Tonight the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced the winners of their awards for outstanding screenwriting in 2021. The awards have a dubious track record when it comes to indicating who might win Best Picture at the Oscars, but they tend to be an apt predictor of the Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay winners. Last year, Parasite and Jojo Rabbit won the Original and Adapted Screenplay honors before going on to take home the Oscar Prizes in those categories, too.
So who won this year? Sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm took home the Best Adapted Screenplay award (much to the shock of many), while Emerald Fennell won Best Original Screenplay for her debut screenplay Promising Young Woman; Fennell beat writing icon Aaron Sorkin’s Trial of the Chicago 7 screenplay to do so. On the television side, Jason Sudeikis’s Ted Lasso was the big winner with two awards for Best Comedy and Best New Series, while The Crown won for Best Drama.
Read on for the full list of the Writers Guild of America’s Television and Film winners.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
90%
Promising Young Woman
(2020)
Written by Emerald Fennell
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
85%
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
(2020)
Written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, Lee Kern. Story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Nina Pedrad. Based on Characters Created by Sacha Baron Cohen.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
96%
The Dissident
(2020)
Written by Mark Monroe and Bryan Fogel
COMEDY SERIES
92%
Ted Lasso: Season 1
(2020)
Written by Jane Becker, Leann Bowen, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence, Jamie Lee, Jason Sudeikis, Pheobe Wals, Bill Wrubel
DRAMA SERIES
96%
The Crown: Season 4
(2020)
Written by Peter Morgan and Jonathan Wilson
NEW SERIES
92%
Ted Lasso: Season 1
(2020)
Written by Jane Becker, Leann Bowen, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence, Jamie Lee, Jason Sudeikis, Pheobe Wals, Bill Wrubel
Original Long Form
Mrs. America
Written by Tanya Barfield, Joshua Griffith, Sharon Hoffman, Boo Killebrew, Micah Schraft, April Shih, Dahvi Waller; FX Networks
Adapted Long Form
The Queen’s Gambit
Written by Scott Frank, Allan Scott, Based on the novel by Walter Tevis; Netflix
Original & Adapted Short Form New Media
#FREERAYSHAWN
Written by Marc Maurino; Quibi
Animation
“Xerox of a Xerox” (BoJack Horseman)
Written by Nick Adams; Netflix
Episodic Drama
“Fire Pink” (Ozark)
Written by Miki Johnson; Netflix
Episodic Comedy
“The Great” (The Great)
Written by Tony McNamara; Hulu
Comedy/Variety Talk Series
Desus & Mero
Writers: Daniel “Desus Nice” Baker, Claire Friedman, Ziwe Fumudoh, Josh Gondelman, Robert Kornhauser, Joel “The Kid Mero” Martinez, Heben Nigatu, Mike Pielocik, Julia Young; Showtime
Comedy/Variety Specials
Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand: Building Back America Great Again Better 2020
Head Writers: Ariel Dumas, Jay Katsir Writers: Delmonte Bent, Michael Brumm, River Clegg, Aaron Cohen, Stephen T. Colbert, Nicole Conlan, Paul Dinello, Glenn Eichler, Django Gold, Gabe Gronli, Barry Julien, Michael Cruz Kayne, Eliana Kwartler, Matt Lappin, Felipe Torres Medina, Opus Moreschi, Asher Perlman, Tom Purcell, Kate Sidley, Brian Stack, John Thibodeaux, Steve Waltien; Showtime
Comedy/Variety Sketch Series
At Home with Amy Sedaris
Writers: Jeremy Beiler, Cole Escola, Peter Grosz, Amy Sedaris; truTV
Quiz And Audience Participation
Weakest Link
Head Writer: Ann Slichter Writers: Chip Dornell, Paul Greenberg, Joyce Ikemi, Stuart Krasnow, Jon Macks, Mona Mira, Scott Saltzburg, Aaron Solomon, Chris Sturgeon, Grant Taylor; NBC
Daytime Drama
Days of Our Lives
Head Writer: Ron Carlivati Writers: Lorraine Broderick, Joanna Cohen, Carolyn Culliton, Richard Culliton, Rick Draughon, David Kreizman, Rebecca McCarty, Ryan Quan, Dave Ryan, Katherine D. Schock, Elizabeth Snyder; NBC
Children’s Episodic, Long Form, and Specials
The Sleepover
Written by Sarah Rothschild; Netflix
Documentary Script – Current Events
Agents of Chaos, Part II
Written by Alex Gibney & Michael J. Palmer; HBO Documentary Films
Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events
Opioids, Inc.
Written by Tom Jennings; PBS
News Script – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report
Anger in America
Written by Dave Bloch, David Muir, Karen Mooney, David Schoetz; ABC News
News Script – Analysis, Feature, Or Commentary
Juneteenth: A Celebration of Overcoming
Written by Dave Bloch; ABC News
Digital News
The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd
Written by Aymann Ismail; Slate.com
RADIO/AUDIO
Radio Audio News Script – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report
Changemakers: Leaders Who Made a Difference
Written by Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
Radio Audio News Script – Analysis, Feature, Or Commentary
Against Those Thugs: Delores Tucker and Bill Bennett
Written by Joel Anderson, Christopher Johnson; Slate Podcasts
PROMOTIONAL WRITING
On-Air Promotion
Get Out The Vote – Check Out Those Moves
Written by Meghana Reddy and Angad Bhalla; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Thumbnail image by Amazon Studios
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