Writers Guild of America Schedules Awards Show for March 21

The 73rd edition of the Writers Guild of America Awards ceremony has been scheduled for March 21, 2021 — five weeks before the Oscars.

The WGA made the announcement Monday and said submissions are open for feature screenplays in the original, adapted, and documentary; in television series in drama, comedy, and new; for TV-Radio-New Media scripts; and for the Paul Selvin Award, presented by the WGA West.

Nominations will be announced on Feb. 3 for the TV, New Media, News, Radio/Audio, and Promotional Writing categories. Screenplay nominations will be unveiled on Feb. 16.

The TV and New Media eligibility period is for content first broadcast or exhibited between Jan 1, 2020 and Dec 31, 2020 except for news and TV documentaries, which is between Oct. 1, 2019 and Nov 30, 2020. The feature film screenplay eligibility period requirement is for a film to have been exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles for one week between Jan. 1, 2020 – Feb. 28, 2021

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in June that the 93rd Academy Awards telecast had been postponed by two months, to April 25, 2021. Variety was the first to report that the Academy was considering delaying the big night in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The WGA follows in the footsteps of the Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, DGA Awards and BAFTA Film Awards, which have all pushed their dates and eligibility periods for feature films due to the pandemic. The WGA did not announce the locations of the ceremonies, which usually take place at concurrent events in Los Angeles and New York.

This year’s WGA Awards honored “Parasite” for original screenplay, “Jojo Rabbit” for adapted screenplay, “Succession” for both best drama and best drama episode, “Barry” for best comedy and “Dead to Me” for comedy episode.