After a delay due to last year’s strikes, The Writers Guild of America finally celebrated outstanding achievements in writing across various mediums at the 2024 WGA Awards. Among the winners were The Holdovers, American Fiction, Beef, The Bear and Succession, announced during simultaneous ceremonies held Sunday night in New York and Los Angeles.
In a significant win, American Fiction took home the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, while The Holdovers claimed the honor for Best Original Screenplay. Notably, Anatomy of a Fall, which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, was deemed ineligible for the WGA Awards.
Accepting his award in Los Angeles, David Hemingson, the writer of The Holdovers, expressed gratitude to the cast and director, dedicating the win to his family members who shaped his love for storytelling and integrity.
In television categories, The Bear triumphed as the Best Comedy Series, while Succession clinched the title of Best Drama Series. The Last of Us was honored with the award for Best Writing for a New Series, and Beef won the accolade for Best Limited Series Writing.
In Los Angeles, the 2024 Oscars adapted screenplay winner Cord Jefferson (American Fiction) received the Paul Selvin Award, writer-director-producer Walter Hill (Alien, The Warriors, 48 Hrs.) was honored with the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, writer-director-producer Linda Bloodworth Thomason (Designing Women, Evening Shade) received the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement.
2023 WGA negotiating committee co-chairs Chris Keyser and David A. Goodman were honored with the Morgan Cox Award for their leadership during last year’s labor negotiations and strikes. “Don’t forget what it felt like last year,” Keyser noted “Don’t forget what it felt like to have a common purpose, make a common promise, march side by side, for yourself of course, but mostly, for everyone else. Don’t forget it’s always a struggle, that nothing is given to labor … that though we have many allies from time to time, we are our only champions.” He also called for writers to look out for each other, particularly the most vulnerable.
Goodman added, after calling Keyser “sexiest WGA president,” “Do you remember last year when they said if we went on strike, the streamers wouldn’t care because they have their libraries and they’d just show reruns and we’d never get their viewership data or a success-based residual? They said if we went on strike, they’d just replace us with foreign writers, and they didn’t. Or they said once we were on strike, that’s what the companies wanted. … These were lies and there many more of them.”
REELated:
In New York, honorary awards were presented, including the Richard B. Jablow Award to labor allies at IATSE, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, SAG-AFTRA, and American Federation of Musicians, for their unwavering support during the strike. Tony Gilroy received the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement, and Ron Nyswaner received the Walter Bernstein Award.
The events were marked by humorous moments and reflections on the challenges faced by writers. Presenters included notable figures such as Drew Carey, Tony Hale, Tig Notaro, Neil Gaiman, Sandra Oh, and Busy Phillips, among others.
The ceremonies were hosted by Niecy Nash-Betts in Los Angeles and Josh Gondelman in New York. This year’s WGA Awards followed a months-long writers’ strike in 2023, culminating in a new three-year deal that provides enhanced protections for writers, including safeguards against the use of AI and improved residual agreements.
Below are the WGA Awards winners:
Screenplay Winners:
- Original Screenplay: “The Holdovers” by David Hemingson
- Adapted Screenplay: “American Fiction” by Cord Jefferson
- Documentary Screenplay: “The Pigeon Tunnel” by Errol Morris
Television and New Media Winners:
- Drama Series: “Succession”
- Comedy Series: “The Bear”
- New Series: “The Last of Us”
- Limited Series: “Beef”
- Episodic Drama: “Living+” (Succession)
- Episodic Comedy: “Escape From Shit Mountain” (Poker Face)
- Animation: “Carl Carlson Rides Again” (The Simpsons)
- Comedy/Variety Talk Series: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
For more awards coverage, click here.
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