"12 Years a Slave" and "Fruitvale Station" have been disqualified from the Writers Guild of America Awards.
The news comes as no surprise as the organization is known for excluding scripts because they were not written within the guild's regulations. The organization requires the scripts be produced under WGA jurisdiction or under a collective bargaining agreement in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand or the U.K.
Other films that were disqualified include Peter Morgan's screenplay for "Rush," Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope's script for "Philomena" and William Nicholson's script for "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom."
Other exclusions included Edgar Wright's "The World's End," Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix's "Blue Is the Warmest Color," Asghar Farhadi's "The Past," Sebastian Lelio and Gonzalo Maza's "Gloria," Richard Curtis' "About Time," David Lowery's "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," Destin Cretton's "Short Term 12,″ and Lake Bell's "In a World."
The WGA have begun voting to determine the WGA's nominees on 95 eligible screenplays. Fourty-one scripts qualified for the adapted screenplay category while 54 will compete in the original screenplay category.
While many writers have called for a change in the voting and awards process, leaders of the WGA have noted that they do not intend to loosen the qualifying rules.
Even WGA East president Michael Winship said that there was no plan to change the WGA policy. He said, "We feel very strongly that the awards should honor members and signatory producers."
Recent scripts that were ineligible for the WGA but were nominated for the Academy Awards included "The King's Speech," "Django Unchained," "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Amour."
The WGA will announce its screenplay nominees on Jan. 3. Its awards show will be held Feb. 1 at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
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