Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have unveiled the nominations for outstanding achievement in screenwriting during 2021. Winners will be honored at a joint 2022 Writers Guild Awards virtual ceremony on Sunday, March 20, 2022.
In the running for the Original Screenplay honor are: Being the Ricardos, Don’t Look Up, The French Dispatch, King Richard and Licorice Pizza.
Adapted Screenplay contenders are CODA, Dune, Nightmare Alley, tick…tick…Boom! and West Side Story.
Here’s a rundown of feature and documentary nominees:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Being the Ricardos, Written by Aaron Sorkin; Amazon Studios
- Don’t Look Up, Screenplay by Adam McKay, Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota; Netflix
- The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, Screenplay by Wes Anderson, Story by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola & Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzman; Searchlight Pictures
- King Richard, Written by Zach Baylin; Warner Bros. Pictures
- Licorice Pizza, Written by Paul Thomas Anderson; United Artists
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- CODA, Screenplay by Siân Heder, Based on the Original Motion Picture La Famille Belier Directed by Eric Lartigau, Written by Victoria Bedos, Stanislas Carree de Malberg, Eric Lartigau and Thomas Bidegain; Apple
- Dune, Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth, Based on the novel Dune Written by Frank Herbert; Warner Bros. Pictures
- Nightmare Alley, Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan, Based on the Novel by William Lindsay Gresham; Searchlight Pictures
- tick…tick…BOOM!, Screenplay by Steven Levenson, Based on the play by Jonathan Larson; Netflix
- West Side Story, Screenplay by Tony Kushner, Based on the Stage Play, Book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Play Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins; 20th Century Studios
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
- Being Cousteau, Written by Mark Monroe & Pax Wasserman; National Geographic
- Exposing Muybridge, Written by Marc Shaffer; Inside Out Media
- Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres, Written by Suzanne Joe Kai; StudioLA.TV
Feature films eligible for a Writers Guild Award were exhibited theatrically for at least one week in Los Angeles during the eligibility period of March 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021 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, Writers Guild of Ireland, Writers’ Guild of South Africa, New Zealand Writers Guild, Film Writers’ Association (India), La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes (France), Scriptwriters Guild of Israel, Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma (Québec), or Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD/Germany), collectively known as affiliate Guilds. Theatrical screenplays produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild must have been submitted for Writers Guild 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 the eligibility period of March 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021. Theatrical documentaries must have been produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild to be eligible for awards consideration.
Feature films and documentaries that had a theatrical exhibition scheduled during the eligibility period but had to pivot to a streaming release due to the COVID-19 pandemic were also eligible for WGA Awards consideration.
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, news (broadcast and digital), radio/audio, and promotional categories.
