"Slumdog Millionaire" And "Milk" Win Top WGA Awards

LOS ANGELES — The Oscar contenders "Milk" and "Slumdog Millionaire" won top honors Saturday at the Writers Guild of America Awards.

Dustin Lance Black won the original screenplay prize for "Milk," a biography of murdered slain gay-rights leader Harvey Milk.

The adapted screenplay award for "Slumdog Millionaire" went to Simon Beaufoy, who based it on a novel by Vikas Swarup about an Indian street orphan's journey of survival and love.

"Slumdog Millionaire" has been an unlikely hit. The low-budget feature has 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture, and also has taken awards at the Golden Globes and from the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild.

"Milk" has eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best actor for Sean Penn.

Ari Folman won the documentary screenplay award for "Waltz with Bashir." The film, which is nominated in the foreign-language category at the Academy Awards, is an animated study of an Israeli soldier struggling to recall suppressed memories of his involvement in the war with Lebanon.

In television categories, writers for NBC's "30 Rock" and AMC's "Mad Men" won in the comedy and drama categories, respectively. Both also won WGA awards last year: "30 Rock" for TV comedy and "Mad Men" for new series.

Some of the other awards were:

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_ New Series: "In Treatment."

_ Episodic Drama: "Breaking Bad" (Pilot).

_ Episodic Comedy: "30 Rock" (Succession).

_ Animation: "The Simpsons" (Apocalypse Cow).

_ Daytime Serials: "As the World Turns."

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On the Net:

http://www.wga.org

Comments

[uglysexy]

Go Dustin!!!! You are one Hell of a Writer...
Can't wait to see what you do with "The Electric Koolaid Acid Test"
Hope to read for it in l.a. or S.F.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006718/

[cylindar]

Milk is not worth the mention, but Slumdog Millionaire is hot.

[JonGee]

Slumdog Dominates the BAFTA Awards as well- Best Film, Director, etc
http://www.awardsandhonors.com/news.html?id=113

[Takae]

Mad Men is a comedy? I didn't realize. I had an impression, from reading a typical TV summary, that it was pure drama. Either way, I must give it a try because I heard nothing but good stuff about MM.

[richchaplin]

"murdered slain"? why that's twice as bad being just murdered or just slain....

[bazokbros]

I'll be glad when award season is over, but none of these films or actors deserve the amount of praise and attention they are receiving. But I'm told the award season is how a lot of people and businesses connected to the film industry make their money, so it only makes since that this prolonged self admiration and narcissim goes as long and as many venues as possible.

[barriosbabe]

Slumdog is not that good. I do understand why people like it, it is likable. I get it. But you know what? It is also so very predictable (I was bored) and so full of inaccuracies packaged as accuracies it made me wretch. Worst of all, it falls under that whole rubric of British making India's poverty look romantic. OMG!

Hey why didn't he set the story in a slum on the outskirts of London, hmmm?

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[bazokbros]

Funny how being wretchedly poor makes you of higher spiritual awarness than those who are more fortunate. When I'm eating a thick porterhouse with a nice glass of wine listening to my surround sound system, I need to take pause that I'm not a spiritually deep person.

[cylindar]

porterhouse steak and wine. That's not classy. You must be a blue collar worker.

[Xenussister]

None of the character in Slumdog Millionaire are portrayed as having a higher spiritual awareness. I don't know where you got that. They're just ordinary people, who happen to have grown up in utter poverty. The movie also does NOT make poverty look romantic. The characters' love is romantic, not their situation.

I'm rooting for Milk, a brilliant film, to win Best Picture, but if Slumdog wins I'll be very happy for them.

[caslab]

Well, the director HAS set another story in the slums of Edinburgh, if that makes you feel any better.