Zero Dark Thirty and Argo Triumph in Writers Guild Awards

Zero Dark Thirty and Argo Triumph in Writers Guild Awards

Zero Dark Thirty and Argo were handed the top two film awards at the Writers Guild Awards last night – the last awards before this Sunday’s Oscar Ceremony.

Kathryn Bigelow’s taut thriller, which centers of the operation to capture Osama Bin Laden won Best Original Screenplay, with writer Mark Boal picking up the award, while Ben Affleck’s Argo – an escape story set in revolutionary Iran penned by Chris Terrio – picked up best adapted screenplay.

This was the last set of guild awards before ‘the big one’, so now both Affleck and Bigelow will both turn their attention to Sunday, where they’re nominated for a host of awards including Best Film, which, after a flurry of awards, Argo is the strong favorite to win.

Elsewhere in the WGAs, some excellent television was recognized, with Breaking Bad winning Best Drama Series for the first half of season 5, which is set to conclude with a further 8 episodes this summer. Louie – the cult art-house comedy picked up Best Comedy Series. Lena Dunham wasn’t far away from the awards, as ever, and picked up the gong for Best New Series.

Searching for Sugar Man writer-director Malik Bendjelloul picked up the award for documentary screenwriting, which continues the remarkable success enjoyed by the doc, which has so far been awarded by The Sundance Festival, Bafta and now the WGA to name a few. Sugar Man is the front runner to pick up the Academy Award for a documentary.

Watch the trailer for Argo