WGA Awards: Winners List (Updating Live) - Deadline

The 73rd Writers Guild Awards is underway in a virtual ceremony, honoring the best in original and adapted screenplay and documentary, TV, new media, news, radio/audio and promotional writing.

For the first time, in recent history, the awards ceremonies for both WGA West and WGA East will be in lock step as both have been merged tonight in one live stream. Typically, two ceremonies are held separately in both L.A. and NYC at the same time, with both reading off winners at separate times. Quite often, the NY awards ceremony will get ahead of LA’s and announce winners, completely spoiling the suspense for anyone in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

Tonight’s host Kal Penn, clad in a satin purple tux jacket, was live from what looked to be his home. The Harold & Kumar actor mentioned that he just became a WGA member.

“When I joined SAG they just gave me a pin, oh, well and health insurance,” he joked.

“The show brings together a wonderfully diverse range, from liberal writers on the East Coast to liberal writers on the West Coast,” he continued.

“We’re presenting 26 awards tonight…it’s also the same number of weeks we spend out of work,” Penn added.

In years past, the WGA ceremonies are known for their sketches or two hander presenter banter, however, that has been replaced this year with a pre-taped show with many of the winners speaking straight from home. Those sketches have been replaced with zinger montage videos, i.e. various WGA members at the top answered the question what they wanted to be when they were 12, i.e. The Social Network Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin answered he wanted to be in Broadway musicals.

Breaking form during the virtual show, the Original Long Form winners for Mrs. America –Tanya Barfield, Joshua Griffith, Sharon Hoffman, Boo Killebrew, Micah Schraft, April Shih, Dahvi Waller–decided not to appear on camera and instead issued a placard statement which was read by a male voiceover:

“The creator of our show, Dahvi, is superstitious about planning speeches for awards we haven’t yet won, so we, the writing staff of Mrs. America have taken the liberty of composing a statement, just in case…

We are honored to receive this WGA award and humbled to have had the opportunity to tell these stories. We are grateful to Dahvi, who brought us all together and lifted our voices. She championed telling the stories of intersectionalism and marginalized figures too often relegated to historical footnotes.

The battle for the ERA, womens’ rights, civil rights and human rights, are all connected. We hope that the success of our show will encourage other writers to explore the under-represented figures of history and fight to tell multidimensional stories. All of the future exists in the past. We remain inspired by the words of Shirley Chisholm, “If there’s no room for you at the table, bring a folding chair.”

Nominated for best original screenplay are the scribes behind Judas and the Black Messiah, Palm Springs, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7. The Adapted Screenplay race is among Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, News of the World, One Night in Miami and The White Tiger.

The documentary category will see All In: The Fight for Democracy, The Dissident, Herb Alpert Is…, Red Penguins and Totally Under Control facing off for the WGA trophy.

Last year, the guild lined up with Oscar’s screenwriting prizes, awarding Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won’s Parasite in original screenplay and Taika Waititi’s JoJo Rabbit in adapted. Both won on Oscar night. That’s a feat that doesn’t always occur as the WGA only recognizes those nominees who are guild members, i.e. last year the guild overlooked Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in the original screenplay category as the filmmaker isn’t a WGA member. AMPAS, however, did give Tarantino’s screenplay a nod.

On the TV side, Ted Lasso won for best new series, besting fellow nominees Dave, The Flight Attendant, The Great and Lovecraft Country.

AMC’s Better Call Saul led all shows with five nominations including for Drama Series, joining Amazon Studios’ The Boys, Netflix’s The Crown and Disney+’s The Mandalorian.

Hulu also scored multiple nominations, including Comedy with Tony McNamara’s The Great and Pen15 and FX on Hulu’s What We Do in the Shadows, which will be battling it out with HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso.

The now-defunct Quibi snagged the award in the shortform category for #FreeRayshawn. Bojack Horseman took the nod for Animation, facing off against The Simpsons, which landed four of the six nominations, and Bob’s Burgers.

We’ll be updating the winners live here, so refresh for updates.

SCREENPLAY

Original Screenplay

Adapted Screenplay

Documentary Screenplay

TELEVISION, NEW MEDIA, AND NEWS

Drama Series

The Crown
Written by Peter Morgan, Jonathan Wilson; Netflix

Comedy Series

New Series

Ted Lasso
Written by Jane Becker, Leann Bowen, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence, Jamie Lee, Jason Sudeikis, Phoebe Walsh, Bill Wrubel; Apple TV+

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.” (Frontline)
Written by Tom Jennings; PBS

News Script – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin, Or Breaking Report

“Anger in America” (World News Tonight with David Muir)
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