Zero Dark Thirty Finally Scores Some Hardware, Argo Scores Another Trophy at the WGA Awards - Hillary Atkin

To twist a popular line from the screenplayquotI39ve never left anyone behindquot quotArgoquot is apparently not leaving any awards behind Chris Terrio added another one to the film39s trophy case by taking the award for best adapted screenplay at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards which honor outstanding achievement in writing for film television radio new media and videogamesquotI39m so honored to be in the categoryquot Terrio said of the competition for the prize quotLife of Piquot quotLincolnquot quotThe Perks of Being a Wallflowerquot and quotSilver Linings Playbookquot before recalling the journey that led to this accolade quotWhen I started this in 2008 I couldn39t pay my rent and I was living in New York and I had defaulted on my student loans I had nothing but I had my spec scripts and I had my Guild card And I can39t tell you how that propped me up to know that in a very lonely profession I was in the same club as all you guysquotTerrio39s award was handed out near the end of ceremonies Sunday night February 17 at the JW Marriott LA LIVE in Los Angeles He also lauded fellow WGA member and quotArgoquot director producer and actor Ben Affleck who has recently racked up honors at BAFTA DGA and PGA as being kind and brilliantquotZero Dark Thirty39squot writer Mark Boal won the award for original screenplay which was up against those for quotMoonrise Kingdomquot quotFlightquot quotLooperquot and quotThe Master quotquotI don39t agree with pitting works of art against each other unless of course I39m the one getting the award amp8211 but it39s really lovely to get this from the WGAquot he said before showering praise on the film39s director quotUnlike Ben Affleck director Kathryn Bigelow came tonight She led us to a place of truth and beauty and there39s no higher calling for an artist I thank her for letting me be part of that visionquotBoal and Terrio are also nominated for Oscars in their respective screenplay categories Several of their fellow Academy Award nominees were not eligible for WGAs under the Guild guidelines including Quentin Tarantino39s already acclaimed script for quotDjango UnchainedquotThe WGA Awards are held concurrently on both coastsamp8212the New York confab taking place this year at the BB King Blues Club and the East was apparently a few steps ahead of the West as several of the winners in Los Angeles were notified by their counterparts in New York before their names were announced creating some controversy and some ruffled feathersThat was the case for the writing staff of HBO39s quotGirlsquot which won the hotly contested award for new series over two other HBO offerings quotThe Newsroomquot and quotVeepquot in a field that also included Fox39s quotThe Mindy Projectquot and ABC39s quotNashvillequotThe Los Angeles ceremony was hosted by actor Nathan Fillion star of quotCastlequot who started things off by saying if the audience didn39t know him their moms did quotI39m the face of your words the one who goes out into the world where I take credit for them Actors and writers don39t always see eye to eyeglasses but agree on one thing producers are dicks I will land this awards show upside down if I have toquotWest Coast presenters included Julie Bowen Jane Lynch Jessica Chastain Steven Spielberg Kate Walsh Jacki Weaver Rico Rodriguez Anna Gunn Alfred Molina Matthew Weiner Amy Poehler Adam Scott KeeganMichael Key Jordan Peele and Tobey MaguireThe honorary awards were especially prominent this year and their recipients Tom Stoppard Tony Kushner Phil Rosenthal Dan Petrie Jr and Joshua Brand and John Falsey were referred to several times throughout the evening as inspirationsquotBreaking Badquot continued its awardwinning ways by taking the best drama series writing prize from competitors that included quotMad Menquot quotBoardwalk Empirequot quotGame of Thronesquot and quotHomelandquot amp8211 a field that virtually defines the current golden age of televisionThe comedy series trophy was also hotly tested with quotLouiequot winning out over last year39s winner quotModern Familyquot quotParks and Recreationquot quotGirlsquot and the recently retired quot30 RockquotThe WGA also recognizes individual episodes of drama and comedy for which quotMad Men39squot Semi Chellas and Matt Weiner and quotModern Family39squot Elaine Ko took home trophiesTwo highly acclaimed longform programs took more honors as the writers of History39s quotHatfields ampamp McCoysquot and HBO39s quotGame Changequot hoisted hardwareWhile those wins for Ted Mann Ronald Parker Bill Kerby and Danny Strong might have been expected a surprise came in the comedyvariety series category when quotPortlandiaquot won over quotThe Daily Showquot quotThe Colbert Reportquot quotSaturday Night Livequot quotJimmy Kimmel Livequot quotConanquot quotKey ampamp Peelequot and quotReal Time with Bill MaherquotPerhaps the funniest line of the evening came during Fillion39s intro of a clip from one of the nominated screenplays quotIt39s the story of a man who just wanted to spend a quiet evening at home with his familyquot he said as minds throughout the hotel ballroom raced to figure out to which one he was referring quotInstead Navy SEALS shot him in the eyequotA complete list of winners can be found here httpwwwwgaorgwgaawardsnomineeswinnersaspxid5184Hillary Atkin is the editor and publisher of The Atkin Report wwwatkinreportcom and has written extensively on media and entertainment for USA Today the Los Angeles Times Daily and Weekly Variety The Hollywood Reporter TelevisionWeek Entertainment Weekly The New York Observer and LA Confidential She is an awardwinning journalist who began her career as a television news writer reporter and producer As a broadcast producer at KCBS in Los Angeles she won numerous Emmy Associated Press and Golden Mike Awards for live coverage and entertainment special events programming and then produced and directed biographies on Robert Duvall Elizabeth Montgomery Linda Darnell and Nicolas Cage for AampampE and E She can be reached at hillaryatkinyahoocom Read all Hillary39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Hillary AtkinCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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