On Sunday 18 November the 2007 Writer’s Guild Awards ceremony took place at BAFTA in London. The List sponsored the first ever Best Screenplay Award for a British film shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007. After a few words of support from Guild officials for the striking screenwriters in the US, comedian and writer Jeremy Hardy led proceedings in what turned out to be a very good night for Scottish talent.

Among other awards director, writer and producer Don Boyd (My Kingdom, Twenty-One, Andrew and Jeremy Get Married) and The List’s film editor Paul Dale presented Matt Greenhalgh with The List and Writer’s Guild’s Best Screenplay Award for his brilliant script to the Ian Curtis biopic Control, which was directed by Anton Corbijn and released earlier this year. Greenhalgh, who is currently working on a screenplay about John Lennon’s childhood, was absolutely delighted with the award. ‘Thank God for The List and the Writer’s Guild,’ he said. ‘There are so few institutions and award bodies who recognise the sheer hard work and dedication that screenwriters put into their work. This is my first award and it makes me very happy!’

Elsewhere, Gregory Burke, the writer of Black Watch beat off stiff competition from Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) and Tom Stoppard (Rock’n’Roll) to win the Best Play award. JK Rowling received an Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature Award from presenter Joan Collins. Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell and Tony Roche, the three star writers behind Armando Iannucci’s hit TV comedy The Thick of It, won the Best Light Entertainment Award, which was presented by Father Ted’s Pauline McLynn. Runners up included Glasgow’s own Paul Laverty who was pipped to the post for his screenplay for The Wind that Shakes the Barley by Shane Meadows and This is England for the Guild’s other Best Screenplay Award. And, at the close of a memorable evening, legendary Geordie playwright and screenwriter Alan Plater CBE (Z Cars, A Very British Coup, The Beiderbecke Affair) was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

For more information see www.writersguild.org.uk