The WGA announces 2013 nominations--Argo gets a nod!

Writers Guild Nominations:

The WGA unveiled its nominations for theatrical motion pictures this morning in three categories: Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay and Documentary Screenplay. Winners will be announced February 17 at simultaneous Writers Guild Awards ceremonies in LA and NY. Among the usual awards-season names missing include Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Amour, Beasts Of The Southern Wild and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which were excluded from the nomination ballots for not being produced under guild jurisdiction or under a collective bargaining agreement in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand or the UK. Oscar guidelines are less restrictive. Here are the nominees announced today out of the 112 eligible screenplays:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Flight, Written by John Gatins; Paramount Pictures
Looper, Written by Rian Johnson; TriStar Pictures
The Master, Written by Paul Thomas Anderson; The Weinstein Company
Moonrise Kingdom, Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola; Focus Features
Zero Dark Thirty, Written by Mark Boal; Columbia Pictures

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Argo, Screenplay by Chris Terrio; Based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article “The Great Escape” by Joshuah Bearman; Warner Bros. Pictures
Life of Pi, Screenplay by David Magee; Based on the novel by Yann Martel; 20th Century Fox
Lincoln, Screenplay by Tony Kushner; Based in part on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin; DreamWorks Pictures
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Screenplay by Stephen Chbosky; Based on his book; Summit Entertainment
Silver Linings Playbook, Screenplay by David O. Russell; Based on the novel by Matthew Quick; The Weinstein Company

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
The Central Park Five, Written by Sarah Burns and David McMahon and Ken Burns; Sundance Selects
The Invisible War, Written by Kirby Dick; Cinedigm Entertainment Group
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films
Searching for Sugar Man, Written by Malik Bendejelloul; Sony Pictures Classics
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, Written by Brian Knappenberger; Cinetic Media
West of Memphis, Written by Amy Berg & Billy McMillin; Sony Pictures Classics

Feature films eligible for a Writers Guild Award were exhibited theatrically for at least one week in Los Angeles during 2012 and were written under the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) or under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement of the Writers Guild of Canada, Writers Guild of Great Britain, Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild, or the New Zealand Writers Guild. Theatrical screenplays produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild must have been submitted for WGA awards consideration.

Documentaries eligible for a Writers Guild Award featured an onscreen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for one week during 2012. While credited documentary writers were required to join the WGAW’s Nonfiction Writers Caucus or the WGAE’s Nonfiction Writers Caucus to be considered, scripts need not have been written under WGA jurisdiction to be eligible for awards consideration.

The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio and promotional writing, and graphic animation. The awards will be presented jointly in all competitive categories during simultaneous ceremonies on Sunday, February 17, 2013, in New York at the B.B. King Blues Club and in Los Angeles at the JW Marriott L.A. LIVE. For more information, please visit [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

And what does this mean for the oscars?

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With Many Contenders Ineligible, What Do WGA Film Nominees Mean For Oscar?

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday January 4, 2013

Like the Producers Guild earlier this week, the WGA did not produce a list of film nominees in the Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay categories that had any surprises.

This in itself is not surprising since the WGA (I’m a member) — due to restrictive rules regarding eligibility of films only produced under the guild’s MBA or certain international affiliated collective bargaining agreements — had far less of a field from which to choose.

The number of screenplays eligible overall is slightly more than a third of all scripts the Academy’s much smaller voting body is picking from (polls for Oscar nomination voting close today at 5 PM).

As usual, we can look for several differences when the Academy reveals their writing nominations January 10th. Although nominees often vary between the two orgs, the final winners are usually much more in sync. Last year, both WGA Award-winning scripts — Midnight In Paris and The Descendants – went on to repeat at the Oscars. In 2010 though, only WGA Adapted Screenplay winner The Social Network repeated at Oscar time, while the Oscar winner for Original Screenplay, The King’s Speech, wasn’t even nominated at the WGA because it was ineligible.