Awards season is being good to genre-related releases this year, leading some to hope the films involved could get a little love for more than just technical achievements comes Oscar time.
The latest award nominees come from the Writers Guild Association with “Avatar” and “Star Trek” garnering nominations.
James Cameron got a nod for the original screenplay for “Avatar,” where he will compete with Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, nominated for their fractured romance “(500) Days of Summer”; Jon Lucas & Scott Moore for breakout summer comedy “The Hangover”; Mark Boal for his Iraq War study, “The Hurt Locker”; and Joel Coen & Ethan Coen for their modern-day retelling of the story of Job, “A Serious Man.”
In the adapted screenplay category, the nominees are “Crazy Heart,” screenplay by Scott Cooper, based on the novel by Thomas Cobb; “Julie & Julia,” which Nora Ephron adapted from two books, “Julie & Julia” by Julie Powell and “My Life in France,” by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme; “Precious,” which Geoffrey Fletcher adapted from Sapphire’s novel “Push”; “Star Trek,” Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman’s reboot of the franchise created by Gene Roddenberry; and Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s “Up in the Air,” their adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel.
Documentary nominees are “Against the Tide,” screenplay by Richard Trank, based on original material written by Trank and Rabbi Marvin Hier, the account of an activist who tried to save Jews during the Holocaust; “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Michael Moore’s foray into economics; the cruelty-to-dolphins study “The Cove” by Mark Monroe; “Earth Days,” Robert Stone’s account of the beginning of the modern environmentalist movement; “Good Hair,” a look at African-American hairstyles, written by Chris Rock & Jeff Stilson, Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar; and “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” written by Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman, which looks at the music that accompanied the civil rights movement.
The WGA Awards will be handed out Feb. 20 at simultaneous ceremonies at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York.
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