Well, I’m a little late with this.
Whatever. I’m not the news.
THE 2012 WGA WINNERS:
(Find the nominees here.)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings; Fox Searchlight
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; Loteria Films
DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC
COMEDY SERIES
Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Carol Leifer, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC
NEW SERIES
Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime
EPISODIC DRAMA (tie)
“Box Cutter” (Breaking Bad), Written by Vince Gilligan; AMC & “The Good Soldier” (Homeland), Written by Henry Bromell; Showtime
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Caught in the Act” (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Jeffrey Richman; ABC
LONG FORM – ORIGINAL
Cinema Verite, Written by David Seltzer; HBO
LONG FORM – ADAPTED
Too Big to Fail, Written by Peter Gould, Based on the book written by Andrew Ross Sorkin; HBO
ANIMATION
“Homer the Father” (The Simpsons), Written by Joel H. Cohen; Fox
COMEDY / VARIETY SERIES
The Colbert Report, Writers: Michael Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Dan Guterman, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Barry Julien, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Meredith Scardino, Scott Sherman, Max Werner; Comedy Central
COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS
After the Academy Awards, Head Writers: Gary Greenberg, Molly McNearney; Writers: Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, John N. Huss, Sal Iacono, Eric Immerman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jonathan Kimmel, Jacob Lentz, Danny Ricker, Richard G. Rosner; ABC
DAYTIME DRAMA
General Hospital, Written by Meg Bennett, Nathan Fissell, David Goldschmid, Robert Guza, Jr., Karen Harris, Elizabeth Korte, Mary Sue Price, Michele Val Jean, Susan Wald, Tracey Thomson; ABC
CHILDREN’S EPISODIC & SPECIALS
“Hero of the Shadows” (Supah Ninjas), Written by Leo Chu, Eric S. Garcia; Nickelodeon
*
The good: Modern Family and Breaking Bad are both brilliantly written shows, so kudos.
It was not a terrifically strong year for adapted screenplays and The Descendants is a sure thing to win the Oscar, so I might as well get on board with that. There are many good things about its screenplay, but I found it lacking in certain areas and the opening voice over spelling everything out was pretty painful.
Midnight In Paris is no surprise as original screenplay (The Artist wasn’t nominated here). That one, too, had a tendency to spell things out a bit too blatantly, but it’s a fun idea for a movie, if a bit lightweight. (What isn’t lightweight this year, as far as awards season goes?) I would have preferred Bridesmaids or Young Adult (or better yet, non-nominee Beginners) but the WGA — and the Oscars — will just have to agree to disagree this year.
REAL NOBODY 