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2012 Writers Guild Awards: The Winners

Alexander Payne, Jim Rash and Nat Faxon and Woody Allen took home the big screenplay prizes at the Writers Guild of America awards Sunday for writing The Descendants and Midnight in Paris, respectively.

Announcement from WGA:

Alexander Payne, Jim Rash and Nat Faxon and Woody Allen took home the big screenplay prizes at the Writers Guild of America awards Sunday for writing The Descendants and Midnight in Paris, respectively. The big winners on the TV side included the writing staff of Modern Family for comedy series and Breaking Bad for drama series.

Homeland won for writing on a new series and The Colbert Report took the award for comedy/variety series. Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega won the documentary screenplay award for Better This World.

The awards ceremony honoring TV, film, videogame, news, radio and new media writing during 2011 took place at the Hollywood Palladium.

The complete list of winners is below.

SCREENPLAY NOMINEESORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming; Fox Searchlight

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; Loteria Films

TELEVISION NOMINEESDRAMA SERIES Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC

COMEDY SERIES Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Carol Leifer, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC

NEW SERIES Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime

EPISODIC DRAMA “Box Cutter” (Breaking Bad), Written by Vince Gilligan; AMC “The Good Soldier” (Homeland), Written by Henry Bromell; Showtime

EPISODIC COMEDY “Caught in the Act” (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Jeffrey Richman; ABC

LONG FORM – ORIGINAL Cinema Verite, Written by David Seltzer; HBO

LONG FORM – ADAPTED Too Big to Fail, Written by Peter Gould, Based on the book written by Andrew Ross Sorkin; HBO

ANIMATION “Homer the Father” (The Simpsons), Written by Joel H. Cohen; Fox

COMEDY / VARIETY – (INCLUDING TALK) SERIES The Colbert Report, Writers: Michael Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Dan Guterman, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Barry Julien, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Meredith Scardino, Scott Sherman, Max Werner; Comedy Central

COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS After the Academy Awards, Head Writers: Gary Greenberg, Molly McNearney; Writers: Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, John N. Huss, Sal Iacono, Eric Immerman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jonathan Kimmel, Jacob Lentz, Danny Ricker, Richard G. Rosner; ABC

DAYTIME DRAMA General Hospital, Written by Meg Bennett, Nathan Fissell, David Goldschmid, Robert Guza, Jr., Karen Harris, Elizabeth Korte, Mary Sue Price, Michele Val Jean, Susan Wald, Tracey Thomson; ABC

CHILDREN'S – EPISODIC & SPECIALS “Hero of the Shadows” (Supah Ninjas), Written by Leo Chu, Eric S. Garcia; Nickelodeon “Top Secret America” (Frontline), Written by Michael Kirk, Mike Wiser; PBS

DOCUMENTARY – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS “Wiki Secrets” (Frontline), Written by Marcela Gaviria & Martin Smith; PBS

NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN, OR BREAKING REPORT “Educating Sergeant Pantzke” (Frontline), Written by John Maggio, Martin Smith; PBS

NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY “Doctor Hot Spot” (Frontline), Written by Thomas Jennings; PBS

NEW MEDIA NOMINEESOUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING ORIGINAL NEW MEDIA “Episode 1,” “Episode 2,” “Episode 4,” “Episode 5,” “Episode 6” (Aim High), Written by Heath Corson & Richie Keen; cambio.com/aim-high

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DERIVATIVE NEW MEDIA “A New Day,” “Family Matters,” “Neighborly Advice,” “Step Mom,” “Everything Dies” (The Walking Dead), Teleplay by John Esposito, Story by John Esposito and Greg Nicotero; amc.com

VIDEOGAME WRITING Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment

RADIO DOCUMENTARY

2010 Year in Review, Written by Gail Lee; CBS Radio News

NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED OR BREAKING REPORT Portraits of a Terrorist: Who is Osama Bin Laden?, Written by Gail Lee; CBS Radio News

NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE OR COMMENTARY Justice in a Time of Terror, Written by Andrew Cohen & Rob Mank; CBS Radio News

PROMOTIONAL WRITING AND GRAPHIC ANIMATION NOMINEESON-AIR PROMOTION (RADIO OR TELEVISION) “Fairytale” (Today Show), Written by Carol M. Sullivan; NBC News

TELEVISION GRAPHIC ANIMATION “CBS News Animations” (CBS News), Graphic Animation by David Rosen; CBS News

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.