Writers Guild of America Award 2012 Winners List: Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris', 'The Descendants' Win Top Screenplay Honors

American screenwriter-director Woody Allen won the Writers Guild of America award for the best original screenplay for Midnight in Paris, while Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash were honored for the best adapted screenplay for the family drama “The Descendants,” at the WGA Award night at Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, Sunday.

Hypothetically, the black-and-white silent film “The Artist,” which is on top of the list of most Awards, including Oscars, had a good chance to win at WGA; however, it was declared ineligible for the Guild awards as it was produced by French film director Michel Hazanavicius.

WGA announced the winners of 2012 WGA, West, and WGA, East, for outstanding achievement in writing for screen, television, radio, news, promotional, videogames and new media, according to the press release.

The Laurel Award for Television for lifetime achievement in television writing (WGA, West) was presented to Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick; the Laurel Award for Screen for lifetime achievement in screenwriting went to Eric Roth. Other awards by WGA, West, were the Paul Selvin Award for written work which embodies constitutional rights and civil liberties that went to Tate Taylor; and the Morgan Cox Award for exemplary service to the Guild to the ex-WGAW President (2005-2009) Patric M. Verrone.

The WGA, East, presented the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence to Judd Apatow; Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing to Claire Labine; John Merriman Award for Study of Broadcast Journalism at American University to David Shultz; Richard E. Jablow Award for devoted service to the Guild went to Susan Kim. It also presented a special Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting to Hailey O’Brien.

Other winning series included ABC’s “Modern Family,” “General Hospital,” HBO's “Too Big to Fail,” “Cinema Verite” and “Breaking Bad.

Check out the complete list of winners in all the categories:

SCREEN WINNERS

Original 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 Hemmings; Fox Searchlight

Documentary Screenplay: Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; Loteria Films

TELEVISION WINNERS

Drama 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

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

Episodic Drama (TIE): “Box Cutter” (Breaking Bad), Written by Vince Gilligan; AMC

And

“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, Tribute - 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 and Specials: “Hero of the Shadows” (Supah Ninjas), Written by Leo Chu, Eric S. Garcia; Nickelodeon

Documentary- Current Event: “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 – Regular 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

RADIO WINNERS

Documentary: 2010 Year in Review, written by Gail Lee; CBS Radio News

NEWS – Regular Scheduled or Breaking: 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 WINNERS

On-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

VIDEOGAME WRITING WINNER

Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment

NEW MEDIA WRITING WINNERS

Outstanding Achievement in Writing (Original): “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): “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.