‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ ‘Women Talking’ Win Writers Guild Awards

The WGA win makes “Everything Everywhere” only the fifth film to sweep all four major guild awards

Everything Everywhere All At Once Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh in "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (A24)

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been named the best original film screenplay of 2023 at the Writers Guild Awards, which were held on Sunday evening in Los Angeles and New York.

The win gives “Everything Everywhere” a sweep of the four major Hollywood guild awards: the Directors Guild, Producers Guild, Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild, where it won the ensemble cast award and set a record with four wins in the five SAG categories.

The win made the freewheeling indie film only the fifth film to sweep the major guilds since the SAG awards first handed out the ensemble award in 1995. The first four were “American Beauty,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Argo,” all of which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

If “Everything Everywhere” was a strong favorite to win that award going into this weekend, it will now be a commanding one heading into Oscar week.

In the first award of the night, Sarah Polley won the adapted screenplay award for “Women Talking,” her drama based on the Miriam Toews novel. The category included her fellow Oscar nominees “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” but the Oscar nominees “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Living” were not eligible for the WGA Award.

Polley and “Women Talking” may have a tougher go of it at the Oscars, but she also won at the Critics Choice Awards and at Saturday’s USC Libraries Scripter Award, a strong showing for the intense drama.

In the television categories, “Severance” won the drama-series award. “The Bear” was named the best comedy series, winning in a category that also included “Abbot Elementary,” “Barry,” “Hacks” and “Only Murders in the Building.” In addition to series awards, the WGA also gives out awards for individual episodes, which in the drama category went to the “Plan and Execution” episode of “Better Call Saul” and in the comedy category went to “The One, the Only” episode of “Hacks.”

“Severance” also won the award for Best New Series, while “The White Lotus” won for Best Limited Series.

Also in the TV field, “Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel” won for Comedy/Variety Special and “Inside Amy Schumer” won for Comedy/Variety/Sketch Series. “Undone” won for animation, “Prison or Palace” for Children’s Episodic, “Baking It” for Quiz or Audience Participation,

Because the Los Angeles and New York ceremonies presented awards in a different order, categories were announced at different times on each coast — with, for example, Sarah Polley winning in Los Angeles (where she was in attendance) before her category was announced in New York, and the reverse happening for Jerrod Carmichael and Amy Schumer.

In the news categories, winners included “Frontline,” “60 Minutes,” “The CBS Evening News,” “Benjamin Franklin” and HuffPost.com.

The Oscars and WGA often differ in their nominations because of guild rules that restrict eligibility to screenplays that were written under the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement or under a similar agreement with an allied international guild. This year, in addition to “Living” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” in the adapted category, that disqualified scripts including the Oscar-nominated “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Triangle of Sadness” in the original category.  

Still, WGA winners in the Adapted Screenplay category go on to win the Oscar more than 70% of the time, while Original Screenplay winners take the Oscar slightly less than that, two-thirds of the time.

 

Here is the list of nominees. Winners are indicated by *WINNER.  

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert *WINNER
“The Fabelmans,” Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
“The Menu,” Written by Seth Reiss & Will Tracy
“Nope,” Written by Jordan Peele
“Tár,” Written by Todd Field  

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Screenplay by Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole, Story by Ryan Coogler, Based on the Marvel Comics
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Written by Rian Johnson
“She Said,” Screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Based on the New York Times Investigation by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey and Rebecca Corbett and the Book She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
“Top Gun: Maverick,” Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Based on Characters Created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr.
“Women Talking,” Screenplay by Sarah Polley, Based upon the Book by Miriam Toews   *WINNER

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
“2nd Chance,” Written by Ramin Bahrani
“Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,” Written by Mark Bailey & Keven McAlester
“Last Flight Home,” Written by Ondi Timoner
Moonage Daydream,” Written by Brett Morgen *WINNER
“¡Viva Maestro!,” Written by Theodore Braun  

DRAMA SERIES
“Andor,” Written by Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Schiff, Beau Willimon
“Better Call Saul,” Written by Ann Cherkis, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Ariel Levine, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock
“The Crown,” Written by Peter Morgan
“Severance,” Written by Chris Black, Andrew Colville, Kari Drake, Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman, Helen Leigh, Anna Moench, Amanda Overton *WINNER
“Yellowjackets,” Written by Cameron Brent Johnson, Katherine Kearns, Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Liz Phang, Ameni Rozsa, Sarah L. Thompson, Chantelle M. Wells  

COMEDY SERIES
“Abbott Elementary,” Written by Quinta Brunson, Ava Coleman, Riley Dufurrena, Justin Halpern, Joya McCrory, Morgan Murphy, Brittani Nichols, Kate Peterman, Brian Rubenstein, Patrick Schumacker, Justin Tan, Jordan Temple, Garrett Werner
“Barry,” Written by Emma Barrie, Alec Berg, Duffy Boudreau, Bill Hader, Emily Heller, Nicky Hirschhorn, Jason Kim, Liz Sarnoff
“The Bear,” Written by Karen Joseph Adcock, Joanna Calo, Rene Gube, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Alex O’Keefe, Catherine Schetina, Christopher Storer *WINNER
“Hacks,” Written by Lucia Aniello, Jessica Chaffin, Paul W. Downs, Ariel Karlin, Andrew Law, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Pat Regan, Samantha Riley, Jen Statsky
“Only Murders in the Building,” Written by Matteo Borghese, Rachel Burger, Kirker Butler, Valentina Garza, Madeleine George, Joshua Allen Griffith, John Hoffman, Noah Levine, Stephen Markley, Kristin Newman, Ben Philippe, Ben Smith, Rob Turbovsky  

NEW SERIES
“Abbott Elementary,” Written by Quinta Brunson, Ava Coleman, Riley Dufurrena, Justin Halpern, Joya McCrory, Morgan Murphy, Brittani Nichols, Kate Peterman, Brian Rubenstein, Patrick Schumacker, Justin Tan, Jordan Temple, Garrett Werner
“Andor,” Written by Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Schiff, Beau Willimon; Disney+
“Bad Sisters,” Written by Brett Baer, Dave Finkel, Sharon Horgan
“The Bear,” Written by Karen Joseph Adcock, Joanna Calo, Rene Gube, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Alex O’Keefe, Catherine Schetina, Christopher Storer
“Severance,” Written by Chris Black, Andrew Colville, Kari Drake, Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman, Helen Leigh, Anna Moench, Amanda Overton   *WINNER

LIMITED SERIES
“The Dropout,” Written by Hilary Bettis, Liz Hannah, Liz Heldens, Dan LeFranc, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Matt Lutsky, Elizabeth Meriwether, Wei-Ning Yu
“Fleishman Is In Trouble,” Written by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Cindy Chupack, Allison P. Davis, Mike Goldbach, Boo Killebrew
“Pam & Tommy,” Written by Brooke Baker, Matthew Bass, Theodore Bressman, D.V. DeVincentis, Sarah Gubbins, Robert Siegel
“The Staircase,” Written by Aisha Bhoori, Antonio Campos, Maggie Cohn, Aja Gabel, Emily Kaczmarek, Craig Shilowich, Sebastian Silva
The White Lotus,” Written by Mike White *WINNER  

TV & NEW MEDIA MOTION PICTURES
“Heart of the Matter,” Teleplay by Karen Struck and Marcy Holland, Story by Karen Struck
“Honor Society,” Written by David A. Goodman *WINNER
“Ray Donovan: The Movie,” Written by David Hollander & Liev Schreiber
“Torn Hearts,” Written by Rachel Koller Croft
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” Written by Al Yankovic & Eric Appel  

ANIMATION
“Girls Just Shauna Have Fun” (“The Simpsons”), Written by Jeff Westbrook
“The Pain Garden” (“Tuca & Bertie”), Written by Lisa Hanawalt
“Pixelated and Afraid” (“The Simpsons”), Written by John Frink
Rectify” (“Undone”), Written by Elijah Aron & Patrick Metcalf *WINNER
“The Sound of Bleeding Gums” (“The Simpsons”), Written by Loni Steele Sosthand
“To Bob, or Not To Bob” (“Bob’s Burgers”), Written by Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux  

EPISODIC DRAMA
“A Hard Way to Go” (“Ozark”), Written by Chris Mundy; Netflix
“The End of Everything” (“The Good Fight”), Written by Robert King & Michelle King; CBS
Plan and Execution” (“Better Call Saul”), Written by Thomas Schnauz; AMC *WINNER
“The Prick” (“Bad Sisters”), Teleplay by Sharon Horgan and Dave Finkel & Brett Baer; Apple TV+
“Rock and Hard Place” (“Better Call Saul”), Written by Gordon Smith; AMC
“The We We Are” (“Severance”), Written by Dan Erickson; Apple TV+  

EPISODIC COMEDY
“The Beginning” (“Grace and Frankie”), Written by Marta Kauffman & Howard J. Morris; Netflix
“Braciole” (“The Bear”), Written by Joanna Calo & Christopher Storer; FX Networks
“Foie Gras” (“Julia”), Written by Daniel Goldfarb & Chris Keyser; HBO/HBO Max
“Private School” (“What We Do in the Shadows”), Written by Ayo Edebiri & Shana Gohd; FX Networks “The One, The Only” (“Hacks”), Written by Lucia Aniello & Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky; HBO/HBO Max *WINNER
“Wide Net” (“Reservation Dogs”), Written by Tazbah Rose Chavez; FX Networks  

COMEDY/VARIETY TALK SERIES
“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” Head Writers Kristen Bartlett, Sean Alexander Crespo, Mike Drucker Supervising Writers Joe Grossman, Sahar Rizvi, Alison Zeidman Writers Samantha Bee, Pat Cassels, Miles Kahn, Michael Rhoa, Chris Thompson, Holly Walker; TBS
“Hell of a Week with Charlamagne Tha God,” Writers Cynia Barnwell, Josh Lieb, Charles McBee, Dan McCoy, Lenard McKelvey, Andre D. Thompson; Comedy Central “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Head Writers Molly McNearney, Danny Ricker Writers Jamie Abrahams, Rory Albanese, Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, Joelle Boucai, Bryan Cook, Blaire Erskine, Devin Field, Gary Greenberg, Josh Halloway, Eric Immerman, Jesse Joyce, Jimmy Kimmel, Greg Martin, Jesse McLaren, Keaton Patti, Louis Virtel, Troy Walker; ABC
“Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Head Writer Alex Baze Supervising Writers Seth Reiss, Mike Scollins Closer Look Supervising Writer Sal Gentile Writers Jermaine Affonso, Karen Chee, Bryan Donaldson, Matt Goldich, Dina Gusovsky, Jenny Hagel, Allison Hord, Mike Karnell, John Lutz, Seth Meyers, Ian Morgan, Seth Reiss, Amber Ruffin, Mike Shoemaker, Ben Warheit, Jeff Wright; NBC
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” Senior Writers Daniel O’Brien, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Seena Vali Writers Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Ryan Ken, Mark Kramer, Sofia Manfredi, John Oliver, Taylor Kay Phillips, Chrissy Shackelford; HBO/HBO Max *WINNER
“The Problem with Jon Stewart,” Head Writer Kristen Acimovic Writers Henrik Blix, Rob Christensen, Jay Jurden, Alexa Loftus, Tocarra Mallard, Maria Randazzo, Robby Slowik, Jon Stewart, Kasaun Wilson; Apple TV+
“Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News,” Head Writers Mike Leech, Zach Smilovitz Supervising Writers Addison Anderson, Bob Powers Writers Sarah Caldwell, Stephen Colbert, RJ Fried, Julie Greiner, Ron Metellus, Libby Schreiner, Hannah Wright; Comedy Central  

COMEDY/VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
“Inside Amy Schumer,” Writers Georgie Aldaco, Rosebud Baker, Jeremy Beiler, Cazzie David, Tova Diker, Derek Gaines, Jon Glaser, Jaye McBride, Tim Meadows, Christine Nangle, Daniel Powell, Tami Sagher, Amy Schumer, Joe Strazzullo, Sydnee Washington, Ron Weiner; Paramount+ *WINNER
“PAUSE with Sam Jay,” Writers Emmy Blotnick, Ryan Donahue, Megan Gailey, Sam Jay, Joyelle Johnson, Langston Kerman, Jak Knight, Teresa Lo, Lucy Ortiz, Lorena Russi; HBO/HBO Max
“Saturday Night Live,” Head Writers: Michael Che, Alison Gates, Colin Jost, Streeter Seidell, Kent Sublette Senior Writer Bryan Tucker Writers James Anderson, Rosebud Baker, Dan Bulla, Mike DiCenzo, Billy Domineau, James Downey, Alex English, Jimmy Fowlie, Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, Steve Higgins, Vannessa Jackson, Erik Kenward, Tesha Kondrat, Ben Marshall, Lorne Michaels, Jake Nordwind, Clare O’Kane, Ceara O’Sullivan, Simon Rich, Ben Silva, John Solomon, Will Stephen, Nicole Sun, Auguste White, Celeste Yim Weekend Update Head Writer Pete Schultz Weekend Update Writers Megan Callahan-Shah, Dennis McNicholas, Josh Patten, KC Shornima; Mark Steinbach; NBC  

COMEDY/VARIETY SPECIALS
“The National Memorial Day Concert 2022,” Written by Kirk Ellis, Jon Macks Special Material Written by Rita Brent; PBS
“Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration,” Head Writers Matt Roberts, Beth Sherman Writers Rita Brent, Page Hurwitz, Carey O’Donnell Special Material Written by Guy Branum, Chris Sartinsky, Louis Virtel; Netflix
“The Problem with Jon Stewart: Election Wrap-Up Special,” Head Writer Kristen Acimovic Writers Henrik Blix, Rob Christensen, Jay Jurden, Alexa Loftus, Tocarra Mallard, Robby Slowik, Maria Randazzo, Jon Stewart, Kasaun Wilson; Apple TV+
“Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel,” Written by Jerrod Carmichael; HBO/HBO Max *WINNER  

QUIZ AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
“Baking It,” Writers Neil Casey, Chad Carter, Jessica McKenna, Zach Reino; Peacock *WINNER
“Capital One College Bowl,” Head Writer Harry Friedman Writers Jason Antoniewicz, Alan Bailey, Eli Bauman, Patricia A. Cotter, Riham El-Ounsi, Joyce Ikemi, Joey Ortega, Chris Sturgeon; NBC
“Jeopardy!,” Head Writers Michele Loud, Billy Wisse Writers Michael Davies, John Duarte, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Robert McClenaghan, Jim Rhine; ABC
“Weakest Link,” Head Writer Ann Slichter Writers Chip Dornell, Joyce Ikemi, Stuart Krasnow, Jon Macks, Meggie McFadden, Ryan O’Dowd, Veronica Penn-Turner, Scott Saltzburg, Aaron Solomon, Doug Shaffer, Grant Taylor; NBC  

DAYTIME DRAMA
“Days of Our Lives”, Head Writer Ron Carlivati Writers Lorraine Broderick, Jazmen Darnell Brown, Joanna Cohen, Carolyn Culliton, Richard Culliton, Cheryl Davis, Kirk Doering, Christopher Dunn, Jamey Giddens, David Kreizman, Ryan Quan, Dave Ryan, Katherine D. Schock; NBC *WINNER 

CHILDREN’S EPISODIC, LONG FORM AND SPECIALS
“A Perilous Journey” (“The Mysterious Benedict Society”), Written by Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi; Disney+
“Thursday” (“Life by Ella”), Written by Vincent Brown; Apple TV+
“Pilot” (“Amber Brown”), Written by Bonnie Hunt; Apple TV+
“Prison or Palace” (“Life by Ella”), Written by Hernan Barangan; Apple TV+ *WINNER
“Test Subject Thirteen” (“Circuit Breakers”), Written by Melody Fox; Apple TV+  

SHORT FORM NEW MEDIA
“Breakwater,” Written by Zach Craley; Snapchat
“Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” Head Writer David Young Writer Casey Stewart; Apple TV+
“Three Busy Debras,” Written by Sandy Honig, Mitra Jouhari, Sarah Sherman, Alyssa Stonoha, Diana Tay, Evan Waite; Adult Swim  *WINNER

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT – CURRENT EVENTS
“Episode Two: Resilience” (“Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness”), Written by David Blistein; PBS
“Inside the Alleged Sexual Assault Cover Up in Charlotte Schools” (“Vice News Tonight”), Written by Arlissa Norman, Carter Sherman, Gilad Thaler; Vice.com
“Lies, Politics and Democracy” (“Frontline”), Written by Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser; PBS *WINNER  

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS
“Episode Two: An American (1775 – 1790)” (“Benjamin Franklin”), Written by Dayton Duncan; PBS

“Episode One: The Golden Door (Beginnings – 1938)” (“The U.S. and the Holocaust”), Written by Geoffrey C. Ward; PBS
“Lucy and Desi,” Written by Mark Monroe; Prime Video
“Ocean Invaders” (“Nova”), Written by Jeff Boedeker; PBS
“Pelosi’s Power” (“Frontline”), Written by Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser; PBS
“Plague at the Golden Gate” (“American Experience”), Written by Susan Kim; PBS  

NEWS SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“Massacre in Buffalo” (“CBS Weekend News”), Written by J. Craig Wilson & Claudine Cleophat; CBS News
“Shooting At Robb Elementary” (“World News Tonight with David Muir”), Written by David Muir, Dave Bloch, Karen Mooney; ABC News
“Special Edition: From the Ukraine Border” (“World News Tonight with David Muir”), Written by David Muir, Karen Mooney, Dave Bloch; ABC News
“The Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi” (“CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell”), Written by James Hutton, Rob Rivielle; CBS News  *WINNER

NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“Battle for Ukraine” (“20/20”), Written by David Muir, Karen Mooney, Dave Bloch; ABC News
“City of Lions” (“60 Minutes”), Written by Scott Pelley, Nicole Young, Kristin Steve; CBS News
“The Green Jacket – Golf’s Ultimate Prize” (“CBS Saturday Morning”), Written by Daniel Elias & Dana Jacobson; CBS News
“Harvest of War” (“60 Minutes”), Written by Scott Pelley, Nicole Young, Kristin Steve; CBS News
“The Longest Running Oil Spill” (“60 Minutes”), Written by Jon Wertheim and Oriana Zill de Granados; CBS News
“Targeting Americans” (“60 Minutes”), Written by Scott Pelley, Oriana Zill de Granados; CBS News *WINNER  

DIGITAL NEWS
“America’s Only LGBTQ Historic District Is Falling Apart,” Written by Leo Rocha; Vice.com
“How Oregon’s Prison System Retaliated Against Its Most Effective Jailhouse Lawyer,” Written by Jessica Schulberg; HuffPost.com * WINNER
“I Spent 72 Depraved Hours Searching for the Gnarliest Dive Bar in Las Vegas,” Written by Drew Schwartz; Vice.com
“The Most Unexpected Consequence of the Texas Abortion Ban,” Written by Christina Cauterucci; Slate.com
“The Pivot to Web3 Is Going to Get People Hurt,” Written by Maxwell Strachan; Slate.com
“What’s so scary about a transgender child?,” Written by Emily St. James; Vox.com

RADIO/AUDIO DOCUMENTARY
“Dr. GIFT” (One Year: 1995), Written by Christina Cauterucci; Slate
“Like a Lion With No Teeth” (Crime Show), Written by Emma Courtland & Cat Schuknecht; Gimlet Media
“Making Sense: How Sound Becomes Hearing” (Unexplainable), Written by Noam Hassenfeld; Vox Media Podcast Network
“The Most Famous Poet No One Remembers” (Decoder Ring), Written by Dan Kois; Slate
“No Peace” (Slow Burn: The L.A. Riots), Written by Joel Anderson; Slate
“The Ultimate Field Trip” (One Year: 1986), Written by Evan Chung; Slate
“The War in Jennifer Weiss” (Crime Show), Written by Emma CourtlandGimlet Media *WINNER

RADIO/AUDIO NEWS SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN OR BREAKING REPORT
“CBS World News Roundup,” Written by Paul Farry and Steve Kathan; CBS Radio
“Hail And Farewell: Saluting 5 Who Made A Difference,” Written by Gail Lee; CBS Radio *WINNER
“Newsline – 11am 9/9/22,” Written by Philip Pilato; 1010 WINS Radio                                                      
“Remembering The Transistor Kid,” Written by Thomas Sabella; CBS Radio
“World News This Week – Week of September 9, 2022,” Written by Joy Piazza; ABC News Radio
“World News This Year 2021,” Written by Robert Hawley; ABC News Radio

RADIO/AUDIO NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“2021 Law and Justice Year End Reports,” Written by Robert Hawley; ABC News Radio
“Was the Women’s March Successful?” (The Waves), Written by Christina Cauterucci; Slate
“WCBS Author Talks Summer Reads,” Written by Lisa Tschernkowitsch; WCBS Radio
“What I Wish I Knew Before I Started IVF” (The Waves), Written by Cheyna Roth; Slate *WINNER
“You Will Be Found: The Impact of Dear Evan Hansen” (“Somalia Suffering From Starvation,” Perspective), Written by D.J. Moran; ABC Audio

ON AIR PROMOTION
“Amazon Bessemer Campaign: This Time I’m Voting YES; Union Difference; Union YES,” written by Desreena Almorade, Angad Bhalla, Adrianna Hernandez-Stewart; Facebook
“CBS Celebrates Juneteenth,” Written by Justin DiLauro; CBS News

 

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