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EXCLUSIVE: Once again, working under the Writers Guild’s restrictive rules for inclusion among nominees for the WGA Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, several
leading Oscar-contending screenplays are AWOL on the official WGA ballot sent to eligible voting members Monday morning. This is an annual occurrence as, unlike other guild competitions
including DGA, SAG and PGA, the WGA remains firm in its golden rule of eligibility for its top film honors: The movie must have been written under the WGA MBA or under a bona fide collective
bargaining agreement of various international WGA-affiliated organizations. Thus such hot Oscar and BAFTA prospects as Martin McDonagh’s _The Banshees of Inisherin, _Cannes Palme d’Or
winner Ruben Östlund’s _Triangle of Sadness _and many more did not even make the starting gate for WGA. WATCH ON DEADLINE In the Original Screenplay category, BAFTA just last week longlisted
_Banshees _and _Triangle of Sadness _in addition to others nixed by WGA including Charlotte Wells’ critically acclaimed _Aftersun_ and _Good Luck to You, Leo Grande._ Other prominent
original scripts deep-sixed by the WGA are Sundance sensations _Nanny _and _Cha Cha Real Smooth_, Sam Mendes’ personal _Empire of Light_, India’s Best Picture contender _RRR _and even Ol
Parker’s hit George Clooney-Julia Roberts rom-com _Ticket to Paradise. _Cannes triumphs _Broker, Toki & Lokita, Close, Corsage, Holy Spider_ and _One Fine Morning _also won’t have their
screenplays considered by WGA members, in addition to acclaimed films like _Argentina, 1985, _Joanna Hogg’s _The Eternal Daughter_, French Oscar entry _Saint Omer_ and praised indie films
like _The Inspection _and B.J. Novak’s Focus Features film _Vengeance_. The latter is on my 10 Best list for 2022 and one I easily would have loved to vote for on my WGA ballot (I am a
longtime member). Off the WGA’s Adapted Screenplay ballot are Netflix’s _All Quiet on the Western Front, The Whale, The Wonder,_ Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s _Living, Guillermo del
Toro’s Pinocchio_ and Ireland’s shortlisted Oscar entry _The Quiet Girl_ — all six of which have been longlisted in the corresponding 10-film BAFTA writing category, with good prospects for
many for Oscar consideration. Other adaptations left out in the cold by WGA are _Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; The Son_, Florian Zeller’s follow-up to his Oscar- and BAFTA-winning _The
Father_; _Happening; Three Thousand Years of Longing;_ _After Yang_; and _Downton Abbey: A New Era_. However, if you are so inclined to want to vote for the likes of _Black Adam _and _Sonic
the Hedgehog 2, _those screenplays _are _on the ballot. The lack of many of the aforementioned ineligible movies means increased prospects at the guild for the likes of films that are
WGA-eligible, such as _Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, T_á_r, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, She Said, The Menu, Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water_, _The
Woman King,_ and _Women Talking_. Members have until January 23 to vote, and incidentally that is just one day before Oscar nominations are announced. It will be interesting to see the
correlation between the two groups in the writing categories this year. WGA film screenplay nominations will be announced January 25. Television nominations will be revealed Wednesday.