The two films most people see as leading their fields for the Oscar took home the WGA prize tonight. Both categories have a solid 4-for-5 record comparing with the Oscars. In the case of The Descendants, carrying over should be no problem. For Midnight in Paris, a lot depends on whether the Academy wants to give another prize to Woody Allen or give the award to its Best Picture of the year. Since The Artist wasn’t eligible and thus not nominated, we cannot be for sure if this result means much, but it does set up something of a fight between the two.

In addition to the nominees and/or winners listed below, this year, we’re giving you a quick background on each individual precursor including founding year, first awards year and a glimpse at how many predictions the group has gotten right in the last five years. This data can be found below.

As promised, I have posted the history of this particular guild on my website. You can find it by following this link: Writers Guild of America.

The Awards

Best Original Screenplay

Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Descendants

Best Documentary Screenplay

Better This World

Writers Guild of America Awards Data

Year Founded: 1933
First Awards: 1948 (64)

Precursor Accuracy

KEY:

• Winner won the corresponding Oscar
• Winner was nominated for the corresponding Oscar
• Winner was not nominated for a corresponding Oscar
• Total (2010-2009-2008-2007-2006)

Original Screenplay: 4 (0-1-1-1-1) W / 5 (1-1-1-1-1) N / 0 (0-0-0-0-0) I
Adapted Screenplay: 4 (1-0-1-1-1) W / 5 (1-1-1-1-1) N / 0 (0-0-0-0-0) I