WRITER'S GUILD AWARDS
By Jennifer Buonantony
Photo Credit, Rudy Sanchez/ Video Credit, Nathan Sills
Every great film, TV show, and now web series, starts with a great script. This Sunday, the best writers in the biz were honored at the WGA Awards held at the Palladium in Hollywood. PPLA was there to find out who the winners were and what inspires them.
Taking home the top prizes for Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay were Midnight in Paris and The Descendants respectively, beating out tough competition like The Help and Bridesmaids.
Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's latest film, stars Owen Wilson as a Hollywood writer who gets the chance to hang amongst his literary idols in Paris while exploring love. The Descendants, by Alexander Payne (co-written by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, and based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings) stars George Clooney as a Hawaiin dad struggling to care for his two daughters after a tragic boating accident leaves his recently cheating wife in a coma.
In the TV category, the top winners included the writers behind Breaking Bad for Best Drama Series, Modern Family for Best Comedy Series, and Homeland for New Best Series. The top prize in documentaries went to Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega for Better This World. For web series, Aim High, which stars Twilight actor Jackson Rathbone (who also produced) and Aimee Teegarden, earned awards for writers Richie Keen and Heath Corson. It was the first 'social series' to debut on Facebook and a sure sign that online media is getting the recognitiion it deserves at awards season.
The ceremony honored Eric Roth with the Lifetime Achievement Award for films like Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and was hosted by Zooey Deschanel (New Girl) and Joel McHale (Community).
Ceremonies took place simultaneously on the east & west coast for the respective branches of the guild. The east coast ceremony was held at B.B. Kings Club in NYC.
Other stars who walked the red carpet at the Palladium included Amy Poehler, Amanda Peet, Lisa Kudrow, and Octavia Spencer.
Visit our full photo gallery of the event.
