The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has announced its screen nominees for the year. As always, certain films were ineligible with the WGA due to signatory issues. Examples this year which could still make a play at Oscar recognition include “Amour,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Misérables” and “Seven Psychopaths.” So let’s get that out of the way right at the top.
Making the cut in the adapted category was Stephen Chbosky and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which has had a steady presence on the critics awards circuit and, in my opinion, could push on through to an Oscar nomination. He joins frontrunners “Argo,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln” and “Silver Linings Playbook” and, assuming “Beasts,” “Best Exotic” and “Les Misérables” fail to make a solid push, that could be our Academy line-up.
The original side of things saw John Gatins manage a notice for “Flight” while “The Master” held off its guild dry spell by securing a nod for Paul Thomas Anderson. In all likelihood, though, WGA non-member Quentin Tarantino will push one of those out at the Oscars, as “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Zero Dark Thirty” are looking pretty good in the race.
I’m most pleased to see Rian Johnson round out that quintet for “Looper” and I think he could turn the trick with the Academy, too. But other originals like “Amour” and “Seven Psychopaths,” in addition to “Django,” that weren’t eligible here might have something to say about that.
Finally, the guild spoke up for “The Central Park Five” and “West of Memphis” in the documentary category, two films that were surprisingly snubbed when the documentary branch named its finalists a number of weeks ago. That’s nice.
So far, with SAG, PGA, ADG and now WGA all having spoken up, the only films with a perfect industry awards showing are: “Argo,” “Lincoln,” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Check out the full list of nominees below.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
“Argo”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
Best Original Screenplay:
“Flight”
“Looper”
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Zero Dark Thirty”
Best Documentary Screenplay:
“The Central Park Five”
“The Invisible War”
“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”
“We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists”
“West of Memphis”
Winners will be announced at the 65th annual Writers Guild Awards on February 17.
Keep up with all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 film awards season via The Circuit.