'Moonlight' locks up its screenplay Oscar
Well, there you go. Moonlight picks up the WGA for Original Screenplay, but it's competing in Adapted at the Oscars, while Arrival takes advantage of Moonlight's absence in the category to grab the prize for itself at the Writers Guild.
- Adapted Screenplay: Arrival
- Original Screenplay: Moonlight
- Documentary Screenplay: Command and Control
Moonlight also won the USC Scripter award last week, which pretty much guarantees its win in Adapted at the Oscars next Sunday. So the question is what wins in original. I think it's Manchester By the Sea, but all we have to go on there is the hint from the critics prizes, since Moonlight has crowded it out in most of the precursors. Elsewhere, the Art Directors Guild gave out its prizes last week as well, but it's not all that helpful in predicting, since they have separate categories:
'La La Land' in the lead for production design
- Fantasy: Passengers
- Contemporary: La La Land
- Period: Hidden Figures
This isn't very helpful, and BAFTA went with Fantastic Beasts in the category, so this could be a surprise on Oscar night. I'd stick with La La Land, simply because it's the Best Picture frontrunner, but Fantastic Beasts certainly does have a LOT of production design, and often times the biggest, gaudiest sets win this category. Finally, the Makeup & Hairstyling Guild awarded its winners tonight, and like production design, they separate everything out:
- Contemporary Makeup: Nocturnal Animals
- Contemporary Hairstyling: La La Land
- Period and/or Character Makeup: Suicide Squad
- Period and/or Character Hairstyling: Hail, Caesar!
- Special Makeup Effects: Star Trek Beyond
There are only three nominees in this category at the Oscars, so of these winners, that would leave Suicide Squad and Star Trek Beyond up against each other. For the Academy's sake, I would really hope they'd give a decently received movie the award (any award) and so I'd go with Star Trek on this one.
'Star Trek Beyond' has a shot to win Best Makeup
