EXCLUSIVE: A lot of the highly-awarded films vying for Oscar nominations this year won’t have their screenwriters also competing at the WGA Awards. As usual, the guild, which has strict eligibility rules, has a number of widely acclaimed screenplays and prestigious MIA film festival winners on the ballot just sent to its members today.
Among the high-profile original screenplays not on the ballot this year are Cannes Film Festival winners and multiple Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominees. Sentimental value, it was just an accident, the secret agent, And Sirat. Each of these films is an official Oscar submission for international films and features high betting odds for screenplay nominations on our sister site, Gold Derby. Also missing is Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Father Mother Sister Brother, and A24 Sundance Film Festival Screenplay Winner Waldo Salt Sorry, baby which received an Indie Spirit screenplay nomination this season and recognition from numerous critics groups for Eva Victor’s debut screenplay.
(Clockwise from top left) “It Was Just an Accident”, “No Other Choice”, “New Wave”, “Sentimental Value” and “The Secret Agent”
Neon/Netflix
Other members of the original scenarios will not be able to vote to include Projector Rental Family, Dead Man’s Wire, A Private Life, Rosemeadand Robert Kaplow’s acclaimed screenplay for Richard Linklater’s film Blue moon. Another storyline from Linklater’s other 2025 film, New wave was selected even though, like many of those not eligible this year, it is a large-scale foreign language film.
Adapted screenplays that did not make the ballot included Park Chan-Wook’s highly acclaimed South Korean Oscar-winning film, No other choice, Screenplay awarded at Cannes Un Certain Regard and Gotham Awards Pillion, The story of sound, Let’s not go to the dogs tonight, Ballad of a little player, and that of Kristen Stewart The water timeline. Also ineligible Peter Hujar’s day recently nominated for the prestigious USC Scripter Award. But for horror fans, don’t worry. Among the scenarios that do the ballots are M3gan2.0 And Black phone 2.
Also note the script of Rob Reiner’s latest film, Lumbar Tap 2, with a screenplay by Reiner, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean is among the films in the running for an adapted screenplay.
Rules published by the Writers Guild of America state the following: “Screenplays must have been written under a collective agreement of the WGA or under an actual collective agreement of the Writers Guild of Canada, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, the Writers Guild of Ireland, the Writers’ Guild of South Africa, the New Zealand Writers Guild, the ALMA Sindicato des Guionistas, the Screenwriters Association (India), the Screenwriters Guild of Korea (SGK), de la Guilde française des Scénaristes (France), Scriptwriters Guild of Israel, la Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma (Québec) or Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD/Germany) (collectively, “affiliated guilds”). Please note that an affiliated guild may impose additional requirements for a writer to be considered covered under its collective agreement. Additionally, scripts, even those that are otherwise eligible, must be formally submitted.
Nomination ballots are due January 20, 2026. Nominations in the film and television categories will be announced January 27. The WGA Awards will take place on Sunday March 8.
