Baghdad, February 21: Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker enhanced its status as front-runner for next month’s Oscars in Los Angeles after scooping a top prize at the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards.
The gritty war film earned the best original screenplay honor at the annual Hollywood screenwriters awards night.
Mark Boal, who wrote The Hurt Locker after spending several weeks embedded with a U.S. military bomb disposal unit, was the recipient of the prize, which came roughly two weeks ahead of the Academy Awards on March 7.
The film follows the fortunes of a U.S. army bomb squad operating on the streets of Baghdad.
It is regarded as the favorite to win the Oscars best picture prize and has nine nominations in total.
Boal beat out competition on Saturday from James Cameron for Avatar, Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber for the romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer, and Jon Lucas and Scott Moore for the comic hit The Hangover.
The best adapted screenplay award went to Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up In the Air.
—Agencies