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Don’t Look Up and CODA win top prizes at Writers Guild Awards

Adam McKay and Siân Heder took home the top prizes.

Don’t Look Up and CODA were the big winners at the Writers Guild Awards (WGA) on Sunday.

Adam McKay surprised many awards pundits by taking home the Original Screenplay prize for his Netflix apocalyptic comedy instead of Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, Aaron Sorkin for Being the Ricardos, Wes Anderson for The French Dispatch, or Zach Baylin for King Richard.

Meanwhile, CODA director Siân Heder followed up her Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA by winning the same WGA prize.

The WGA Awards, which were held virtually, topped off a successful weekend for CODA – about the hearing child of deaf parents – as it won the top prize – the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures – at the Producers Guild Awards (PGA) on Saturday.

The wins now place CODA firmly as one of the frontrunners for the Best Picture Oscar on Sunday. Many Oscars experts predict the Best Picture race is now between CODA and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which has also won a raft of awards this season, including Best Film at the BAFTAs and Best Picture at the Critics Choice Awards the previous weekend. Campion also scooped the coveted Directors Guild Award (DGA), making her the frontrunner for the Best Director Oscar.

Awards season comes to a close with the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The main list of WGA winners is as follows:

Original Screenplay: Adam McKay – Don’t Look Up

Adapted Screenplay: Siân Heder – CODA

Documentary Screenplay: Marc Shaffer – Exposing Muybridge

Drama Series – Succession

Comedy Series – Hacks

New Series – Hacks

Original Longform – Mare of Easttown

Adapted Longform – Maid

Animation – Tuca & Bertie, episode Planteau

Episodic Drama – Succession, episode Retired Janitors of Idaho

Episodic Comedy – The Great, episode Alone at Last

Daytime Drama – Days of Our Lives.

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