La La Land’s sweeping awards victory has been stopped in its tracks by Moonlight, which won the top honour at the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards.
The film, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, won the Best Original Screenplay at the ceremony in Los Angeles, which proved to be a highly political event.
The movie, which tells the story of Chiron, a young gay black man coming of age in Miami, has received much critical acclaim for the subjects it explores.
The film pipped Damien Chazelle’s Oscar favourite La La Land to the post, also beating fellow Oscar-nominated films Manchester By The Sea, Loving and Hell Or High Water.
Accepting the award, Jenkins said: ‘I can’t say writing will get you on this stage but it will bring you close to the world. [This award] means the world to me.’
The Academy has ruled that Moonlight is ineligible for an Oscar nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category because it is based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Instead the film is nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
If Jenkins wins the Oscar for best director on Sunday February 26, he will become the first black filmmaker to win the award in the ceremony’s 89-year history.
The WGA ceremony, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel yesterday, followed the theme established at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs with a number of political references throughout the evening.
Naturally, Donald Trump was highly referenced, with comedian Anthony Atamanuik even doing an impersonation of the US president taking to the stage, while two men dressed as Russian soldiers handed out awards.
Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing, criticised Mr Trump as he accepted the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for television writing achievement.