Stoppard will be honored at the Los Angeles component with the 2013 Laurel Award for Screen. The Laurel Award recognizes lifetime achievement in outstanding writing for motion pictures. Stoppard, who has been a WGA member since 1991, won an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love." He has also penned the screenplay for "Anna Karenina" and the television series "Parade's End" in recent years.
"A television writer since 1965 and a screenwriter since 1975, Tom Stoppard brings wit, elegance, and heart to all he composes. We did not want to let his acknowledged brilliance as a playwright to blind us to his dramatic talents in our own field. From 'The Romantic Englishwoman through Despair,' 'The Human Factor,' 'Brazil,' 'Empire of the Sun,' 'The Russia House,' 'Billy Bathgate,' 'Shakespeare in Love,' 'Enigma,' 'Vatel,' and this past year's 'Anna Karenina,' Stoppard's screenplays delight, disturb, entrance. Whether adapting the masters – Nabokov, Greene, Ballard, le Carré, Doctorow, Tolstoy – or crafting his own tales, Stoppard brings dignity and coherence to the act of imagination," WGAW vice president Howard A. Rodman said in a statement.
Ephron, whose play Lucky Guy will premiere on Broadway this spring starring Tom Hanks, is honored at the New York City WGA Awards. A tribute will be led by "This Is My Life" author Meg Wolitzer. Ephron adapted Wolitzer's novel for the 1992 film, which she also directed. Wolitzer's tribute promises "video with clips displaying Ephron's characteristic style and charm from her films and television interviews."
"At this year's Writers Guild Awards East Coast ceremony, we will mark the passing of one of our most distinguished and creative members. Nora Ephron's life and body of work were those of a quintessential New Yorker, but not only did she embody the sophistication, wit and energy of our city, she was also a loyal union member who walked the picket line and talked the talk on behalf of all her fellow writers," WGA East president Michael Winship in a statement.
Tom Stoppard is a four-time Tony Award winner for his plays The Coast of Utopia, The Real Thing, Travesties and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His works for the stage also include Rock 'n' Roll, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, Jumpers, Artist Descending a Staircase and Night and Day. Nora Ephron, whose works included "Heartburn," "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle," died June 26, 2012, at the age of 71.
