Writers Pick Her, Stories We Tell, and Breaking Bad

The three-film Best Picture race took a bit of a breather over the weekend as the industry, namely the Writers Guild of America, decided to honor a few other films instead. The feature film winners are:

Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze, Her
Adapted Screenplay: Billy Ray, Captain Phillips
Documentary Screenplay: Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell

I was really happy with the wins for Spike Jonze and Sarah Polley with the latter hopefully taking comfort with this win for her inexplicable Oscar snub a few weeks ago. For Jonze, it's an impressive win against all of his fellow Oscar nominees especially against David O. Russell and Eric Singer for their script of Oscar front-runner American Hustle. I'm hopeful the Academy will repeat this win as they've been receptive to quirkier writers in the past (think Charlie Kauffman, Diablo Cody, etc.). In Adapted, Oscar favorite 12 Years a Slave was not eligible so I don't think Captain Phillips will repeat its win. Though it did well enough to beat Oscar nominees The Wolf of Wall Street and Before Midnight, which surprised me. I had really wanted the latter screenwriters to win especially for the amazing collaborative work they did across three films.

The main television winners are:

Drama Series: Breaking Bad
Comedy Series: Veep
New Series: House of Cards
Episodic Comedy: "Hogcock!" 30 Rock
Episodic Drama: "Confessions," Breaking Bad

As expected, Breaking Bad won Drama Series and also topped the night with the most wins at two awards, picking another award for one of its episodes as well (though I was rooting for The Good Wife to win the latter award). Veep prevailed in the Comedy section beating industry favorite Modern Family among others while House of Cards withstood strong competition from Orange is the New Black, Masters of Sex, and The Americans. 30 Rock picked up a win for one of its episode, though I was rooting for one of the two Orange is the New Black episodes they nominated or "Leslie and Ben" from Parks and Recreation. For the full list of winners, click here.