Film News: ‘The Descendants,’ ‘Midnight in Paris’ Win Writers Guild of America Awards

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

CHICAGO – The Writers Guild of America announced their selections of the top writing for film, television, news, radio, video games, and new media last night, and the top prizes went to some familiar faces from this award season.

Woody Allen’s original screenplay for “Midnight in Paris” and Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash’s adapted screenplay for “The Descendants” took home the top prizes of the evening, while Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega’s screenplay for the documentary “Better This World” took home the third and final writing award for film.

In the television categories, “Breaking Bad” was awarded the award for best writing in a drama series, while “Modern Family” won the comedy series writing award. “Homeland” received the award for best writing in a new series. All of these shows also won big for episodic awards as Steve Levitan and Jeffrey Richman won best episodic comedy for the episode ‘Caught in the Act’ of “Modern Family,” and a tie in the episodic drama category gave awards to Vince Gilligan for the fourth season premiere (‘Box Cutter’) of “Breaking Bad” and Henry Bromell for “Homeland” for the episode ‘The Good Soldier.’

In the comedy/variety categories, “The Colbert Report” and “After the Academy Awards” were the winners. The episode ‘Homer the Father’ of “The Simpsons” won best writing in an animated television show, while “Cinema Verite” won best original long form television and “Too Big to Fail” won best adapted long form television.

By TIM MARTENS Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com tim@hollywoodchicago.com