Writers Guild West Posthumously Awards David Lynch Screenwriting Achievement Prize
During his lifetime, David Lynch was nominated twice for the Writers Guild of America Awards but never won. Weeks before his death, however, he was able to accept a recognition that will be officially bestowed in February.
During its 2025 awards ceremony, the Writers Guild of America West will posthumously present the Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet writer-director with a lifetime achievement prize, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, the union stated Wednesday. The award recognizes union members who have “advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter,” with past recipients including Charlie Kaufman, Nancy Meyers and Budd Schulberg.
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While the presentation will happen at the Feb. 15 ceremony, with frequent Lynch collaborator Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) bestowing the honor, Lynch was able to receive the prize in late 2024 before his death on Jan. 16, according to the union.
“Writer-director David Lynch’s uncompromising vision pushed the boundaries of filmmaking,” said WGA West president Meredith Stiehm said in a statement. “We’re proud to honor him and his legacy.”
From the beginning, Lynch wrote or co-wrote the majority of his work, known for its idiosyncratic, dreamlike and surrealist quality. After attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Lynch wrote and helmed his breakout film Eraserhead (1977) while attending the AFI Conservatory. But it was his subsequent film, 1980’s The Elephant Man, which he directed and co-wrote with writers Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren, that grabbed the attention of the Hollywood mainstream. The film, starring Anthony Hopkins, went on to be nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay.
Lynch famously tried his hand at a big studio movie with 1984’s Dune, starring MacLachlan, which was disparaged by critics, failed at the box office and left Lynch feeling intensely disappointed. He pivoted by throwing himself into darker and more experimental projects, leading to some of his most iconic titles: Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006). Lynch was nominated for WGA Awards for both The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet.
But Lynch will also be remembered for a television series, which inspired many projects that followed: Twin Peaks. A sensation during its first season on ABC in 1990, the Lynch and Mark Frost-created series intrigued millions of viewers with its central mystery: Who killed Laura Palmer? A controversial second season — which Lynch was only occasionally involved in — ensued, but Lynch returned to the world of Twin Peaks, Washington in 1992 with his film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, co-written with Robert Engels, which has become a cult classic.
In 2017, Lynch stepped back into the story once more with the Showtime limited series Twin Peaks: The Return, an ever-more-surrealistic follow-up that defied expectations and was named to several lists of the best TV series of the year. In August, Lynch went public with his battle with emphysema, which had left him largely housebound and made it difficult for him to direct another major film.
The Writers Guild of America Awards will take place at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel at 4:30 p.m. PT on February 15 and will be livestreamed at awards.wga.org.
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