"The Hurt Locker’ and "Up in the Air" took top honors from the Writers Guild of America Awards on Saturday night, as the last major Hollywood guild ceremony gave awards to the pre-show favorites but didn’t clear up much when it comes to the screenplay races at the Academy Awards.
Mark Boal won the award for Original Screenplay for "The Hurt Locker," while Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner won the Adapted Screenplay award for "Up in the Air." The award for documentary film went to Mark Monroe for "The Cove."
The WGA Awards are restricted to films written under the guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement or under a collective bargaining agreement of several international guilds. This disqualified several prominent Oscar nominees, including "Inglourious Basterds" and "An Education."
Given the smaller field, both "Hurt Locker" and "Up in the Air" were considered strong favorites to win WGA honors.
The WGA is split into two separate guilds, one based in Los Angeles and one in New York. Ceremonies were held by the two guilds simultaneously, with all of the feature film honorees attending the WGA, West ceremony.
The WGAW event took place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, and was hosted by "The Family Guy" writer/producer Seth McFarlane. The WGA, East ceremony, hosted by comedienne/actress Susie Essman, was held at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.
Honorary awards went to Larry David, Anthony Peckham, Carl Gottlieb and Barry Levinson in Los Angeles, and Gary David Goldberg, Alan Zweibel, Edward Albee and David Steven Cohen in New York.
(Photos by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
FILM AWARDS:
Original Screenplay: "The Hurt Locker," Mark Boal
Adapted Screenplay: “Up in the Air,” Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
Documentary: "The Cove," Mark Monroe
TELEVISION AWARDS:
Drama Series: "Mad Men," Lisa Albert, Andrew Colville, Kater Gordon, Cathryn Humphris, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Brett Johnson, Erin Levy, Marti Noxon, Frank Pierson, Robin Veith, Dahvi Waller, Matthew Weiner
Comedy Series: "30 Rock," Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Steve Hely, Matt Hubbard, Dylan Morgan, Paula Pell, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, Josh Siegal, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield
New Series: "Modern Family," Paul Corrigan, Sameer Gardezi, Joe Lawson, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Brad Walsh, Caroline Williams, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker
Episodic Drama: "Broken, Part 1 and Part 2" ("House"), Russel Friend & Garrett Lerner & David Foster & David Shore
Episodic Comedy: (tie) "30 Rock," Robert Carlock; "Modern Family," Steven Levitan and Chrsitopher Lloyd
Longform Adaptation: "Taking Chance," Michael R. Strobl and Ross Katz
Longform Original: "Georgia O’Keefe," Michael Cristofer
Animation: "The Simpsons: Waiting for Disaster," Joel H. Cohen
Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) Series:
(tie) "Saturday Night Live" Head Writer: Seth Meyers, Writers Doug Abeles, James Anderson, Alex Baze, Jessica Conrad, James Downey, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, John Lutz, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Marika Sawyer, Akiva Schaffer, John Solomon, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Jorma Taccone, Bryan Tucker, Additional Sketch by Adam McKay, Andrew Steele
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Head Writer: Steve Bodow, Writers Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Tim Carvell, Wyatt Cenac, Hallie Haglund, JR Havlan, David Javerbaum, Elliott Kalan, Josh Lieb, Sam Means, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross, Jon Stewart; Comedy Central
Comedy/Variety – Music, Awards, Tributes – Specials: "Film Independent 2009 Spirit Awards," Billy Kimball, Neil MacLennan
Daytime Serial: "The Young and the Restless," Amanda L. Beall, Tom Casiello, Lisa Connor, Janice Ferri Esser, Eric Freiwald, Jay Gibson, Scott Hamner, Marla Kanelos, Beth Milstein, Natalie Minardi Slater, Melissa Salmons, Linda Schreiber, James Stanley, Sandra Weintraub, Teresa Zimmerman
Children’s Episodic and Specials: “Welcome to the Jungle” (The Troop), Max Burnett
Children’s Script – Long Form or Special: “Another Cinderella Story,” Erik Patterson, Jessica Scott
Videogame: "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves"
