LOS ANGELES (CNS) — The scribes behind the films Judas and the Black Messiah, Palm Springs, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7, will compete Sunday for top honors at the Writers Guild of America Awards.
The films are all nominated for the WGA Award for best original screenplay. The nominations closely mirror the list of Oscar hopefuls announced last week, with the exception of Palm Springs, which was replaced on the Oscar list by Minari.
For adapted screenplays, WGA nominees are the writers of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, News of the World, One Night in Miami and The White Tiger. Notably absent from the list is Nomadland, which has become an awards-season favorite and was nominated for the adapted-screenplay Oscar. The Father also landed on the Oscar nominations list, with News of the World and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom failing to earn Academy Award nods.
Competing for the WGA documentary prize are the writers of All In: The Fight for Democracy, The Dissident, Herb Alpert Is, Red Penguins and Totally Under Control.
On the small screen, writers behind Better Call Saul, The Boys, The Crown, The Mandalorian and Ozark are nominated for best drama series writing. Comedy series nominees are the writers of Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Great, PEN15, Ted Lasso, and What We Do in the Shadows.
The WGA Awards will be presented in a virtual format in a bi-coastal ceremony hosted by actor Kal Penn. Among those set to appear in the ceremony are Riz Ahmed, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rachel Brosnahan, Andra Day, Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom Jr., Ava DuVernay and Jimmy Fallon.
During the ceremony, Judas and the Black Messiah writers Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas will receive the guild's Paul Selvin Award, which honors a script that "best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties that are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere."