Precursor: 73rd Writers Guild Awards (2020)

This award matters most to Promising Young Woman going into the Oscars, which reminds me of films like Her and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, films with original concepts that utterly bowled over viewers. The Trial of the Chicago 7 isn’t out of the race, but you have to wonder if Aaron Sorkin, who already has an Oscar for his screenplay for The Social Network, is perhaps a passenger in this roller coaster year. The Golden Globe doesn’t mean much considering this year was his 8th nomination for writing and his third Globe. It could also have been a result of Oscar frontrunner Nomadland and Promising Young Woman, the most honored adapted and original screenplays of the year, split the vote with HFPA voters, allowing Chicago 7, which only has six honors to Promising Young Woman‘s twenty, to slip by for the win. Regardless, Nomadland has nothing to fear from the Borat win here since it wasn’t even eligible, nor was The Father, both of which should easily run ahead of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat sequel.