Simon Beaufoy has had a double success with ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ winning him two awards.
His screenplay, based on the novel ‘Q&A’ by Vikas Swarup, was named best adapted screenplay by the Writers’ Guild of America on Saturday. The following evening in London Beaufoy repeated his success winning in the same category at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards
The film collected six other awards, for director Danny Boyle, music, cinematography, editing, and sound as well as being named best film. How good – and well-deserved – is that?
Best original screenplay awards went to Dustin Lance Black for ‘Milk’ (WGA), and to Martin McDonagh for ‘In Bruges’ (BAFTA).
The British Academy awarded the Carl Foreman Award for special achievement to Steve McQueen, the writer and director of ‘Hunger’, which portrays the last six weeks of the life of Irish republican hunger striker, Bobby Sands.
Ari Folman collected the WGA award for best documentary screenplay for ‘Waltz With Bashir’.
The WGA Awards also recognise outstanding achievement in writing for television, radio, news, promotional, and videogame writing. The WGA television writing awards were as follows:
DRAMATIC SERIES
‘Mad Men’ – Lisa Albert, Jane Anderson, Rick Cleveland, Kater Gordon, David Isaacs, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Marti Noxon, Robin Veith, Matthew Weiner
COMEDY SERIES
‘30 Rock’ – Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Andrew Guest, Matt Hubbard, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, Ron Weiner
NEW SERIES
‘In Treatment’ – Rodrigo Garcia, Bryan Goluboff, Davey Holmes, William Merritt Johnson, Amy Lippman, Sarah Treem
EPISODIC DRAMA - any length – one airing time
Pilot – ‘Breaking Bad’ – Vince Gilligan
EPISODIC COMEDY - any length – one airing time
‘Succession’ – ‘30 Rock’ – Andrew Guest and John Riggi
LONG FORM – ORIGINAL - over one hour – one or two parts, one or two airing times
‘Recount’ – Danny Strong
LONG FORM – ADAPTATION - over one hour – one or two parts, one or two airing times
‘John Adams’, ‘Episode 1, Join or Die,’ – teleplay by Kirk Ellis, Based on the book byDavid McCullough; ‘Episode 2, Independence,’ – teleplay by Kirk Ellis, Based on the book by David McCullough
ANIMATION - any length – one airing time
‘Apocalypse Cow’ – ‘The Simpsons’ – Jeff Westbrook
COMEDY/VARIETY - (INCLUDING TALK) SERIES
‘Saturday Night Live’ – head writers Seth Meyers, Andrew Steele, Paula Pell;
writers Doug Abeles, James Anderson, Alex Baze, Jessica Conrad, James Downey, Charlie Grandy, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, John Lutz, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Marika Sawyer, Akiva Schaffer, Robert Smigel, John Solomon, Emily Spivey, Andrew Steele, Kent Sublette, Jorma Taccone, Bryan Tucker, additional sketches by Robert Carlock
COMEDY/VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS
‘2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards’ – Billy Kimball, Aaron Lee, Jennifer Celotta, Rainn Wilson
DAYTIME SERIALS
‘As the World Turns’ – Jean Passanante, Leah Laiman, Courtney Simon, Lisa Connor, David A. Levinson, Peter Brash, Richard Culliton, Susan Dansby, Cheryl Davis, Leslie Nipkow
CHILDREN’S EPISODIC & SPECIALS
‘Elmo’s Christmas Countdown’ – ‘Sesame Workshop’ – Joey Mazzarino
CHILDREN’S SCRIPT – LONG FORM OR SPECIAL
‘Polar Bears’ – ‘The Naked Brothers Band’ – Polly Draper
DOCUMENTARY – CURRENT EVENTS
‘Bush’s War: Part One’ ‘Frontline’ – Michael Kirk
DOCUMENTARY – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS
‘Secrets of the Parthenon’ – ‘NOVA’ – Gary Glassman
NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT
ABC Weekend News – Joel Siegel, Karen Mooney, David Muir
NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
‘Yankee Stadium and the New Gilded Age’ – ‘Bill Moyers Journal’ – Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
For the full lists of winners:
WGA – http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=3484
BAFTA – http://www.bafta.org/awards/film/film-nominations-in-2009,657,BA.html
How To Write A Screenplay