2013 Awards Season: WGAs Leaves Analysts In the Dark

January 7, 2013

Surprises seems to be the word of the day, as the WGA nominations included a number of them. Granted, Zero Dark Thirty and a lot of the other films that have earned Awards Season success thus far were here, but there were almost as many surprises as there were obvious choices.

The categories and nominations are...

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Notes and Reactions...

  • Four of the five nominees for Best Original Screenplay are at least somewhat surprising. The Master earned a lot of pre-release buzz, but it didn't live up to expectations. Moonrise Kingdom opened a long time before Awards Season started. Looper is the wrong genre for Awards Season and Flight wasn't talked about as an Awards Season player.
  • On the other hand, Zero Dark Thirty might become the big winner at the Oscars, so its nomination was no surprise.
  • I am surprised Quentin Tarantino wasn't nominated for Django Unchained
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower had some pre-release Awards Season buzz, but it didn't live up to expectations, so I assumed it would be forgotten. It wasn't.
  • It appears the documentary category is going to be a tough one to call. Searching for Sugar Man picked up another nomination, but I still think The Invisible War will be the one to beat on Oscar night.

-

Filed under: Awards Season, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Looper, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, The Master, Searching for Sugar Man, West of Memphis, The Invisible War, Flight, The Central Park Five, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, John Gatins, David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, Sarah Burns, Alex Gibney, Tony Kushner, Amy Berg, David Magee, Mark Boal, Chris Terrio, Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen Chbosky, Kirby Dick, Matthew Quick, Rian Johnson, Ken Burns, David McMahon, Billy McMillin