MUMBAI: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has presented Midnight in Paris and The Descendants with top screenplay honors.

With his biggest hit in decades, writer-director Woody Allen earned the Guild‘s prize for original screenplay on Midnight in Paris while director Alexander Payne shared the adapted screenplay honour with co-writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.

The wins boost the prospects for both films to earn the same prizes at next Sunday‘s Academy Awards, where both movies also are in the running for Best Picture.
 
But it is not that all key Academy Awards contenders were eligible for the honours of the Guild including Oscar best-picture front-runner The Artist since the black-and-white film has no dialogues it being a silent film.

The Guild‘s prize for Big-Screen documentary writing was bagged by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega for Better This World.