Of all the industry guilds, the Writers is the biggest wild card. Snubs aren’t only normal; they’re ingrained into the legalese of the org’s eligibility rules.
Due to arcane requirements in their “Minimum Basic Agreement”, the Writers Guild of America annually overlooks some of the season’s major Academy Award contenders. Those most often overlooked are films with foreign-written and financed screenplays. This year is no different.
Two major Oscar front-runners were denied nominations from the start, due to these rules: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Darkest Hour, both written by filmmakers that hail from the United Kingdom. Expect these original scripts (Three Billboards especially) to compete for Oscar nominations, likely taking the place of a WGA nom like I, Tonya.
Even so, another contender of foreign pedigree – Call Me By Your Name – did receive an Adapted Screenplay nomination from the WGA, so there’s that. Again, the rules seem rather fickle, a mystery to even the most knowledgeable Awards Season gurus.
Here is the full list of nominees. Trophies will be handed out to winners on Sunday February 11, nearly a month before the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4.
2017 WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINEES
Original Screenplay
– The Big Sick, by Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
– Get Out, by Jordan Peele
– I, Tonya, by Steven Rogers
– Lady Bird, by Greta Gerwig
– The Shape of Water, by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor
Adapted Screenplay
– Call Me by Your Name, by James Ivory; based on the novel by André Aciman
– The Disaster Artist, by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; based on the book “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside the Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made” by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell
– Logan, by Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green; based on characters from the X-Men Comic Books and Theatrical Motion Pictures
– Molly’s Game, by Aaron Sorkin; based on the book by Molly Bloom
– Mudbound, by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees; based on the novel by Hillary Jordan
Documentary Screenplay
– Betting on Zero, by Theodore Braun
– Jane, by Brett Morgen
– No Stone Unturned, by Alex Gibney
– Oklahoma City, by Barak Goodman
Click on links below for other Critics Group Awards and Guild Nominees that have been announced so far for the 2017 / 18 season:
90th Annual Academy Award Nominations
Directors Guild of America winners
Screen Actors Guild winners
Producers Guild of America winners
Critics Choice Awards winners
Golden Globe Winners
National Society of Film Critics
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle
Chicago Film Critics Association
Atlanta Film Critics Circle
San Diego Film Critics Society
Philadelphia Film Critics Circle
Toronto Film Critics Association
San Francisco Film Critics Circle
Boston Society of Film Critics
Washington D.C. Film Critics Association
AFI Top 10 of 2017
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
New York Film Critics Circle
The National Board of Review