WGA Awards: ‘Anora’ & ‘Nickel Boys’ Take Top Screenplay Prizes; ‘Hacks’, ‘Shōgun’, ‘The Penguin’ Among TV Winners — Full List
Sean Baker’s Anora, written by Baker, and Nickel Boys, written by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, took the top film prizes at the 77th annual Writers Guild Awards tonight, for Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay, respectively. The awards were handed out in concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. See the full winners list below.
On the TV side, it was a big night for HBO/Max, which won the Comedy Series award (Hacks), Limited Series (The Penguin), Comedy/Variety Series and Specials and TV & Streaming Movie categories, as well as for Disney/FX’s Shōgun, which topped the Drama & New Series fields.
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Anora is coming off a string of wins, including top honors from Directors Guild and Producers Guild, putting it in frontrunner status for the Academy Awards. It’s nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture as well as Directing and Original Screenplay for Baker.
Ross and Barnes also were honored tonight with the WGA’s Paul Selvin Award, for their work as the screenwriters of Nickel Boys, the Amazon MGM Studios drama they adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning book. Previous Paul Selvin Award winners include Cord Jefferson for last year’s American Fiction, which went on to win the Oscar. Ross and Barnes are Oscar-nominated for Adapted Screenplay for Anora, and the film is nominated for Best Picture.
Nickel Boys also is a finalist for the USC Scripter Award which recognizes the screenwriters and the authors behind the original works. It also won best film from the National Society of Film Critics earlier this year.
The guild’s nominations honoring the year’s best in film, TV, new media, news, radio and promotional writing were revealed January 15 after being postponed twice due to the L.A. wildfires.
At last year’s strike-delayed WGA Awards, the top film prizes for Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay to The Holdovers and American Fiction, respectively. The latter already had won the Academy Award for Cord Jefferson, but Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s Anatomy of a Fall beat Alexander Payne’s Holdovers for the Original Screenplay Oscar. The Writers Guild top TV winners in 2024 were Succession, The Bear Beef and The Last of Us.
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The WGA West and East also gave special honors to several folks tonight. David Lynch, who died in January, was named the recipient of the WGA West’s 2025 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan was honored with the WGAW’s Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, and Nickel Boys screenwriters RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes received its 2025 Paul Selvin Award.
WGAE honored Scott Frank with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement, Bill Lawrence (Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence) and Kathy McGee (Richard B. Jablow Award).
The WGA Awards often exclude several top films due to eligibility rules. If a film is produced outside the WGA collective bargaining agreement or written by a non-union member, it is not eligible for the guild’s awards.
This holds true again this year, which means such awards-season favorites as Golden Globe winner Conclave, Emilia Pérez, I’m Still Here, Inside Out 2, The Room Next Door, Sing Sing and The Wild Robot are out of the Adapted race. Among those ineligible for Original Screenplay are All We Imagine as Light, The Brutalist, Hard Truths, Gotham Awards winner His Three Daughters, I Saw the TV Glow, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, September 5 and The Substance.
Joel Kim Booster hosted the Los Angeles ceremony from the Beverly Hilton, and Roy Wood Jr. emceeed the New York show at Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.
Here are the winners at the 2025 Writers Guild Awards:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Anora, Written by Sean Baker; Neon
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Nickel Boys, Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes, Based on the Book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead; Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Jim Henson: Idea Man, Written by Mark Monroe; Imagine Documentaries
DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT
“Part One: Inferno to Paradise” (Dante), Written by Ric Burns and Riccardo Bruscagli; PBS
COMEDY SERIES
Hacks, Written by Genevieve Aniello, Lucia Aniello, Guy Branum, Jessica Chaffin, Paul W. Downs, Jess Dweck, Ariel Karlin, Andrew Law, Carol Leifer, Carolyn Lipka, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Pat Regan, Samantha Riley, Jen Statsky; HBO | Max
DRAMA SERIES
Shōgun, Written by Shannon Goss, Maegan Houang, Rachel Kondo, Matt Lambert, Justin Marks, Caillin Puente, Nigel Williams, Emily Yoshida; FX/Hulu
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Bulletproof” (Hacks), Written by Lucia Aniello & Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky; HBO | Max
EPISODIC DRAMA
“Anjin” (Shōgun), Written for Television by Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks; FX/Hulu
NEW SERIES
Shōgun, Written by Shannon Goss, Maegan Houang, Rachel Kondo, Matt Lambert, Justin Marks, Caillin Puente, Nigel Williams, Emily Yoshida; FX/Hulu
COMEDY/VARIETY SERIES – TALK OR SKETCH
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Senior Writers Daniel O’Brien, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Seena Vali Writers Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Ryan Ken, Mark Kramer, Sofia Manfredi, John Oliver, Taylor Kay Phillips, Chrissy Shackelford; HBO | Max
COMEDY/VARIETY SPECIALS
Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die, Written by Nikki Glaser; HBO | Max
TV & STREAMING MOTION PICTURES
The Great Lillian Hall, Written by Elisabeth Seldes Annacone; HBO | Max
DAYTIME DRAMA
The Young and the Restless, Head Writer Amanda L. Beall Writers Susan Banks, Jeff Beldner, Marin Gazzaniga, Lindsay Harrison, Marla Kanelos, Rebecca McCarty, Madeleine Phillips, Dave Ryan; CBS/Paramount +
ANIMATION
“Saving Favorite Drive-In” (Bob’s Burgers), Written by Katie Crown; Fox
CHILDREN’S EPISODIC, LONG FORM AND SPECIALS
“Welcome to Spiderwick” (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Written by Aron Eli Coleite; Roku Channel
NEWS SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“Willie Mays Tribute” (CBS Newspath), Written by Gerald Mazza; CBS News
NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“The Resistance” (60 Minutes), Written by Scott Pelley, Nicole Young, Kristin Steve; CBS News
QUIZ AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Pop Culture Jeopardy!, Writers Marcus Brown, Buzzy Cohen, Michael Davies, Chip Dornell, John Duarte, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Michele Loud, Traci Mack, Amy Ozols, Louis Virtel, Billy Wisse; Amazon Prime
DIGITAL NEWS
“What Is Hamas Thinking Now?”, Written by Akbar Shahid Ahmed; HuffPost
SHORT FORM STREAMING
Die Hart 3: Hart to Kill, Written by Tripper Clancy; Roku Channel
RADIO/AUDIO DOCUMENTARY
“Art on Trial” (One Year: 1990), Written by Evan Chung; Slate
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS SCRIPT – SCRIPT – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
“Passages: Three Women Who Made A Difference”, Written by Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS SCRIPT – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
“Charles Osgood Remembered”, Written by Gail Lee; CBS News Radio
ON-AIR PROMOTION
“LC Voting Ads”, Written by Desireena Almoradie, Angad Bhalla; YouTube
Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.
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