EXCLUSIVE: The WGA East is honoring Tony Gilroy at the upcoming Writers Guild Awards with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement.
With the award, which was established in 1992, the Andor creator will be following in the footsteps of his father Frank D. Gilroy, who was honored with the Hunter Award in 2011.
“Tony embodies the best of what it means to be a Writers Guild member. He is an extraordinary talent who has written some of the most thought-provoking and exciting screenplays of the last 30 years,” Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, President of the Writers Guild of America East, said in a statement. “He is also a staunch union ally, one of our most trusted voices when it comes to advocating for writers’ rights, and he gave one of the best damn speeches on the picket lines last summer. We all wish we were Tony, but short of that we are thrilled to present him with this award.”
A WGA East member since 1986, Gilroy’s extraordinary career has spanned decades. Most recently, his series Andor received eight Emmy nominations, including Best Drama Series, and two Writers Guild Award nominations. The series also won a Peabody Award.
In 2007, Gilroy scored seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, for his film Michael Clayton.
Gilroy is also known for his four screenplay adaptations of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series, which helped pave the way for the 21st century action film. His other screenwriting credits include The Cutting Edge, Duplicity, Dolores Claiborne, Proof of Life, and The Devil’s Advocate.
The Hunter Award is presented to a WGAE member in honor of their body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television. Past recipients include Spike Lee, Richard Price, Tom Fontana, Geoffrey Ward, Andrew Bergman, John Sayles, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, John Waters, Richard LaGravenese, Nora Ephron, Walter Bernstein, and Claire Labine.