Don't Look Up, Coda win top honours at Writers Guild Awards 2022

Don’t Look Up and Coda added momentum to their hopes for Oscar gold by nabbing the top film honours at the 74th annual Writers Guild Awards.

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Sunday’s wins for the Apple TV Plus and Netflix titles come as film award season heads into its final seven-day countdown leading into the 94th Academy Awards on March 27.

The Writers Guild of America West and East joined forces this year to present Sunday’s kudos in a virtual format, hosted by actor-writer Ashley Nicole Black, out of Covid-related precaution.

On the TV side, the HBO/HBO Max platform stood tall. Succession scooped more hardware, taking the trophies for drama series and episodic drama, the latter snared by the memorable shareholders meeting romp Retired Janitors of Idaho.

Hacks continued its freshman-year streak with wins for comedy series and new series. Episodic comedy honours went to Hulu’s offbeat period vehicle The Great, for creator/showrunner Tony McNamara’s Alone At Last episode.

Coda screenwriter Sian Heder made a point to thank “people from the deaf community” who gave her “a really incredible education” to understand the culture depicted in the film.

Succession made history finishing its 2022 sweep of the major guild awards with two big WGA wins. The show has collected the SAG Award for drama ensemble, the DGA Award for drama series (for Mark Mylod) and the PGA honor. Conan O’Brien got a hat-tip from the scribe tribe by landing the comedy/variety talk series honour for the final year of his TBS late-night mainstay Conan. Another surprise win came in the comedy/variety sketch series category when Netflix’s I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson topped far more high profile shows.—IANS