2017 Writers Guild of America (WGA) Winners: Moonlight Wins Original, Arrival Wins Adapted

Erik Anderson February 19, 2017

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Moonlight, from Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, won the Original Screenplay award, a coup of sorts since the film was moved over to Adapted by the Academy (where it’s Oscar-nominated) so most felt the WGA race was between La La Land and Manchester by the Sea. The last Best Picture winner to lose WGA was 2004’s Million Dollar Baby.

Arrival won for Adapted Screenplay. It goes up against Hidden Figures, Fences (both of which it beat here), Lion and Moonlight at the Oscars. Lion was ineligible for WGA and Moonlight is nominated in Original here.

The race for Oscars in the screenplay categories after tonight didn’t get any easier, in fact it got much harder. Right now we have five different films winning the major screenplay awards from the top guilds and industry groups.

Globe: La La Land
BAFTA Original: Manchester by the Sea
BAFTA Adapted: Lion
WGA Original: Moonlight
WGA Adapted: Arrival

While the WGA win for Moonlight is a very good get, that Manchester by the Sea or La La Land missed here means that race is still very much up in the air. The WGA Awards, despite their strict eligibility that often omits Oscar contenders (and even winners), still have a better than average track record of predicting the Oscar winners. They have matched in 16 of the last 22 years in Adapted and 14 of the last 22 in Original, including last year’s winners The Big Short and Spotlight.

Atlanta won Comedy Series and New Series for creator and writer Donald Glover. This Is Us won the Episodic Drama award for “The Trip,” written by Vera Herbert and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt won Episodic Comedy for “Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!,” written by Robert Carlock.

The 69th annual Writers Guild Awards took place at simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles where Aaron Sorkin, who received the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement and Oliver Stone received the WGA’s Screen Laurel Award.

The full list of winners in Film, Television, New Media, Radio, Promotional and Video Games.

FILM

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Moonlight,” Written by Barry Jenkins, Story by Tarell McCraney; A24

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Arrival,” Screenplay by Eric Heisserer; Based on the Story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang; Paramount Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
“Command and Control,” Telescript by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, Story by Brian Pearle and Kim Roberts; Based on the book Command and Control by Eric Schlosser; American Experience Films

TV

DRAMA SERIES
“The Americans,” written by Peter Ackerman, Tanya Barfield, Joshua Brand, Joel Fields, Stephen Schiff, Joe Weisberg, Tracey Scott Wilson; FX

COMEDY SERIES
“Atlanta,” written by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms; FX

NEW SERIES
“Atlanta,” written by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms; FX

LONG FORM ORIGINAL
“Confirmation,” written by Susannah Grant; HBO

LONG FORM ADAPTED
“American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” written by Scott Alexander, Joe Robert Cole, D.V. DeVincentis, Maya Forbes, Larry Karaszewski, Wally Wolodarsky, Based on the book The Run of His Life by Jeffrey Toobin; FX

ANIMATION
“Stop the Presses” (“BoJack Horseman”), Written by Joe Lawson; Netflix

EPISODIC DRAMA
“The Trip” (“This Is Us”), written by Vera Herbert; NBC

EPISODIC COMEDY
“Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!” (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), written by Robert Carlock; Netflix

SHORT FORM NEW MEDIA – ORIGINAL
“The Party” (“The Commute”), written by Linsey Stewart & Dane Clark; youtube.com

SHORT FORM NEW MEDIA – ADAPTED
“Passage” Part 4 (“Fear the Walking Dead”), written by Lauren Signorino & Mike Zunic; amc.com
“Under Siege” (“The Strain”), written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, Based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan; fxnetworks.com

COMEDY / VARIETY (INCLUDING TALK) – SERIES
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” writers: Kevin Avery, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, John Oliver, Scott Sherman, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Juli Weiner; HBO

COMEDY / VARIETY – SKETCH SERIES
“Saturday Night Live,” Head Writers: Rob Klein, Bryan Tucker. Writers: James Anderson, Fred Armisen, Jeremy Beiler, Chris Belair, Megan Callahan, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Jim Downey, Tina Fey, Fran Gillespie, Sudi Green, Tim Herlihy, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Zach Kanin, Chris Kelly, Erik Kenward, Paul Masella, Dave McCary, Dennis McNicholas, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, Josh Patten, Paula Pell, Katie Rich, Tim Robinson, Sarah Schneider, Pete Schultz, Streeter Seidell, Dave Sirus, Emily Spivey, Andrew Steele, Will Stephen, Kent Sublette; NBC

COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS
“Triumph’s Election Special,” Written by Andy Breckman, Josh Comers, David Feldman, R J Fried, Jarrett Grode, Ben Joseph, Matthew Kirsch, Michael Koman, Mike Lawrence, Brian Reich, Craig Rowin, Robert Smigel, Zach Smilovitz, Andrew Weinberg; Hulu

QUIZ AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
“Hollywood Game Night,” Head Writer: Grant Taylor; Writers: Michael Agbabian, Alex Chauvin, Ann Slichter, Dwight D. Smith; NBC

DAYTIME DRAMA
General Hospital, Writers: Shelly Altman, Anna Theresa Cascio, Andrea Archer Compton, Suzanne Flynn, Janet Iacobuzio, Elizabeth Korte, Daniel James O’Connor, Jean Passanante, Dave Rupel, Katherine Schock, Scott Sickles, Chris Van Etten, Christopher Whitesell; ABC

CHILDREN’S SCRIPT – EPISODIC AND SPECIALS
“Mel vs. The Night Mare of Normal Street” (Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street), Written by Laurie Parres; Amazon Studios

CHILDREN’S SCRIPT – LONG FORM OR SPECIAL
“Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas,” written by Geri Cole & Ken Scarborough; HBO

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT – CURRENT EVENTS (tie)
“The Choice 2016” (Frontline); Written by Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser; PBS
“Inside Assad’s Syria” (Frontline), Written by Martin Smith; PBS

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS
“Jackie Robinson, Part One,” Written by David McMahon & Sarah Burns; PBS

NEWS SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“Muhammad Ali: Remembering A Legend” (48 Hours), Written by Jerry Cipriano, John Craig Wilson; CBS News

NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“CBS Sunday Morning Almanac” June 12, 2016 (CBS Sunday Morning), Written by Thomas A. Harris; CBS

RADIO DOCUMENTARY
“Chernobyl: 30 Years Later,” Written by Andrew Evans; ABC News Radio

RADIO NEWS SCRIPT—REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“World News This Week” August 26, 2016, Written by Tara Gimbel Tanis; ABC News Radio

RADIO NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“Morley Safer: A Journalist’s Life,” Written by Gail Lee; CBS Radio Network

ON-AIR PROMOTION (TELEVISION, NEW MEDIA OR RADIO)
“CBS On-Air Reel,” Written by Brian Retchless; CBS On-Air Promotion

TELEVISION GRAPHIC ART AND ANIMATION
“The Real History of Cinco de Mayo,” (Gawker Media Group), Graphic Animation by Elisa Solinas; youtube.com

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.