‘Call Me By Your Name’ Beats ‘Logan,' ‘Molly’s Game’ For Best Adapted Screenplay Win At WGA Awards
Jordan Peele's breakout hit Get Out and James Ivory's Call Me by Your Name took home the marquee honors at the WGA awards this year.
The 70th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards were handed out in concurrent ceremonies on Sunday, Feb. 11, in New York and Los Angeles.
'Get Out' And 'Call Me By Your Name' Win Top Honors
While Peele's Get Out won the award for Best Original Screenplay, Ivory emerged victorious in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for penning the script of the titular Armie Hammer starrer adapted from André Aciman's 2007 novel, Call Me by Your Name.
The other nominees in the original screenplay category included Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for The Shape of Water, Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for The Big Sick, and Steven Rogers for I, Tonya.
Call Me by Your Name beat Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game, Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber's The Disaster Artist, Dee Rees and Virgil Williams' Mudbound, and Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green's Logan for the honor.
The film, which stars Hammer alongside Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Amira Casar among others, revolves around a romantic relationship between an American teenager and his father's 24-year-old assistant in 1983 Italy.
"I'm astonished by all this! I just wanted to go and make a film in Italy again," Ivory said while accepting his award.
Road To The Oscars
The WGA Awards has become somewhat of a barometer for Academy Awards glory. Since 2000, 13 of the 18 winners of the Best Original Screenplay at the WGA Awards have gone on to win an Oscar in the same category. Similarly, 12 of the 18 adapted screenplay winners have won the honor at the Academy Awards.
Call Me by Your Name was always considered as a favorite in the adapted screenplay category, and is a deserved frontrunner for an Oscar. However, the original-screenplay category has cutthroat competition and the WGA results could make the battle for Best Picture at the Academy Awards more interesting.
Television Awards
On the TV side, The Handmaid's Tale won the top drama series category as well as an award for best new series. HBO's Veep took home the honor for Best Comedy Series.
Saturday Night Live picked up an award for Best Variety/Sketch series while Last Night Tonight With John Oliver won The Comedy/Variety/Talk Series category.
AMC's Better Call Saul claimed the individual drama episode award and NBC's reboot of Will & Grace took home the individual comedy episode category.
