'Midnight In Paris' Scoops Writers Guild Gong To Boost Oscar Chances

In the final Hollywood awards show before next week's Oscars, it was veteran filmmaker Woody Allen who took home one of the evening's biggest prizes. Allen's love-letter to the French capital 'Midnight in Paris' scooped the Writers Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay.

'Midnight In Paris' - which follows Owen Wilson's character Gil who goes back in time and mixes with writers and artists such as Ernest Hemmingway and Pablo Picasso - is up for Best Picture at the Oscars on Sunday. Though silent-movie The Artist is heavily fancied for that award, Midnight in Paris could recreate its Writers Guild success and scoop a screenwriting award. Elsewhere at Sunday's ceremony, 'The Descendants', starring George Clooney, earned the WGA trophy for Best Adapted Screenplay, for its writers Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. An early-Oscar hopeful, the acclaimed drama has since fallen behind The Artist in the race for an Academy Award (according to the bookmakers), but Clooney will still be confident he can wrestle the statuette for Best Actor from French star Jean Dujardin. Though Midnight in Paris has every-chance of winning an Oscar, the Writers Guild cannot be considered a reliable barometer for what happens at the Academy Awards, given 'The Artist' was not eligible for a WGA trophy because it was created by French writers.

Others to land a Writers Guild Award included 'The Help' writer and director Tate Taylor, who was presented with a special statuette for creating work that embodies the spirit of civil rights and liberties. Speaking backstage, Taylor said. "It's my first adaptation, which I think was a blessing because I just went for it". In the television categories, the writers of Breaking Bad and Modern Family claimed the biggest prizes.