Music, Style & Culture

The Descendants, Midnight In Paris Win WGA Awards

Writers Guild of America award Alexander Payne and Woody Allen.

The Descendants and Midnight in Paris have won this year's WGA Awards.

The Writers Guild of America awarded Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash for adapting Kaui Hart Hemmings' book The Descendants, which Payne also directed. It won best adapted screenplay over The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Help, Hugo, and Moneyball.

Best original screenplay was given to Woody Allen for his latest film Midnight in Paris, which beat 50/50, Bridesmaids, Win Win, and Young Adult. Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega won the documentary screenplay award for Better This World, over the likes of Senna and Pina.

Last year's winners were Inception and The Social Network, only because eventual Oscar-grabbing The King's Speech was ineligible for the WGAs. Similarly, this year's Oscar-favourite The Artist wasn't in competition. Other Academy Award-nominees not included are Beginners and Margin Call.

Zooey Deschanel and Joel McHale hosted the 2012 Writers Guild of America Awards, which took place at the Hollywood Palladium last night. The Laurel Award for Screen went to Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich), given to him via a video message from his Curious Case of Benjamin Button director David Fincher.