The Writers Take the Spotlight / The Wrap Raps with Del Toro (who also has a new gig)

Welcome to Monday, my friends...

THE WRITERS TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT

Writing awards were the name of the game over the weekend as The Writers Guild of America named their best screenplays of the year.  Last Night the WGA named Get Out as Best Original Screenplay and James Ivory's Call Me By Your Name as Best Adapted Screenplay.  

The awards probably signal the Oscar winners in each category and also may portend which film takes home the Best Picture prize on Mar. 4th. as many Oscarologists believe that the win gives Get Out a boost with Oscar voting not set to get under way for another week.

Ivory also won the USC Scripter prize for adapted screenwriting for Call Me By Your Name.

With the WGA and Scripter awards announced that leaves only next week's BAFTA awards as the final precursor/harbinger for this Oscar season.  Oscar final voting will open Feb. 20th and closes a week later.

The Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, Mar. 3rd with the Oscar ceremony to occur the following night.

Here's Indiewire's coverage of the USC Scripter Award announcement.

And their coverage of the WGA.

THE WRAP RAPS WITH DEL TORO

Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water is right in the thick of the Oscar Best Picture race with the most nominations of any film (13).  It is considered by serious Oscar watchers as a very real threat to take home the big prize.  As such, Del Toro has been very accessible to media these past few months since Telluride and that has included a recent sit down with The Wrap.

The video is just shy of 30 minutes as Del Toro echoes many of the themes and ideas that audiences hear in T-ride just over five months ago.

You can access the story and video here.

  

One other quick note about Del Toro.  We know that he will not be in Telluride for TFF #45 as we discovered overnight that he has been named to preside over the Venice Film Fest jury.  I could have seen him back over Labor Day in support of Alfonso Cuaron's Roma much like Alejandro Inarritu was in T-ride last year for Del Toro's film.  

Roma is rumored to be a Cannes selection and it wouldn't be a shock to me to see it appear on the TFF #45 lineup.

That's your truncated MTFB for this Monday.  More on Thursday.