Charlie Kaufman will receive the WGA West’s Laurel Award
Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will be the recipient of this year’s WGA West Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. The Lifetime Achievement Award, to members who have “advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the screenwriting profession,” will be presented March 5 during the 75th annual Writers Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. .
“A true visionary, Kaufman’s legacy is undeniable,” the guild said.
It won an Oscar and a WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2004 The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and received Oscar and WGA nominations for Being John Malkovich And Adaptation And another Oscar nom for animated feature Anomalisa.
Kaufman’s writing career began in the early 1990s on TV sitcoms get a lifeAnd he spent decades working in comedy and sketch television before transitioning to film.
His 2001 screenplay, human natureIt marked his first pairing with surrealist director Michel Gondry, and they collaborated again three years later The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
In 2002 Kaufman wrote two high-profile adaptations: Confessions of a dangerous mindbased on gong show Host Chuck Barris’ questionable unauthorized autobiography, and comedy AdaptationBased on Susan Orlin’s novel about Kaufman’s own struggles The Orchid Thief
His most recent feature was the 2020 surrealist thriller I am thinking of ending things, which was based on the novel by Ian Read. Kaufman published his first novel that year as well Antkind.
Past Screen Laurel Award recipients include Nancy Meyers, James L. Brooks, Elaine May, Oliver Stone, Harold Ramis, David Mamet, Paul Mazursky, Lawrence Kasdan, Eric Roth, Steven Zailian, Robert Towne, and Lowell Ganz and Babalu Mandel.
