LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK — The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have launched their call for submissions for the 2013 WGA Documentary Screenplay Award, honoring outstanding achievement in documentary feature writing.

Submissions for the WGA’s top doc writing award may be received from August 20 through November 16, 2012. 

WGA Documentary Screenplay nominees will be announced on January 3, 2013, as well as Original and Adapted Screenplay nominees. The WGA Documentary Screenplay Award will be presented, along with other film, TV, new media, radio, news, and videogame award categories, at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 17, 2013, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City.

First presented in 2005 to spotlight the writer’s primary role in documentary filmmaking’s collaborative creative process, previous WGA Documentary Screenplay Award recipients have included writer-directors Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me in 2005), two-time WGA winner Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room in 2006; Taxi to the Dark Side in 2008), Amy Berg (Deliver Us From Evil in 2007), Mark Monroe (The Cove in 2010), Charles Ferguson, Chad Beck & Adam Bolt (Inside Job in 2011), and, most recently, Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de le Vega (Better This World in 2012).

The WGA Documentary Screenplay Award was established to recognize the fact that the majority of non-fiction feature films are written, continuing to showcase the Guilds’ ongoing outreach efforts to allow those writers working within the diverse nonfiction film community to receive the benefits of a Writers Guild contract.

Qualifications for WGA Documentary Screenplay Award eligibility include:

• Submitted documentaries must contain an on-screen writing credit and have been exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for at least one week during 2012.
• Credited writers of eligible documentaries are required to join the WGAW Nonfiction Writers Caucus or the WGAE Nonfiction Writers Caucus to be considered.The deadline for submissions is 5:30 p.m. (PST) on Friday, November 16, 2012.
• Scripts need not necessarily be written under WGA jurisdiction.
• Scripts must be feature length (over 40 minutes).
• Documentaries that received their first public exhibition via broadcast or cable television are not eligible for WGA awards consideration.
• Foreign-language films are eligible, provided they feature English-language subtitles.

Further inquiries about the WGA Documentary Screenplay Award may be directed to Jennifer Burt in the WGAW Awards Office at (323) 782-4569, email: ; or to Dana Weissman in the WGAE Awards Office at (212) 767-7835, email: .

The 2013 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Sunday, February 17, 2013, at simultaneous ceremonies at JW Marriott L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles and B.B. King Blues Club in New York City. For more information about the 2013 Writers Guild Awards submission process, guidelines, and official entry forms, please visit www.wga.org or www.wgaeast.org.

For media inquiries about the 2013 Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles show, please contact Gregg Mitchell in the WGAW Communications Department at: (323) 782-4651 or email: gmitchell@wga.org; or visit online at: www.wga.org.

For media inquiries about the 2013 Writers Guild Awards New York show, please contact Jay Strell at Sunshine Sachs at (212) 691-2800 or email:strell@sunshinesachs.com; or visit online at: www.wgaeast.org.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, West, visit www.wga.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org.