The South Korean hit “Parasite” notched another significant win Saturday night at the awards ceremony held by the Writers Guild of America, as the director Bong Joon Ho and his co-writer, Han Jin Won, triumphed in the original-screenplay race. Meanwhile, Taika Waititi’s World War II satire, “Jojo Rabbit,” picked up the guild’s adapted-screenplay trophy.
Unlike last year, when the guild gave one of its top prizes to Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” — a film the Oscars failed to recognize — both “Parasite” and “Jojo Rabbit” are nominated for Oscars and could now be considered the front-runners in their screenplay categories, though both films will still face heavy competition.
While “Parasite” triumphed against its chief rival, “1917,” at the WGA Awards, Oscar nominee “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” was not eligible in that race since its writer-director, Quentin Tarantino, is not a guild member. As a two-time winner in the Oscars’ original-screenplay category, Tarantino could still pose a significant threat to “Parasite” as it tries to amass enough heat to become the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for best picture.
Elsewhere at the WGA Awards, held concurrently in Los Angeles and New York, two HBO series took the night’s top television prizes: “Succession,” the best-drama winner, and “Barry,” which won the best-comedy prize.
Here is the list of top winners:
Original screenplay: “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won
Adapted screenplay: “Jojo Rabbit,” Taika Waititi, based on the book “Caging Skies” by Christine Leunens
Documentary screenplay: “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” Alex Gibney
Drama series: “Succession,” Jesse Armstrong, Alice Birch, Jon Brown, Jonathan Glatzer, Cord Jefferson, Mary Laws, Lucy Prebble, Georgia Pritchett, Tony Roche, Gary Shteyngart, Susan Soon He Stanton and Will Tracy
Comedy series: “Barry,” Alec Berg, Duffy Boudreau, Bill Hader, Emily Heller, Jason Kim, Taofik Kolade and Elizabeth Sarnoff
New series: “Watchmen,” Lila Byock, Nick Cuse, Christal Henry, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Cord Jefferson, Jeff Jensen, Claire Kiechel, Damon Lindelof, Janine Nabers, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Tom Spezialy and Carly Wray
Original long form: “Chernobyl,” Craig Mazin
Adapted long form: “Fosse/Verdon,” Debora Cahn, Joel Fields, Ike Holter, Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson, Charlotte Stoudt, Tracey Scott Wilson, based on the book “Fosse” by Sam Wasson
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
