no nominees in Long Form – Original, Short Form New Media – Adapted, or Children’s – Long Form or Special awards categories this year.) 
VIDEO GAME NOMINEES
"Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag"
Story by Darby McDevitt, Mustapha Mahrach, Jean Guesdon; Lead Scriptwriter Darby McDevitt; Scriptwriter Jill Murray; AI Scriptwriter Nicholas Grimwood; Scriptwriter Singapore Mark Llabres Hill; 
"Batman: Arkham Origins"
Narrative Director Dooma Wendschuh; Writer & Senior Narrative Designer Ryan Galletta; Writer Corey May
"God of War: Ascension"
Marianne Krawczyk; Additional Writing Ariel Lawrence
X - "The Last of Us"
Neil Druckmann
"Lost Planet 3"
Head Writer Richard Gaubert; Writers Orion Walker, Matt Sophos

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