Focus Features
This morning the Writers Guild of America announced their theatrical and documentary screenplay nominations for the 69th annual Writers Guild Awards. These awards will be given out at simultaneous Los Angeles-New York ceremonies on Sunday, February 19. The nominations for television were handed out in December.
Frontrunners Moonlight, La La Land, and Manchester by the Sea all landed major nods. Interestingly, Moonlight, while drawing inspiration from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, it’s up for Original Screenplay instead of Adapted, pitting it against both other frontrunners. However, come the Oscars, if Moonlight nabs a Screenplay nomination, it will be for Adapted, shaking up these categories over the next two months.
The same thing happened to Loving, which is up here, again for Original, but at the Oscars will be up for Adapted (again, if it gets a nomination).
In the Adapted category, Eric Heisserer’s script for Arrival leads the pack.
The full list of nominees can be read below and be sure to check out our State of the Race analysis, which we’re updating frequently.
Original Screenplay
HELL OR HIGH WATER, Taylor Sheridan
LA LA LAND, Damien Chazelle
LOVING, Jeff Nichols
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, Kenneth Lonergan
MOONLIGHT, Barry Jenkins
Adapted Screenplay
ARRIVAL, Eric Heisserer
DEADPOOL, Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
FENCES, August Wilson
HIDDEN FIGURES, Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, Tom Ford
Documentary Screenplay
AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY, Jeff Feuerzeig
COMMAND AND CONTROL, telescript by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, story by Brian Pearle and Kim Roberts
ZERO DAYS, Alex Gibney
