'Coda' 'Don't Look Up'

Source: Sundance, Niko Tavernise/Netflix

‘Coda’, ‘Don’t Look Up’

Apple TV+’s Coda and Netflix’s Don’t Look Up were the big film winners at Sunday’s (20) virtual 2022 Writers Guild Awards hosted by the East and West Coast chapters the day after Coda boosted its Oscar hopes by claiming the PGA’s top prize.

Adam McKay’s script for Don’t Look Up took the WGA’s original screenplay prize and Sian Heder prevailed in the adapted category for Coda, which is based on French La Famille Belier.

Both are nominated for their respective Oscar categories although there were a number of heavyweight Academy Awards contenders that were ineligible.

Due to the films not being produced under the guild’s minimum basic agreement three adapted Oscar nominees – The Power Of The Dog, The Lost Daughter and Drive My Car – were absent from the WGA’s nominees although they will contest that category on March 27 with Coda and Dune.

Similarly Don’t Look Up will face off for the Oscar against Belfast, which was ineligible for WGA consideration, alongside fellow WGA nominees King Richard and Licorice Pizza as well as The Worst Person In The World.

The HBO duo Succession and Mare Of Easttown enjoyed  another good night after the PGA Awards, earning prizes in the television category for drama series and original long form, respectively.

Barry Jenkins received WGAW’s Paul Selvin Award for the episode ’Chapter 9: Indiana Winter’ of The Underground Railroad, and late night host, writer, and comedian Dick Cavett received WGAE’s Evelyn F. Burkey Award.

2022 WGA film and selection winners appear below in bold:

FILM

Original Screenplay

Being The Ricardos
Written by Aaron Sorkin

Don’t Look Up
Screenplay by Adam McKay, Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota

The French Dispatch Of The Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
Screenplay by Wes Anderson, Story by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola & Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzman

King Richard
Written by Zach Baylin

Licorice Pizza
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Adapted Screenplay

Coda
Screenplay by Siân Heder, Based on the Original Motion Picture La Famille Belier Directed by Eric Lartigau, Written by Victoria Bedos, Stanislas Carree de Malberg, Eric Lartigau and Thomas Bidegain

Dune
Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth, Based on the novel Dune Written by Frank Herbert

Nightmare Alley
Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan, Based on the Novel by William Lindsay Gresham

Tick…Tick…Boom!
Screenplay by Steven Levenson, Based on the play by Jonathan Larson

West Side Story
Screenplay by Tony Kushner, Based on the Stage Play, Book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Play Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins.

Documentary Screenplay

Being Cousteau
Written by Mark Monroe & Pax Wasserman

Exposing Muybridge
Written by Marc Shaffer

Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times Of Ben Fong-Torres
Written by Suzanne Joe Kai.

TELEVISION

Drama series
Succession
Written by Jesse Armstrong, Jon Brown, Jamie Carragher, Ted Cohen, Francesca Gardiner, Lucy Prebble, Georgia Pritchett, Tony Roche, Susan Soon He Stanton, Will Tracy

Comedy series
Hacks
Written by Genevieve Aniello, Lucia Aniello, Joanna Calo, Jessica Chaffin, Paul W. Downs, Jess Dweck, Cole Escola, Janis Hirsch, Ariel Karlin, Katherine Kearns, Andrew Law, Joe Mande, Pat Regan, Samantha Riley, Michael Schur, Jen Statsky

New series
Hacks

Original long form
Mare Of Easttown
Written by Brad Ingelsby

Adapted long form
Maid
Written by Bekah Brunstetter, Marcus Gardley, Michelle Denise Jackson, Colin McKenna, Molly Smith Metzler.