One week before the 91st Annual Academy Awards, the Writers Guild of America East and West handed out their annual awards in both New York and Los Angeles ceremonies.

On the film side, Eighth Grade, written by Bo Burnham, beat out best-picture Oscar nominees Green Book, Roma, and Vice, as well as A Quiet Place, to take the prize for best-written original screenplay. Can You Ever Forgive Me?, starring Oscar-nominated Melissa McCarthy, won in the adapted category.

Continuing its run of final-season awards sweeps, FX’s The Americans was awarded best-written drama for its sixth and final season. The series was written by Peter Ackerman, Hilary Bettis, Joshua Brand, Joel Fields, Sarah Nolen, Stephen Schiff, Justin Weinberger, Joe Weisberg and Tracey Scott Wilson. The Americans beat out fellow nominees Netflix’s The Crown, AMC’s Better Call Saul, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and HBO’s Succession.

On the episodic side, Showtime’s Homeland brought home the prize with the episode “Paean to the People,” written by executive producer Alex Gansa.

Also on an awards hot streak for season two, Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel claimed the comedy prize, with writers Kate Fodor, Noah Gardenswartz, Jen Kirkman, Sheila Lawrence, Daniel Palladino and creator and executive producer Amy Sherman Palladino. Mrs. Maisel overcame FX’s Atlanta, HBO’s Barry, Netflix’s GLOW and NBC’s The Good Place.

HBO’s Barry was vindicated, however, when it won for best-written new series, beating out fellow newcomers Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, Amazon’s Homecoming, FX’s Pose and Succession. Barry is written by creator, executive producer and star Bill Hader as well as Alec Berg, Duffy Boudreau, Emily Heller, Liz Sarnoff, Ben Smith and Sarah Solemani.

Barry also won for the best-written episode of a comedy, with the pilot grabbing the win. “Chapter One: Make Your Mark” was written by Alec Berg and Bill Hader.

In the longform categories — also known as limited series — Hulu’s Castle Rock won in the original category while FX’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace took the prize in adapted, with the series based on the best-selling book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth.

Castle Rock is written by Marc Bernardin, Scott Brown, Lila Byock, Mark Lafferty, Sam Shaw, Dustin Thomason, Gina Welch and Vinnie Wilhelm. Versace is written by Maggie Cohn and Tom Rob Smith.

HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was named best-written comedy or variety talk series, and is written by Tim Carvell, Raquel D’Apice, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Daniel O’Brien, Oliver, Brian Parise, Owen Parsons, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali and Juli Weiner.

Comedy Central’s Nathan for You took this prize on the sketch side, with writers Leo Allen, Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Michael Koman, Adam Locke-Norton and Eric Notarnicola.

An episode of The Simpsons, “Bart’s Not Dead,” written by Stephanie Gillis, won in the animated series category, beating out episodes of Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy and another episode of The Simpsons.

To see a full list of winners, head over to The Hollywood Reporter.

[Images of The Americans courtesy of FX]

Tags: amazon amazon prime video barry fx hbo the americans the marvelous mrs. maisel wga awards writers guild of america


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