The 72nd annual Writers Guild Awards held their ceremonies Saturday evening at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, hosted by Ana Gasteyer, and the Edison Ballroom in New York, hosted by John Fugelsang.
Due to the BAFTA Awards taking place mere hours later in London, two of the biggest awards were handed out at the start of the evening, original and adapted screenplay, so that the nominees in those categories on hand at the New York ceremony could head to the airport. Original screenplay honors went to Parasite, beating out 1917, Booksmart, Knives Out and Marriage Story, while Jojo Rabbit nabbed adapted screenplay honors over A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Irishman, Joker and Little Women. Parasite's Bong Joon Ho and Jojo Rabbit's Taika Waititi were both at the New York ceremony.
During his acceptance speech, Bong said in part, "There are some people who make barriers higher, but we writers love to destroy barriers."
He also praised his fellow nominees in the original screenplay category, saying, via his translator, "I loved and appreciated all of the films nominated for this category this year, and although I am not familiar with American teenage culture, I really enjoyed Booksmart. It was so beautiful to see the two young men in 1917 sharing love and conversations amidst the cannons of warfare. I've been a huge fan of Agatha Christie's novels since I was a kid, and I never thought I would see such an amazing whodunit film. I really want to congratulate [Knives Out writer] Rian Johnson, as well. And I have so much I want to say about Noah Baumbach. Ever since The Squid and The Whale, I've been so jealous of him, he's such a great writer. With Marriage Story, from the first opening scene where they wrote the letter, I started crying. I think just from those letters, it deserves an award — it's one of the best films of our generation. I'd like to share this award with all the nominees tonight, and especially it's such a huge honor to receive this award from [presenter] Kevin Bacon."
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the New York ceremony on the red carpet, Bong said, via his translator, that it would be significant if the Writers Guild of America recognized his film despite it being in a foreign language.
"More than anything else I consider myself a writer-director and the past 20 years, I've always written all of the scripts for my films, so to be nominated amongst writers and to be nominated by writers is itself a huge honor," he said. "Especially since Parasite is a foreign-language film, so it means that through the subtitles, they were able to appreciate the script and appreciate the structure of the story and the nuance of the dialogue and that in itself is so meaningful."
While Waititi kept his onstage comments brief, before the ceremony on the red carpet the writer-director-actor indicated he'd feel particularly honored if a group of writers recognized his script.
"Writing is the hardest part of it for me and the loneliest part of it," Waititi told THR. "It's the part where you feel like you're just doing it all by yourself, and for me it's the least collaborative part because I usually write alone. To get recognized, anything like that, from writers and from your peers, and from the writing community, I guess it feels more special to me because it's probably, of all the things I do, I'd say it's the thing that I hadn't really imagined myself as a writer. I don't describe myself as a writer, so actual writers, who are really good at writing, support you in this way, makes me feel part of the cool club."
On the television side, HBO had a big night, with Succession named best drama series, Barry tapped as best comedy series, Watchmen earning best new series honors, Chernobyl named best longform original and Last Week With John Oliver, continuing its awards dominance, winning in the comedy/variety talk series category. TBS' Full Frontal With Samantha Bee Presents Not The White House Correspondents' Dinner Part 2 was tapped as best comedy/variety special.
In Los Angeles, Gasteyer kicked off the West Coast ceremony, which she noted that “compared to the DGAs, this is a real vagina party,” with several digs at the current writers and agents standoff, suggesting first that whoever brokered the deal for a non-televised, midday award ceremony should fire their agents. The L.A. ceremony takes place simultaneously with the New York event, making for an early night on the West Coast.
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Gasteyer then extended a warm welcome to the tables of Gersh, Verve and Bookwald agents — the three agencies who have signed agreements with the WGA — and noted how CAA, who has not signed, still bought four tickets to the event, and “just for them, I’ve prepared this set of super-sick burns,” which included the lines, “Yo, CAA, are you a Ken doll? Because I don’t see no package” and “How many CAA agents does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Two. One to screw it in and one to screw over another client.” She ended the bit by quipping that winners having short and sweet speeches “should be easy because you don’t have agents to thank.” Elsewhere in her opening, the Saturday Night Live alum asked the room, “How many of you have sold a show to Quibi? Let me rephrase — which of us has not sold a show to Quibi? Quick show of hands.”
Quibi also received a few shout-outs during the New York ceremony, including one from East Coast host Fugelsang, who wasn't afraid to get political amid jokes and praise for the nominated projects.
"The only thing these awards have in common with impeachment is that these nominated writers, like our president, earned it," he said near the top of his monologue, touching on Donald Trump's Senate trial, which is likely to end with the president's acquittal next week. "This impeachment is a lot like the script for Marriage Story. I don't know why you're crying — you always knew this wasn't going to have a happy ending."
Added Fugelsang, "Twenty years ago, Ken Starr impeached a president for lying about fellatio; this week, Ken Starr performed fellatio on a lying impeached president."
But, in all sincerity, he thanked the nominated writers for stories that helped keep people "sane" in an intense time. "The artists in this room don't just represent the best of their craft; I deeply believe, and I mean this, the writing that's being honored here tonight helped keep America sane when America needed it most," said the host. "America looks like The Three Stooges directed by Leni Riefenstahl. We've lost our mind as a country, I call it 'what the fuck fatigue,' our outrage circuits are burned out … the Christians have elected Caligula and America is like a primetime soap opera, This Is Not Us.
Fugelsang also made a couple of jokes about the ongoing dispute between writers and agents, including arguing that the ceremony would be shorter because the winners wouldn't be thanking their agents, but beyond that there were few explicit mentions onstage of the standoff or possibility of an upcoming writers strike.
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Back in L.A., WGA president David Goodman addressed the standoff and possible upcoming strike in his speech, noting how most of the agencies “have said directly to me that they want to make a deal.” Of the strike, he added that “it’s ludicrous that we’ve already decided to go on strike and negotiations haven’t even started … everyone seems to think a strike is happening. In part it's an effort by our employers to force us to calm everyone down and say we won't and thus give up our greatest leverage,” but at the same time, he added, “I'm not going to say that. It’s dangerously naive to think that a strike is never necessary” and assured writers that the WGA was “going into negotiations in a very strong position.”
Masked policemen from HBO’s Watchmen stood onstage and handed out the night’s awards, which included special honors including the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement for Nancy Meyers (presented by frequent collaborator Diane Keaton, who said she’d “like to appear in another [Meyers film] before I’m dead") and the Valentine Davies Award for Glee and The Politician co-creator Brad Falchuk, who dedicated the honor to his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow (“I think the real reason I don’t really care much about awards is I have the biggest prize"). Bombshell writer Charles Randolph also received the Paul Selvin Award; Late Night With David Letterman writer Merrill Markoe was awarded the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement; and Smurfs writer David N. Weiss received the Animation Writing Award.
Gasteyer kept the show rolling, even appearing as Elizabeth Holmes (complete with signature deep voice) to solve the problem of too many streaming services with "Cablé," a spoof invention that “organizes all of your favorite shows into what I call channels and you can watch the shows according to a schedule. And the best part, you only have to pay one company for the service.”
Alex Gibney's documentary about Theranos founder Holmes, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, won for best documentary screenplay, with Gibney accepting the award in New York.
Also at the East Coast ceremony, longtime SNL writer Paula Pell received the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence from Amy Poehler, who joked that she and some of her colleagues from the nominated Netflix series Russian Doll were also leaving early to go to the BAFTAs as well as to attend an elite pre-BAFTAs event and the BAFTAs afterparty, which she called the "AFTAs." Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Lorne Michaels and Gasteyer all made appearances in a video tribute to Pell, with Fey singing Pell's praises in the style of a Vogue "73 Questions" video.
The New York ceremony also honored Richard Price with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement and Lisa Takeuchi Cullen with the Richard B. Jablow Award.
A full list of winners follows.
