'Moonlight,' 'Arrival' win top honours at Writers Guild Awards

Berry Jenkins' script for coming-of-age drama "Moonlight" bagged best original screenplay prize at Writers Guild of America award (WGA), while sci-fi film "Arrival" won best adapted screenplay trophy. "Atlanta" swept the major TV awards by winning trophies for best new series and top comedy series, while "The Americans" took the best drama series honour, reported Variety.

Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester by the Sea" and Damien Chazelle's "La La Land", which has ruled every other award show this season, failed to win over "Moonlight". All three films will be competing for best picture at the Oscars. "Arrival"— about a linguist attempt to communicate with aliens, who have arrived on Earth— topped Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick's script for "Deadpool", August Wilson's "Fences", Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi's "Hidden Figures" and Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals".

Best documentary screenplay award went to "Command and Control". NBC's "This Is Us" won best episodic drama for the episode "The Trip" while Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" bagged best episodic comedy for "Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!"

Susannah Grant won the original longform TV award for HBO's Anita Hill drama "Confirmation". She was also honored with the WGA's Paul Selvin Award, given for embodying the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties. The adapted longform TV award was given to "American Crime Story: The People vs O J Simpson".