2023 WGA Awards: ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and ‘Women Talking’ win top honors — Oscar next?
The 75th Writers Guild of America Awards took place Sunday night, wrapping up the final weekend of guild awards before the Oscars next week. Both screenplay categories are tight at the Oscars, but not all the contenders were present at WGA.
That’s because the guild’s strict rules disqualify a number of scripts every year. This year, ineligible original screenplays include Oscar nominees “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Triangle of Sadness,” as well as “Aftersun,” “RRR” and “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” Oscar nominees “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Living” are among the ineligible adapted scripts, which also include “The Whale,” “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” and “The Quiet Girl.”
The WGA’s original screenplay nominees are “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert), “The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner), “The Menu” (Seth Reiss & Will Tracy), “Nope” (Jordan Peele) and “TÁR” (Todd Field). The Oscars forewent “The Menu” and “Nope” in favor of “Banshees” (Martin McDonagh) and “Triangle of Sadness” (Ruben Östlund).
The guild’s adapted lineup features “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole), “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (Rian Johnson), “She Said” (Rebecca Lenkiewicz), “Top Gun: Maverick” (Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, Peter Craig and Justin Marks) and “Women Talking” (Sarah Polley). At the Oscars, “All Quiet” (Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell) and “Living” (Kazuo Ishiguro) were nominated instead of “Black Panther” and “She Said.”
Our odds forecasted runaway victories for “Everything Everywhere” and “Women Talking,” especially without their main Oscar rivals — BAFTA champs “Banshees” and “All Quiet,” respectively — in the running. “Everything Everywhere” and “Women Talking” also won their categories at the Critics Choice Awards, but they lost the Golden Globes’ single screenplay honor to “Banshees.” Last year, the WGA Awards and Oscars crowned the same adapted script, “CODA,” but the original screenplay Oscar went to the WGA-ineligible “Belfast.” The guild awarded “Don’t Look Up” instead.
On the TV side, the drama series nominees are “Andor,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Crown,” “Severance” and “Yellowjackets.” “The Crown” (2021) is the only former winner in the category. “Hacks” will try to defend its comedy series crown against “Abbott Elementary,” “Barry,” “The Bear” and “Only Murders in the Building.” “Barry” won this in 2020. Other TV categories include new series, individual drama and comedy episodes, among others. “Days of Our Lives” was the only nominee, ergo the winner, in the daytime drama category.
Check out our minute-by-minute report on this year’s WGA winners below. (All times ET.)
8:17 p.m.: Best Adapted Screenplay goes to Sarah Polley for “Women Talking.” Big win for Polley, who also won the USC Scripter Award on Saturday. But she didn’t have to face BAFTA champ “All Quiet on the Western Front” there or WGA. She did defeat two other Oscar rivals here, “Glass Onion” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Will the support for “Women Talking” be loud enough to take down “All Quiet”?
8:22 p.m.: “Rectify” from “Undone,” written by Elijah Aron & Patrick Metcalf, wins Best TV Animation.
8:25 p.m.: Best Short Form New Media goes to “Three Busy Debras,” written by Sandy Honig, Mitra Jouhari, Sarah Sherman, Alyssa Stonoha, Diana Tay, Evan Waite.
8:30 p.m.: Best New Series goes to “Severance,” which finally scores a big win at one of these things.
8:47 p.m.: “Inside Amy Schumer” takes Best Comedy/Variety Sketch Series. It previously won in 2015.
8:55 p.m.: “Prison or Palace” from “Life by Ella,” written by Hernan Barangan, wins Best Children’s Episodic, Long Form and Specials.
8:56 p.m.: Best Comedy/Variety Specials goes to “Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel.”
9:03 p.m.: “The Bear” continues to show its guild strength with another big victory, taking Best Comedy Series.
9:07 p.m.: “Plan and Execution” from “Better Call Saul,” written by Thomas Schnauz, wins Best Episodic Drama. It’s the show’s third win in the category, tying with its mothership “Breaking Bad” and “The Sopranos.”
9:10 p.m.: “The One, the Only” from “Hacks,” written by Lucia Aniello & Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky, bags Best Episodic Comedy. “Hacks” has now won every possible TV category it can after winning Best Comedy Series and Best New Series last year.
9:17 p.m.: “Moonage Daydream” wins Best Documentary Screenplay.
9:24 p.m.: “Episode Two: An American (1775 – 1790)” from “Benjamin Franklin,” written by Dayton Duncan, takes Documentary Script — Other Than Current Events.
9:39 p.m.: “Baking It” wins Best Quiz and Audience Participation.
9:43 p.m.: “Honor Society,” written by David A. Goodman, wins Best TV & New Media Motion Pictures, which is a fancy new name for the TV Movie category.
10:08 p.m.: “Severance” goes two for two, taking Best Drama Series as well.
10:12 p.m.: “The White Lotus” remains a limited series at WGA, so it, unsurprisingly, wins Best Limited Series. Mike White did not win for the first season last year, losing to “Mare of Easttown,” back when the long-form categories were split into original and adapted.
10:15 p.m.: Best Comedy/Variety/Talk Series goes to “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” which reclaims the award for the first time in three years. It’s now tied “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” with six wins.
10:19 p.m.: And the last one of night: Best Original Screenplay goes to — surprise, surprise — the Daniels for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” completing its major guild sweep. “Banshees” was ineligible, but would it really have beaten the guild beast that is “Everything Everywhere”? Probably not.
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